What's best for sending HDMI signal long distances?

Support
#1

Hi all…first post…here goes…

I’m new to streaming, had my ATEM Mini Pro a few weeks & am planning to live stream conferences/presentations/gigs here in Australia (anyone else here in Oz please say hi!)

I’m assuming we usually get to setup at the back of the room with the cameras & run the stream from there, but we need to get the laptop feed/presentation and/or a camera feed from the front of the room.
I’ve heard there’s SDI or HDMI over ethernet to do a run over 5/10 metres.
My cameras (GH5, GH4, GoPro7 Black) don’t have SDI, so I’m wondering why there would be any reason to buy HDMI to SDI converters etc & SDI cable instead of HDMI to ethernet system? Ethernet appears cheaper & what people are using for long runs with home theatre systems etc.
If ethernet is the winner, any tips?
I’ve seen that some converters have a HDMI pass through so the laptop feed can be split to a projector on stage & also to the back of the room…that seems better than a separate HDMI splitter.
Any reason a camera feed (1080 for ATEM Mini Pro is all that’s required) wouldn’t work over ethernet?

Thanks :slight_smile:

#2

Welcome!

I’ve used both SDI and ethernet extenders for long cable runs, and I have to say the SDI ones are far more reliable. The converters aren’t even necessarily more expensive. The cables are though.

The other option is wireless HDMI like the Hollyland Mars, which I used at the last in-person event I filmed.

And yes I would definitely use a converter with an HDMI pass-through rather than an HDMI splitter. HDMI splitters can cause really bizarre issues.

3 Likes
#3

Aaron…thanks for the feedback…I’m going to check out the costs of SDI & ethernet for the same run/length to see what the difference actually is price wise.
Gotta say I’m still leaning at trying out the ethernet option…it’s primary use would be getting a laptop feed/powerpoint slides into the ATEM…so not as crucial as a camera feed. The Hollyland Mars looks pretty cool, there’s only 1 option for a reseller here in Oz & stock levels at the moment for most things can be tricky!
But as I said…thanks for sharing your experience!

#4

Another option is to get a BirdDog NDI receiver and use something like vMix Desktop Capture to transmit the slides.

I use NDI to receive slides with my NUC setup and it works fairly well. I should probably also see if I can get my compute stick (atom cpu) to receive NDI.

#5

Yeah I’d say if you’re only using it to send a computer screen you can get away with a cheaper option. There are even some cheap under $100 transmitters that will work, they have a delay around almost one second, but for slides that’s probably fine.

#6

Hi dave. So I have used sdi and cat 6 with converters to hdmi. They get expensive when you ha e to convert both end and need power etc. My new set up with the mini uses fiber hdmi cables from amazon. They are cheaper and has less connections to cause issues. I have 100’ cables and they work great

1 Like
#7

Thanks for that info, sounds like the simplest option to go HDMI via fibre optic cables. I like the idea of not having to use multiple converters which may need power, take time to setup and are potential points of failure!
Gotta see what’s available on Amazon here in Australia but this approach seems great :grin: cheers!

#8

Will the HDMI over fiber still transmit camera control to the BMPCC?

#9

I did a gig where we needed almost 150 feet of cable run between camera location and output device so did my research and chose some HDMI-Ethernet boxes to make it feasible. Unfortunately once installed the slightly-less-than-150-feet run did not work whatsoever. I tried alternate ethernet, I got a few replacement boxes, different output device, etc, and had little success. I had to get a whole different set of ethernet converters (expensive) and rerun the ethernet to make it work. It was a couple days of hassle and expenses. So, beware of claimed specs on these things and pushing the cable length to the max. SDI sure seems like a much better solution after that.

1 Like
#10

Yes, there are proper hdmi over twisted pair boxes (usually they’re from existing brands, they have power supplies and they are not too cheap, there’s also HDBaseT that has power, ethernet/serial/usb along with video) that do what they claim to, then there’s that cheap stuff (usually doesn’t have a power supply, often requires two cables) and that can work up to 5-10m, more if you get lucky.

1 Like