Laptops with Thunderbolt™ either Windows or Mac, lend themselves quite well to ingesting multiple cameras.Ī Thunderbolt equipped laptop will allow you to connect an external capture device, such as anĪJA IO 4K, or an AKiTiO Thunder 2/3 PCIe Box. For the purposes of this post, I will focus on a more piecemeal, DIY approach to live switching. If your application is mission-critical, I highly recommend looking into a purpose-built live switching system like those from NewTek or Acme Video Systems.
In general, newer computers with fast CPU's and beefy GPU's are going to do a much better job of handling multiple camera streams. Depending on the CPU, GPU, software and other factors, your computer may be maxed out by two cameras, or it might be able to handle six or more. camera feed) you bring into your computer requires resources.
It's good to understand that every stream of video (i.e. I'll also briefly review the most popular switching/streaming software, so you can zero in on what will be best for you. This post expands on that and delves into the realm of connecting multiple cameras to your Mac or Windows PC for live switching and streaming! I'll cover what capture devices to look for if you are using a desktop, or a laptop. Not long ago, I wrote a blog post on how to get a single camera signal into your computer.
