Review: Teradek VidiU Mini

The Physical Setup

I shot the concert with my Panasonic AG-HMC150, storing a 1080p version for editing and later production to an SD card, and connecting to the VidiU via HDMI, the only option. I connected to the Rex’s soundboard via single XLR, which I pushed to the left and right channels. The sound board was ably run by Stu Shenk.

Physically, the VidiU and my iPhone sat to the right of the soundboard, the only flat space that had the room (Figure 12, below). The setup doesn’t inspire the confidence engendered by a TriCaster or massive standalone encoder, but it got the job done and was a heck of a lot easier to transport. I used an older iPhone 4S to connect to Ustream during the event to monitor the stream. That sat below the VidiU encoder and isn’t shown because I used it to take the picture. Without question, you absolutely need some kind of live monitor close at hand during the event.

Figure 12. The iPhone and VidiU parked next to the soundboard.

The Results

Overall, the results were impressive. The online audience peaked at around 215 simultaneous viewers, and other than a bobble here and there, the video was clear and the audio sounded very good. Comments from viewers to the band members and moms were consistently positive. You can listen for yourself here.

There was one major stoppage, just before the end of the first set, which occurred after running for 105 minutes without an issue. With three potential contributors to the problem--Ustream, Teradek, and the Wi-Fi--it’s impossible to determine what caused the break. I did notice significant bandwidth variability on the VidiU monitor (Figure 11) at times, so I’ll chalk it up to that. Again, the most reliable route is with a dedicated connection.

After the crash, to restart the stream, I pressed the green Start button (Figure 4) several times, and the stream kicked back in through the end of the second set. I feared that I would have to reboot the iPhone and VidiU, but it turned out not to be necessary.

Wrapping Up

A workflow like this will have a role for many producers, but for reasons unrelated to the VidiU, the experience you produce isn’t as creatively inspired as it could be. That is, unless you’re connecting to a video mixer that outputs HDMI, it’s a single-camera shoot, which is a lot less fun than a two or three-camera shoot produced with a video switcher. It’s great to propose if the client can’t afford multiple cameras, but you should definitely try to sell the higher-quality experience to most customers.

Be careful about assuming the compression role in addition to other production roles. Maybe it’s just me, but the more functions I add on, the less competent I seem to be at each. For this event, I was producer, equipment manager, camera jockey, and streaming guy. During setup, you have get the gear in, set up the tripod and camera, configure the camera, set white balance, and get the audio connection up and running. Getting any of these wrong can dramatically impact production quality; witness the less than stellar white balancing in the images and streaming footage. Throw in the streaming setup and it adds up to a lot of work.

During the event, single-camera performances are challenging to shoot; you’re trying to anticipate the action, move the camera quickly but smoothly, and achieve perfect framing when you get there. Add in having to check the live stream every few seconds, and you’re going to miss some things, like excluding the last singer on the left, or cutting over to the fiddle player at the end of her solo, just in time to have to move to another shot. Fortunately, we’re typically our own worst critic, and the things we lose sleep over most viewers never even notice.

All that glass-half-empty, navel-gazing aside, the VidiU and Ustream combination was up and running in minutes, and other than the aforementioned glitch, ran problem-free. The online video pleased a whole lot of viewers who otherwise wouldn’t have been able to experience the event, and the band and their friends and family were more than happy.