End-user perspective on small office tools & technology

Behind The Scenes At VUC561 With Grandstream

gvc3200-right-300#VUC561 about the Grandstream GVC3200 was yet another example of bringing my broadcast video production background into the realm of vodcasting. In the pre-call walk-through Randy took a screen-shot of what he was seeing. It seemed a little busy. There was certainly a lot to look at.

Just for fun I thought I’d make note of what was actually there, and how it was being used.

VUC561 Annotated Desktop 600px

  1. HP Desktop (partially obscured by right monitor)
  2. Left monitor
    • Shows vMix HD to switch video sources
  3. Right monitor
  4. AVer Media C127 Game Broadcaster HD HDMI capture card (not visible)
  5. Anker USB 3.0 hub (mounted under desk)
  6. Logitech BCC950 ConferenceCam
  7. Logitech C920 webcam
  8. AVER VC520 PTZ Conference Camera (not shown)
  9. Lenovo X1 Carbon laptop with Lenovo USB 3.0 dock supporting Ethernet network connection
    • VoiceMeeter Banana using VBAN to send/receive audio to/from desktop
  10. Sennheiser DW Pro2 DECT headset
  11. LED conference light
    • Not required when the desk is in this position because of ample….
  12. Natural light from west-facing doors
  13. Rebel Desk manually adjustable sit/stand desk
  14. Polycom VVX-600 with camera module (unused for #VUC561)
  15. Netgear 8-port POE switch
  16. TP-Link AV500 Powerline Ethernet extender

So that was the inventory, but how was it used? vMix HD software on the desktop handles video switching and compositing. It had the following sources available in this case:

VUC561 Shots
VUC561-Shot23The VUC opening sequence & Phil’s slides loaded as vMix internal source. I especially like how vMix can load a PowerPoint slide set as a single item, then transition seamlessly between slides. It doesn't support effects within a slide, but it's still pretty slick.

This saves me from exporting the slides as images file, then loading them on-at-a-time.

The resulting image quality is very good.
VUC561-Shot24HDMI capture card connected to the output of the GVC3200 via an HDMI splitter.

At various points during the call this showed the GVC3200 menus in action, as well as a video call ongoing with Randy's VVX & Bria on my mobile phone.

Since Hangouts operate at 720p the 1080p output of the GVX3200 was being scaled down by the capture card.
VUC561-Shot27Logitech BCC950 ConferenceCam shot of me (720p30)
VUC561-Shot26AVER VC520 PTZ Conference Camera on tripod set to shoot the GVC3200 on the HDTV on my old desk.

This was my first public use of this new PTZ webcam which is a competitor to Logitech's CC3000e Conference Cam. In this case I used it's PTZ presets to switch between several different shots.

I expect to have more to say about this camera soon.
VUC561-Shot31Desktop window captured to show the GVC3200 web UI

I plan to share the details of how I handle audio, splitting it between two computers to ensure quality. Also, some of the things I’ve done to adapt the Rebel Desk adjustable desk to my working habits.

Back To Top