El Gato CamLink: Now in 4K
Remember the El Gato CamLink? I reviewed it in the summer of 2017 when it initially launched. This week it seems that El Gato, now a division of Corsair, has released an upgraded version, CamLink 4K. The new 4K models…
Splyce: Intel NUC as a Host for vMix
Now that my video production activities are all desktop-based, my habit of handling video crosses paths with my long-standing affection for small form factor computers. For the past year I’ve used a fanless Airtop-PC from CompuLab as my primary desktop workstation. It has shown itself to be a very capable host for vMix, which is my very favorite live video production tool.
In considering the purchase of the Airtop I also looked long and hard at Intel’s NUC line-up. There’s a lot to like about the NUCs. In particular, the Skull Canyon NUC, with it’s i7-6770HQ CPU, presented an attractive price/performance combination. Others in the vMix user community have noted that it runs vMix handily, despite the lack of an nVidia GPU.
4K & WebRTC: A Tangential Observation
A short while ago Chris Koehncke posed the question, “Is 4K video viable for a WebRTC web application?” He also offered a well-reasoned opinion. While there’s technical support for 4K in browsers, and 4K webcams are starting to appear, in various ways bandwidth remains a constraint. As a purely practical matter, and in the most common use case, he’s perfectly correct.
The folks over at the Red5Pro blog offer a mildly dissenting opinion. They note that for use-cases beyond video conferencing, most especially one-way streams, 4K is quite practical. People stream Netflix at 4K. Heck, I’ve done it myself at least once or twice.
Logitech Launches A New Flagship: The Brio 4K Pro Webcam
With a commanding 73% market share, Logitech is the leader in webcams. They’ve been very successful at diversifying their product range, introducing the ConferenceCam, GROUP and PTZ Pro models aimed at business users.
These business oriented offerings have vaulted the company to new heights in the VC/UC space. Yet the meeting/huddle room focus left desktop users clinging to the HD Pro Webcam C920 and C930e. While these are both excellent products, they have been around a very long time.
All of that changes today with the launch of the Logitech Brio 4k Pro Webcam, their first completely new model in a long while.
This new model is a new flagship, offered to both business and consumer users. At first glance, Brio looks to be the webcam that we might have been expecting when the C922x launched last fall.
Webcams in 2016: Where are the USB 3.0 models?
It may seem like my long, winding exploration of webcams has stalled, but I assure you that’s not the case. I’m moving as fast as the industry will permit. The fact is that the industry just isn’t moving very quickly.
Back in October 2013 I first penned something about my hunt for a USB 3.0 webcam. At that point there were basically none to be had. A few months later when Vaddio presented their Huddlestation product on VUC472 they mentioned that USB 3.0 capable chip sets for such devices were anticipates later in 2014.
Well, it’s now well into 2016 and where are the USB 3.0 webcams? I actually get asked this question quite a bit, most recently in a tweet from George Ou of ZDNet.
@mjgraves Did you ever find a good USB 3.0 camera solution for Video Conferencing? https://t.co/uVntVgBIA8
— George Ou (@GeorgeOu) March 10, 2016
While I responded to Mr. Ou, the question comes up often enough that I’d best address it here in the open.
Puzzling Over Monitor Size & Resolution
As you may recall I’ve been thinking about adding a second monitor to my desk. Earlier this week Logic Buy sent an email promoting a curious Dell monitor.
The interesting thing about this 29” monitor is its unusual size. It has a 21:9 aspect ratio supporting 2560 x 1080 resolution. That’s effectively the same pixel count as my two 24” monitors, but without the cost of so much desktop real estate.
On the other hand, that’s a lot of pixels in a 29” display. As a practical matter, these aging eyes might not be able to appreciate the delivered reality.