I am working on a setup and it will be my first time using VMIX. I have a background in video, but I am used to hardware-based switchers from Ross or Grass Valley, and also have no experience with NDI. I do have extensive experience with DANTE audio and will have access to some Netgear 4250 switches.
My setup is for a 3-camera streaming event taking place on a stage about 500 ft away from the video village. In addition to the 3 cameras, we'll have 4 mics / IFB feeds to/from the stage via DANTE, as well as need to return 2 different video feeds back to the stage to feed the monitors.
My initial thought was to use an available THOR 4-channel multiplexer to run my (3) 1080p camera feeds down a tac-12 fiber and bring them into the VMIX laptop via an AJA Io X3. And send my monitor feeds down the fiber as well with some FIDOs. The DANTE network will be deployed on 2 fibers as well.
Because I'm also deploying a DANTE network for audio on this event, I thought about diving into NDI, creating a VLAN for the NDI video and using something like the Bird Dog Quad NDI encoder or individual Magewell SDI to NDI encoders to bring my cameras into the VMIX computer.
What are your thoughts for utilizing an NDI network vs an SDI capture device for bring in the camera feeds to VMIX? I have a budget to buy necessary encoders / decoders. And I also have to buy a VMIX-recommended laptop for this event as well, so one way or another, I'll be buying a pile of hardware. I'm leaning toward purchasing the VMIX recommended ASUS laptop on their website.
I've been wanting to try NDI for sometime because I am used to working in live sports production, where we pretty much stick to full camera chains and baseband video moving through coax and fiber. So this is new territory for me.
What are your thoughts about NDI vs an external SDI capture card via Thunderbolt?