Source Elements Live: Limitations?

[minister]

Originally Posted by FlorianE

Lots of bad reports.
In contrast, we just had a very successful session last week between Zurich and LA using SC Pro and RTS. Audio delays were maybe 200msec, and the whole session worked almost like next door, good enough to judge sync on our (the remote) side. Maybe just luck, or courtesy of fibre optics.
RTS I think is great, using control data flow rather than sending picture. As it is a MMC type protocol, it should at least basically work also with other-than-protools DAW's.

Source Elements Live sounds like it works, but the latency is killing you. This setup Florian mentions is the only solution I see for you, but it requires SC PRO on both sides with setup. Doubles the price. SC Pro is usually good, though sometimes there's been a couple seconds latency.

[noiseboyuk]

Originally Posted by FlorianE

Lots of bad reports.
In contrast, we just had a very successful session last week between Zurich and LA using SC Pro and RTS. Audio delays were maybe 200msec, and the whole session worked almost like next door, good enough to judge sync on our (the remote) side. Maybe just luck, or courtesy of fibre optics.
RTS I think is great, using control data flow rather than sending picture. As it is a MMC type protocol, it should at least basically work also with other-than-protools DAW's.

Thanks. Might have to explore this but as minister says, it requires 2 licenses, one at each end and - helpfully - Source Connect do not offer rental on the pro versions. $3,000 vs $20 per month, but if it works reliably and rock solid.... sigh....

[FlorianE]

Do you mean to pay licenses for both ends?

[minister]

Originally Posted by FlorianE

Do you mean to pay licenses for both ends?

Yes. With SC Pro, you'd have to. Florian, I know you to be very smart, deeply technically aware guy, but, just in case... He started the thread looking at a 1-side license product, Source Live, that streams to client who would not need a license to receive.
https://source-elements.com/products/source-live

[FlorianE]

Hi

Sorry, my bad. I had overlooked the 1-side condition.
It makes little sense though, if you need a quality connection. Both ends need to use the same trick. But in view of that, SC Pro is too expensive. They should at least offer a combined host/client license.

Florian

[noiseboyuk]

I'm going full circle and going to trial Source Live again, as there seems to be no movement on Session Link Pro (none of the capture cards I tried worked, and I've had no further response from them). The 2 machine Remote transport sync.... the practicalities of running two PT rigs, one remotely, are pretty crushing, not least because there will be two different producers on the next gig I'm planning to use it for in 2 different venues. Set up would be a nightmare... just getting decent monitoring is ambitious enough. Live is of course infinitely more client-friendly, so back to Live it is.

Still Mac only, sigh. I contacted them to see if a Windows version was in the works and was told "no, there's no demand for it". If that seems odd to anyone else here, I guess you better drop them a line.

As luck would have it, I have a spare Vanilla PT license and a Macbook pro. Don't really want the flaky faff of running the whole session through it, but I have figured out a more sane option. After a bit of initial setup headscratching (this guide was handy - http://michaelwittering.com/blog/how...-together.html ) I've just successfully slaved them together using midi time code, and run an audio out from the main rig into the MBP. The MBP project is therefore really simple, just one live audio input and a video track, so processor use should be very modest. So far it's all working suspiciously well. Go me.

Following last years tests, I've got low expectations regarding latency with Live, however I've just got a message from them saying that they've improved it since then so fingers crossed. As it is, I'm still thinking offline viewing followed by a Live session for fixes is most likely.

Will be trying to set up over the weekend, will let y'all know how it goes.

[noiseboyuk]

Tested Live 3.0 today. First the good news - install was very easy, but that's probably because I followed my own instructions in the OP (all of which I'd entirely forgotten). Thanks, 1 year ago me.

Now the bad news - pretty much everything else. Latency hasn't been noticeably improved - the low latency mode available on the app is still 3 seconds. Via the web, latency is 5s. On the Low Latency mode I was getting dropouts too when the screen quality was set to 1280 x720, the highest setting and lowest I'd want to go (the original lower settings were just dreadful), so even on the app I'd have to set it to 5s. In my case, its an awful lot of hoops to jump through to get a pretty horrible result.

I'm on the UK Virgin ultrafast thingy, 380mbps download but admittedly a lowly 20 mbps upload. That should still be enough, surely? Performance at 3s latency was no better than Session Link Pro's quality at 1/4s.

Needless to say, all very frustrating. It shouldn't be all that difficult surely? At its core, this is just about sending as-near-to-real-time-as-possible HQ video and audio, in sync. I haven't found any other video conferencing software that fits the bill, wondering now about internet broadcasting. Off to do yet more googling.

EDIT - borrowed son's elgato HD60s capture card, set it up with Google Hangouts. Audio quality terrible, but picture very good, almost zero latency and no noticeable dropouts. This MUST be possible, dammit...

[noiseboyuk]

AH HA! A possible breakthrough as I continue round this never-ending circle, since I'm now at the 450 degree rotation on my 2nd go round the block. I wasn't able to have SessionLink Pro see either of my graphics cards, but I just figured out the source of that particular roblem. If either dedicated app is open of either of the graphics cards, SLP won't initialise. I thought you needed those apps to make it work, turned out to be the exact opposite. Keep 'em closed, then bingo.

And the good news is that the sync tests so far have been spot on. I'd read elsewhere that screen capture is a very flaky process for streaming as it messes around with interrupts, so this could be the solution.

I'm not able to make the Elgato HD60s pass through video, but this should be solvable by using an HDMI active splitter on the output - one output direct to the monitor, the other going to the graphics card.

I've been listening to the audio for 20 mins now through the system and its been solid. If nothing else changes (ha) I think this could be a workable solution. Right, I'm off for a long lie down.

[philper]

You are doing God's work. A 1- license solution that requires no special hardware (esp a PT rig) on the client end is the only solution I can use. Do let us know how this comes out.

[Brandonx1]

Anyone make any progress here? I am trying to get Session Link Pro to work but I can't get chrome to set the correct frame rate. Anyone have any insight here?