syncing video cams?

[brucefl]

Hi,
I know some may have some experience with syncing video cameras so I thought I would start here; though I have been reading some stuff online I guess I should of waited. I have not installed V4 yet, was waiting to build my new computer lol. Anyways, the Church I attend is thinking of broadcasting the services on the local station. One suggessted it usually is best to use 2 camera's. I think for the best audio quality we would plug right into the sound system. I have read one of the easiest ways of doing what we want is to start both video camera's then in the beginning to clap ones hands? When you import the video into the program, use the wave file and sync the sound and video that way?

I have not done a lot of video editing between two video files, I was wondering when using both v1 and v2, on the 2nd can you use video studio to fade from the top one to the 2nd one without cutting the video so you can kind of go back and forth in both timelines? I know I will have to play around with the program. I thought I would ask a few questions and see where I can go, that is easiest with the best video and sound quality.
Thanks for any input,
Bruce

[LarryF]

Hi Bruce,
I have done a little bit of syncing two video tracks and what I did was to put the second video on the overlay track, which gave me a picture-in-picture effect. You could set the overlay to fit to the screen, which will hide the main video track completely.
The advice about clapping hands is great for syncing the aduio tracks. When you open the Audio Mixer function, it will display the audio wave form at the bottom of the clip. When the loud clap happens, there will be a peak in the sound wave form, which you can use to help sync the two clips. This is the same method used in movie production, when you see them using a clapper board at the start of a take.
If you are planning on streaming the church service live, VideoStudio is not the product you need. It would be used for creating a video file that you could send out to the TV station after the service is complete. If the camera you are using has an input for external audio, you can plug that into your sound system. If not, you will need to decide if the built-in mic on the camera gives you good enough audio. If it does not, you will need to invest in a seperate audio recorder, which will make for a third track to sync up in post production.
I am in the process of determining what audio recorder to purchase for my church video productions as well. The good quality ones I have seen at the local music store range upwards from $100.00.
I hope this has answered some of your questions.

Larry

[brucefl]

Thanks, appreciate the thoughts. The Church would like to record the service for broadcast later, and also for shutins. Their is talk about streaming sometimes to those we have in Afghanistan through skype or another program.
What I would be looking at is camera's similar to Canon's which have an input for audio. Some of the other cameras that I have looked at it can be done, through a hotshoe on the camera. So they tell me. Trying to balance quality and cost which is not always easy.
thanks again, Bruce

[skier-hughes]

A clap is good, but also think of a camera flash and sync the video side.
It needs to be very sharp, so it last for a minute amount of time.

editing is easy if you get that part right.

I'd take sound direct from the audio desk.

[pvreditor]

I've done some syncing of two cameras, and I find it's pretty easy to do with just the normal sound. As long as both cameras "hear" the same thing, I put the primary camera in the main track and the secondary camera in the overlay track. It's best if the primarly camera has the best audio -- the secondary camera can have poorer audio (from farther away, for example) and that is not a problem.

With the tracks loaded as I mention above, trim the secondary camera's track so that you have some room to slide it left/right on the overlay track. You want to line up the sound so that the two overlay perfectly. If you hear any echo or reverberation, move the overlay track a frame or two in one direction. If the sound gets better (less echo), you're going in the right direction. If it gets worse, move the secondary track back to where it was, then slide it another frame or two beyond that point.

When the two tracks are perfectly synced, the sound will have the least amount of echo/reverb. In many cases, it will have no echo at all. At that point, mute the overlay track's audio and you can slice it up to cut between it and the main track.

It took me as long to write this out (5 minutes) as it does to sync up two 10-minute tracks using this method. Hope that helps!

Bob Kovacs
http://www.bobkovacs.com

[skier-hughes]

Bob, use a flash gun next time and it'll take as long as it did to write this porst, about 10 seconds..... then you'll be further into your editing at ths 5 minute mark

[pvreditor]

Bob, use a flash gun next time and it'll take as long as it did to write this post, about 10 seconds..... then you'll be further into your editing at ths 5 minute mark

I should be able to try that next time. It should help. I just wanted to point out that it's not hard to sync video cameras, and they pretty much stay in sync once you get them there.

Bob Kovacs
http://www.bobkovacs.com

[brucefl]

Would not syncing the sound, work better than trying to sync a flash? Or I could assume that a flash gun makes a sound also.
Thanks guys, the post give me a lot of though and idea's.
Bruce

[BrianCee]

Ideal of course would be light and sound together - but if I can only have one I would much prefer to line up two images which I can do static while editing - rather than two sounds which I can only hear briefly as the video plays - until we get a full audio editor in VS and can visually line up sine waves that is.

[pvreditor]

Ideal of course would be light and sound together - but if I can only have one I would much prefer to line up two images which I can do static while editing - rather than two sounds which I can only hear briefly as the video plays - until we get a full audio editor in VS and can visually line up sine waves that is.

I honestly don't think its that hard to line it up by sound. The echo effect works well for me to line things up. However, I know that we all have our favorite techniques.

Of course, even with visible sine waves to match, there's no guaranty that the frames will be exactly matched from camera to camera. (Unless you have cameras synced to the same timing generator.) Chances are that the audio will be off by as much as 1/2 of a frame and I don't think there's anything that can be done about that. However, that's too small an error to notice with lip sync.

Bob Kovacs
http://www.bobkovacs.com