AJA helps technical director Lutz Conneus adapt to the demands of his customers

As a live production chameleon, Lutz Conneus is able to meet a range of streaming and AV needs using a small arsenal of AJA equipment.

No work day is the same for the freelance technical director Lutz Conneus. On any given week, the Hamburg, Germany-based professional might find themselves developing a live streaming workflow for a local public broadcaster, live-streaming an independent band's concert to YouTube, or providing AV support for a corporate launch event.

As a live production chameleon, is capable of meeting a range of live streaming and AV needs using a small arsenal of AJA equipment, including the H.264 Helo streamer/recorder, the device 4K Io Video and Audio I/O, and the Ki Pro Ultra Plus digital recorder, among other tools.

When the German Public Broadcasting ARD wanted to create a parallel signal of his live programming for Facebook Live, he asked Conneus for help. Having worked with AJA Helo on previous projects, he introduced the device into the workflow two years ago and it has been going strong ever since. The setup consists of multiple cameras and input feeds running through on-site servers and a router as a single HD output to Helo which is then streamed via Facebook Live, Periscope and YouTube using the ContentFlow streaming service.

"ARD tried other solutions before Helo, but found Helo's user interface to be much faster and more efficient, and has been impressed by the overall experience. It has been a game-changer in their workflow, because it is so easy to use that even social media reporters can access and use the web graphical interface to start and stop streaming," Conneus points out.

Your vast AV repertoire It has also attracted the attention of corporations who seek to advance their strategies live streaming. Una de estas empresas solicitó su ayuda para transmitir un partido de deportes entre empleado a YouTube. Para este proyecto, Conneus utilizó tres cámaras Sony, cada una con salidas SDI, que fueron alimentadas a través de una caja de E/S de vídeo y audio AJA Io 4K a un Mac que ejecutaba Telestream Wirecast.

La señal conmutada de Wirecast que comprendía las tres fuentes de cámara se envió desde Io 4K como una salida y pasó por Helo, luego se codificó, se transmitió a YouTube y se grabó en una unidad USB.

"I love how Wirecast and Io 4K work together. With Io 4K, you can easily get four SD streams on Wirecast at the speed of Thunderbolt, while generating a single output. It also saves a lot of CPU usage. And customers love that it has an H.264 recorder like Helo that is not only easy to use but also generates a USB file that I can deliver directly afterwards," explains Conneus.

Concerts

Among Conneus clients we can also find artists and musical groups seeking to broadcast live concerts to Facebook Live, YouTube and other social streaming platforms. For local band Mom’s Pride, they recently implemented a workflow where three iPhones captured the performance at the venue, footage was then fed through the NDI camera app into Wirecast over a WiFi connection, and the output was ultimately sent via 4K Io to HELO and then to Facebook Live.

"Helo and Io 4K are some of the best investments I have made. They are easy to use and extremely reliable, especially compared to other solutions out there. AJA equipment is very important for the quality and functionality they offer; the costs are easily recovered in just a few uses," acknowledges the technician.

Some of his work also requires playing pre-produced content, for which he has come to rely on AJA's Ki Pro Ultra Plus. When supporting live production for a major automaker's launch event, he used a Ki Pro Ultra Plus to support four HD playback streams within a single UltraHD raster of pre-produced content. And whatever the project in question, Conneus finds the best ally in AJA solutions.