Today i’ve got something a little different for you - instead of a formal review, I just
want to showcase a really cool product idea and highlight some concerns I have for it.
This is the SlingStudio, a portable and wireless multi-camera broadcasting platform.
With this little hub right here, you can monitor, record, and stream HD video to virtually any
streaming platform, with a live switcher and audio mixer built-in.
This seems like a really sick concept, but it’s built on a very proprietary basis that
always has me concerned.
I had a lot fun playing with this, but to truly get full use out of it and provide a
useful review - it needs to be put to the test in a full live event scenario that I
just can’t do right now.
Let’s take a look, right after this.
[ad] Who.. what..
Orisa, where?
HUH?!
I just see a Rein...
Oh.
Cool.
DUDE will you just get a ModMic already?
It attaches to any headphone so you can use that good pair you like, but I'll actually
be able to understand your call-outs.
It also has a mute switch so I don't have to hear all those conversations with your
grandma.
We gotta get serious to get out of Plat.
Yes, just order one tonight.
Head on over to https://antlionaudio.com/ to learn more and check it out.
The SlingStudio seems best suited for local school broadcasts for sports and events, church
streaming, and maybe some small studio setups.
IF you’re willing to fork out the bucks.
The initial hub here, itself, is $1000.
That would make sense if you weren’t paying out the behind for everything else.
With JUST this hub alone, assuming you already have an iPad and maybe a mobile phone to stream
from, you can only stream one direct source and the rest being smartphones.
Now, if you’re someone setting this up for a school or community situation where your
camera people can run around with smartphones, anyway - then cool, that may be all you need.
But to add wireless HDMI cameras, take this portably, and so on, it gets pricey.
The “CameraLink” units to wirelessly connect up to 1080p 60fps cameras via HDMI are $350
EACH!
And they’re bulky and can be difficult to mount, depending on your camera.
They have a quarter-twenty tap on the bottom for a tripod mount, and come with shoe adapters,
but can still be a bit to work with.
The battery is $150, which isn’t too bad with everything else.
So to get multiple decent cameras up and running, you’re talking a couple grand, plus an iPad.
I, personally, find this setup expensive - but it’s still fairly competitive compared to
similar devices and setups, and cheaper than buying capture cards and wireless NDI encoders
and such yourself.
I keep mentioning an iPad - yes, it’s necessary.
This is a HUGE problem I have with this system.
The hub itself is useless without one.
And I don’t just mean a “tablet” - you need an actual, Apple-branded, relatively-new
iPad to control and run this thing.
I HATE it when companies do this.
This makes something so inaccessible for seemingly no reason.
Sure, make me use a phone or tablet to sync the hub to my WiFi, but then let me us a freaking
computer to control it.
I see NO reason for this ever to be an issue.
Thankfully their app to capture from smartphones is available on both iOS and Android, so you
can use a wide range of phones there.
But this does require being on the Hub’s hotspot wifi, not on real wifi, so that can
be a problem for other reasons.
The Hub itself has a tripod mount and battery connection on the bottom, power button and
indicators along with a SD card slot on the front, and full HDMI in, Mini HDMI out, USB
Type C on the back.
The Type C port can be used with a hub to expand connectivity options, even adding ethernet
for network access, which is nice.
If you’re live streaming with this, you want to be using a wired network.
You can record to either a SD card or a USB hard drive.
Of course lower-end SD cards will struggle with some of the crazy multi-view recording
options, but a nice USB 3 external drive will serve you just fine.
They lent me a SanDisk Extreme Pro SD card and a LaCie USB C external SSD and both held
up for recording quite well.
The iPad app itself is fairly competent.
You have tools to set up and control WiFi, HDMI out options - enabling HDMI passthrough
for the front input, or outputting quad-view or individual program view of your input sources.
There’s an audio mixer, and separate recording and streaming buttons.
My biggest complaint here is that you can’t change project settings on the fly.
Your recording and streaming settings are grouped into “projects” and you can’t
alter them - at least as far as I was able to tell - once made.
This is especially annoying since 1080p60 currently only allows for 2 cameras at a time
instead of all 4, so if you wanted to drop it down to add more cameras, you have to set
up a whole new project.
Obviously I don’t expect to change those settings while recording or streaming, but
during normal setup seems important.
This is a 4-input switcher, so regardless if you’re using the CameraLink, the direct
HDMI input, or smartphones - you can only ever have a max of 4 total sources.
Keep that in mind for your configuration.
The app lets you monitor all of your input sources, audio levels, and program view all
at once, which is nice.
This works quite well on the iPad’s screen.
You can even monitor connection rates to the camera links and connected devices.
You can stream and record here, as well.
What’s really neat is how they have recording set up.
You can record the main stream program view, a quad-view of all your sources at once, all
of your individual sources, your line in audio, or record all of those options at the same
time to different files!
You will, of course, need a fast hard drive to record everything at once.
They have handy plugins for Adobe Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro to help with importing
all of these different files and keeping them in sync, if you need it - or you can just
handle them manually from your storage device.
The CameraLinks seem to have a hefty battery life - and they charge via USB, but the battery
is not hot-swappable.
But you could carry around a battery bank or mount that to a camera rig.
The Hub battery lasts for about 2 to 3 hours.
I like the idea of it serving as a backup - I’ve had power get cut at events and such
- rather than a main power source.
BUT there are a LOT of batteries to consider - phones, cameras, CameraLinks, hub battery,
iPad - there’s a lot to keep charged and make sure stays charged while recording or
streaming.
There is a big delay of audio and video being brought in to this system and what the program
out or recording out sees - BUT in my testing, everything has stayed in sync.
For recording bitrates, 1080p30 maxes at 16 megabits per second and 1080p60 maxes at 30
megabits per second.
These are fairly competent bitrates.
The individual sources will each record at this bitrate, but the quad view will be at
a lower resolution and bitrate.
The program recording bitrate will be lowered to whatever your streaming bitrate is if you’re
streaming at the same time.
You can stream to a number of services, but only one at a time.
BUT they did add custom RTMP support so you can use your own custom RTMP server to broadcast
out to other networks or something like ReStream which will multi-cast for you.
I’ve covered both of these options in my OBS Master Class, linked in the video description.
There is a limited support for graphics via jpeg or PNG files.
The iPad app has two views - Preview and Program.
Program is what goes live to the stream, Preview is where you can do some editing - adjust
the graphics, add text, and even set up a few Picture in Picture modes.
Graphics can be loaded via the SD card or USB drives.
As far as quality is concerned, you’ve been seeing that here.
If all went well, this whole video has been recorded - other than b-roll - via the SlingStudio.
16 megabits is fairly competent for 1080p30, especially considering you can use that bitrate
for all sources at once.
On the storage device, video files are sorted into folders via source name or “program”
or “Audio Line In” etc.
If you’re doing game streaming and want to step up production value, this could be
a neat way to run your own small studio with multiple game inputs, multiple cameras, and
so on, with easy one-man control, too!
It’s also great for local events, school sports, churches, and so on.
While a busy couple of months have prevented me from going as in-depth as I would have
liked with the SlingStudio, I am quite impressed with what its capable of.
But there is still the issue of propriety as I mentioned before.
You need an iPad, you need to use their hardware.
There’s no option to bring in NDI feeds, custom RTMP streams from other places, add
video files, and so on.
You’re locked into their ecosystem which can both be frustrating - I had a nightmare
getting set up with this iPad, myself - and can be a concern for future-proofing.
And there you go.
Like I said, I couldn’t do a full review, but I’ve quite enjoyed my time with this
little box, even in my small studio.
I’m EposVox, here to make tech easier and more fun and hit that like button if you enjoyed
the video, and subscribe for more awesome tech content.
Below that will be product links for SlingStudio and accessories, and our sponsor..
I’ll see you next time.
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