seeking LED display advice (Blackmagic Ultrastudio kit question)
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Hi folks, I'm running a workshop in June on a public stage that has a big LED display at the back of it and, obviously, I want to plug into this to run Isadora visuals in realtime.
I've researched and found that the screen is P10, at around 500 x 300 pixels and usually runs adverts and slideshows from a PC in a rack under the stage.
This morning I took my MacBook down there to test things out. They have a Scaler with a spare SDI input. I connected my HDMI to SDI converter (a little Plug and Play box that works fine in conjunction with its friend - a SDI to HDMI converter that I usually use at the other end of a BNC cable to do a 20m signal run to a projector) to the Scaler, but got nothing but a black screen out of the Scaler.
I contacted a company that often uses the stage for live events and they can supply the kit and a technician to plug it in for 300€. which would be great if we were getting paid for the workshop, but we're doing it for free, so I don't want to pay commercial hire rates for some kit for 2 hours, when I might be able to buy the same kit for less, and therefore be able to do more free workshops in the future.
My question is: has anybody here used a big LED screen? if so: how did you get SDI into the scaler? I'm thinking of getting a Blackmagic Mini Monitor (I have a Mini Recorder and it's brilliant) - which, I would assume, is more configurable than my plug'n'play converter - does this show up as a stage output option from Isadora?
(TLDR: can i use a Blackmagic Mini Monitor to output SDI directly from Isadora?)
All the best,
John
