We recently launched a new tool for the Star Wars: Legion community called Legion Stream. With the launch of this new tool, I have received a ton of questions regarding equipment and tech that we use in our streams. In these posts I am going to cover what I think are some basic tools, setups, and settings for you to begin streaming on a reasonable budget. I will be breaking these posts into a series so that I can cover a lot of ground.
Cameras, Microphones, Cables… Oh My.
Let’s get started with the equipment. Most Legion streams can at a minimum get away with 2 cameras. The first, either directly above the table or on one the short sides of the table. The second camera should be pointing at the dice tray and battlefield cards. With these two camera angles you can give your audience a great overview of the game in progress.
This setup can be completed rather inexpensively and is easy to run off a standard laptop.
For most of our streaming setups we use Logitech Brio 4k Web cams. These cameras are really amazing little work horses and have amazing output. You can control field of view up to 90° which is a really nice way to get an entire table with one camera. In addition, as the name suggest these cameras can output 4k! I have found though that at 4k the framerate drops down to about 30fps. However, when outputting 1080p you can very reliably get 60fps. I also like these because they have the standard camera mount inlet, allowing you to use any standard camera tripods and mounts.
With a powerful USB HUB that works on either USB-C or Thunderbolt you can potentially have 4-5 of these cameras going at once! This is really a great thing for simple inexpensive and very mobile setups. We generally end up using 20ft extension cables for the cameras so that we can get a good distance from the game being played as not to influence the players.
When it comes to audio for commentary, it all depends on how many people you expect to be talking. One is easy, a simple USB gaming headset will do the trick. When you get more than one it becomes a little more in depth on what your computer can handle and what you can realistically bring. We have used a USB headset in addition to a standard audio input headset and had some success.
My favorite is actually bringing a 2 channel audio board and condenser mics. This really bumps the audio quality up on your commentary. One thing to remember with condenser mics is any audio board you get will need phantom power in order to use these mics. With the second audio type you will need to get headphones and a splitter. This helps your broadcasters hear each other in a loud and busy gaming space.
Outside of the actual laptops you may need this covers most of the physical equipment you will need. Next post I will be covering stream software, overlays and more.
Here is a breakdown of the equipment we use for a typical stream:
- Logitech Brio 4k Web cams
- Clamp Mounts
- Tripods
- USB 3.0 20ft Extension
- Condenser Mic
- XLR Audio Cables
- Mic Stand
- Audio Mixer
- Mixer to Computer Cable
- Headphones
- Headphone Splitter
The Owner of my LGS was just asking me how we can get in to Streaming our Legion games. I dont know the first thing about any of it so this actually helps out alot. Thanks!