Hawaii State Senate’s Streaming Made Simple

To record and stream its sessions and hearings, the Hawaii State Senate installed six Pearl-2 all-in-one video production systems in its facility. The Senate’s IT team used AV-over-IP technology to send video and audio from the hearing rooms to Pearl-2 over NDI (Network Device Interface).

To increase their capacity to live stream Senate hearings, the IT department at the Hawaii State Senate wanted to leverage the building’s existing network to transmit audio and video from hearing rooms to a centralized production room via NDI. For video capture and production, the team wanted an all-in-one solution that would support NDI inputs and switch, stream, and record video.

In addition to being NDI compatible and feature-rich, the solution also had to be easy to use. IT Director Chris Lam and Systems Analyst Robbie Omura often work with temporary production operator hires, so straightforward system training and operation was essential.

Omura set up six Pearl-2 encoders to capture NDI inputs from individual session spaces. All six rooms feature three video sources, including two PTZ cameras and one computer with video conferencing for remote participation. A Pearl-2 system captures all three video sources via NDI, and in-room audio is brought in through one of the PTZ cameras.

Before each session, the team preloads graphic slates onto Pearl for dynamic switching during the event. Every Pearl-2 unit is assigned a single operator to control switching, recording, and streaming. Each system sends two 1080p streams: one to YouTube over RTMP and one to CCTV over NDI.

A Win for IT

Powered by Pearl-2, the Senate’s centralised setup introduced easy-to-manage workflows with consistent results.

Thanks to Pearl-2’s simplified user interface and controls, it now takes Lam and Omura no time at all to teach new users the basics, including non-technical operators.

Pearl-2 proved to be the all-in-one solution Lam and Omura were looking for and delivered all the features they needed, including NDI input and output, mixing, switching, streaming, and recording. By setting up all their Pearl-2 units in a remote control room, the IT team was able to create a centralised production workflow and minimise tech clutter on the Senate floor.

Just as constituents can count on finding the Senate’s session and hearing videos on YouTube, the Senate IT team can be sure their video capture setup will work without fail.

“I’ve been more than happy with Pearl-2, performance-wise. Running five systems daily, we didn’t have any hardware issues or technical difficulties.” Robbie Omura, Systems Analyst, Hawaii State Senate