Video camera isolation mounts

[David Falkner]

The back story -

A couple of weeks ago our church bought a new camera system for our live Facebook feed and it includes a control panel system for live streaming and 3 new cameras. The cameras mount on rigid steel brackets and two were mounted on columns on the side walls with one on the back wall above the media booth. So the first Sunday morning when these were set up and ready our associate pastor had the pulpit so our pastor could babysit his new 'toy'.

After the first service with choir and piano/organ I asked our pastor how the cameras worked and he was pretty pleased. Then, we had the second service... the one where we have the live band and far more lively music (I play acoustic guitar in the band). Music like bass guitar that can rattle the ceiling tiles. So I asked the pastor how he liked the second service and he was dejected because the two cameras mounted on the side wall columns were vibrating too much to even switch to them. We like our music loud, I guess!!

They added screws into the column mounts, locked everything down, added screws to the cameras, and nothing worked. I told them we need isolation mounts but nobody knew what I was talking about so I didn't push it. I recognized that the problem wasn't the mounts, rather the problem was that the sheetrock around the columns was vibrating and resonating with the music. That meant no matter how hard you locked the cameras and their mounts down they're still going to vibrate. So Monday morning I sent Bro Terry a link to some isolation mounts and asked if he wanted me to make some to which he quickly replied, "Yessssssssssssssssssss!!!" The ones in the link I sent were $500 each, btw.

This will take at least two posts to get the photos in but basically I drew this in Fusion 360 and cut them out of Baltic Birch since I have tons on hand as cutoffs from all the Longworth chucks I've cut.

Drawing in Fusion 360 -
000 - Design in Fusion 360.jpg

Plates cut on the CNC. This can easily be done on tablesaw and bandsaw, or with a template and router, etc., but I have the CNC so that's what I used. I also used the CNC to mark where to drill holes for the cable clamps.
001 - Plates cut on CNC.jpg

Plates and cable clamps. I drilled the holes on the drill press and split the pieces on the bandsaw. I could have done this with the CNC but chose to use the other tools instead. I did use the CNC to mark where to drill the holes and cut each piece, though.
002 - Plates, cable clamps.jpg

Cable clamps cut -
003 - Plates, cable clamps.jpg

Gluing the cable clamps in place and using a drill bit for alignment. I had predrilled the plates so this made it easy getting the clamps in the right location.
004 - Gluing clamps in place, drill bit for alignment.jpg

Clamps finished and fixed on the plates -
005 - Clamps finished.jpg

Knobs cut on the CNC. Again, this could be done with a bandsaw but more consistent and much easier on the CNC.
006 - Knobs cut on CNC.jpg

Painted flat black to match the brackets and ready for cables -
007 - Painted and ready for assembly.jpg

Ok, I'll do another post shortly with the rest of the photos.
David

[David Falkner]

I used vinyl covered 3/16" wire rope cables and cut them to about 6" each piece. I cut a spacer to place between the plates for consistency between each camera mount. One side note - I couldn't cut the cable with anything I had so I had to buy a bolt cutter. Even that didn't want to cut this stuff until I realized that when I first cut the vinyl with a razor then the bolt cutter had no problem cutting the wire. In every case it cut all but about two strands and cut those with a cold chisel on my vise anvil. Any project that requires the purchase of a new tool is a good project!!
008 - Spacer board for consistency.jpg

Here you can see the camera mount threaded lock, just like on a tripod –
009 - Camera mount threaded lock.jpg

The top plate where the camera mounts has a floating nut to hold the threaded lock and allow for secure mounting of the camera –
010 - Floating nut for camera threaded lock.jpg

Set of three camera isolation mounts (upside down in the photo so they'd sit flat on the table) –
011 - Set of three camera isolation mounts.jpg

Cable close ups –
012 - Cable close up.jpg

Camera on the column –
013 - Camera on column.jpg

Close up of camera –
014 - Camera on column, fixed mount.jpg

Camera with isolation mount. After our first test we realized that 8 cables were too stiff so I took one out of each quadrant.
015 - Camera on column, isolation mount.jpg

More in the next post -
David

[David Falkner]

Comparison grabbed from monitor shows how still the view is on the left and how the right one is moving. It was actually worse than this but this is the best I could grab in a video. Also, this was just a CD playing and not the live band which I understand shook the columns much more than the CD.
016 - Comparison.jpg

I'd have to say this is a successful project in that a simple, low cost solution, to which I could provide a solution in a couple of days, solved a problem that would have been an ongoing issue. And it was a fun project, too! I had the opportunity to design, engineer, and build something I've never tried and it worked. Hmmmmmm, I wonder if there's a market for these! LOL!

David

[Jim Becker]

Sounds like a successful project!

I would imagine that the congregation my friend in Florida belongs to would have had to do similar...it's pretty much a "full rock concert" venue including volume level heavy on bass and kick. Four songs and a sermon. Let's just say that nobody needs a pacemaker or defibrillator during the service as the sound levels alone will keep their hearts pumping. They do live feed and recorded video too...and the live camera shots on the walls are "rock steady", pardon the expression...

[stan kern]

excellent work

[David Falkner]

Thanks, Guys! I wear in ear monitors and have my guitar, our Worship Pastor's voice, and a touch of keyboard and my IEM's are about 75% noise cancelling so I don't hear much outside of what I want and at the volume I want. I really doubt it's extremely loud or the old folks would complain but they seem to like what we're doing.

David

[Jim Becker]

Just remember that "today's old folks" grew up with louder music than "yesterday's old folks"... in fact, some might actually be happy that they can actually hear the music. LOL I'm not religious at all, but in support of my friend, I've been to two of her services while visiting. Being a lifelong musician, I was appreciative of the format for sure. The first time was before I had my aids and that was a good baseline. The second time I had my aids...and pretty much had to turn them down "a lot", but not all the way because it was nice actually having something in my right ear for a change with live music. My only complaint would be it was a little muddy on the bottom end the second time. But it still vibrated one to their cores!

[David Falkner]

Feeling it is half the experience - right Jim!! It's funny but at the start of every practice our bass player searches for the single note that rattles the ceiling tiles and we all get a kick out of it because it seems to change weekly. Humidity, I guess. The ceiling is about 24' high and it's a pretty decent size room, probably about 60' x 100', so there's a lot of air volume in the room. But he can still rattle ceiling tiles!

David

[Jim Becker]

That room in Florida is similar size, built like an amphitheater, etc.

[David Falkner]

Here's a video from yesterday and zoomed in a fair amount - My Feet Are On The Rock - if you want to take a look. That's me kicking off this fun song on my Takamine, btw. Prior to the isolation mounts they couldn't zoom in this close at all, they had to basically do wide shots.

David

[Jim Becker]

That's a fine instrument there, David. Beautiful tone.

[David Falkner]

Thanks, Jim! It's hard to beat the higher end Takamine electronics and I love the Koa build on this guitar. One of these days I want to build one - gorgeous wood!

Did you notice I had two capos on the neck? That's the first song I've used that on and it's a pretty cool way to do some songs.

David

[Jim Becker]

I didn't notice the capos, but I watched D Braun's recent video on a three string capo setup that looks to be useful in many situations.

Koa is such beautiful stuff. I got a bunch of thin pieces at Hearne awhile back out of the "$1 per pound" scrap bin just inside the door. Some I plan on using for fretboards and some may knit together into an interesting top cap. (I'm only building electrics)

[David Falkner]

A couple of days ago I told both the electric guitar pickers in our band to give me their favorite shape for a body because I have been wanting to cut some but I don't play electric. Matter of fact, I really don't like electric! LOL! I'm an acoustic guy all the way. If I do actually get the opportunity to cut a couple of electric bodies then I will post them here (well, in the Musical Instruments subforum).

David

[Jim Becker]

Do you have Vectric software that's current version?