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On Wednesday night September 4, 2013 NewTek announced a slew of new products and new product functionality today on a special edition of This Week in Tech (TWiT). I’m going to dive right into the list:
New TriCasters:
TriCaster 410 – like the 450 and 455, but with many of the 8000 features and 4 HD-SDI inputs (NT did away with analog inputs on this machine)
TriCaster 460 – an upgraded TriCaster 455. Essentially the same connections but software that reflects the feature set above and an TriCaster 8000-like GUI
TriCaster 860 – an upgraded TriCaster 860. Like the 855 but with most of the feature set of the 8000.
TriCaster 8000 v2 – an update to the original TriCaster 8000 with animated frame buffers, MIDI support, and all the other new toys
Newtek also announced its robust developer network with companies making both hardware and software products that are compatible with the TriCaster line.
Let’s VERY briefly go through the new features.
Holographic Virtual Sets
These are new virtual sets that let you use panoramic picture as your backdrop. You can overlay or “green screen” yourself onto this picture in real time and view the picture from any angle. If you’ve used Google’s mapview, or remember Quicktime VR from Apple, you will readily know what’s going on here. It might seem like something hard to do, but if you’ve ever used the panoramic picture feature on your smart phone or digital camera, you already know how to make a holographic virtual set. Once you copy the picture to the TriCaster, it only takes a few minutes of processing to turn it into a background for your next video production.
Animated Frame Buffers
This much-anticipated feature has now made it’s way into the TriCaster line. Instead of having to use a DDR to create an animated lower third or bug or any other motion graphic overlay, you now have the ability to call up a slew of animated graphics from a palette of presets you can preload. This feature will undoubtedly enhancing the visual richness of TriCaster productions by adding additional layers of graphical content to a live production.
MIDI support
There will be rejoicing amongst developers for NewTek incorporating MIDI into its product line. This author has long called for it along with many other developers around the world. Now it’s here! Full MIDI implementation allows TriCaster to be controlled by a slew of devices that are newly on the market and those that have been battle tested over decades in the professional A/V and entertainment industry. While true MIDI control has been available since the Video Toaster from third party manufacturers like Young Monkey in New Brunswick, Canada, this is the first time NewTek is providing native support in its line of TriCasters. That’s music to many ears.
Macros
Macro control of the TriCaster is another feature that has been eagerly anticipated and up until now limited to the flagship TriCaster 8000. Macros can be triggered by the keyboard, control surface, or through MIDI. Complex multi-keystroke commands can be recorded, edited, and then triggered at the press of a button.
Hotspot Triggers
This feature from the TriCaster 8000 allows on-screen talent to use designated trigger areas on screen as buttons to launch macros or features in TriCaster’s switching environment. If you’ve seen the movie “Minority Report” where the protagonist manipulates a translucent computer screen with his hands, it’s something like that.
Pan Tilt Zoom (PTZ) control
The ability to control robot cameras is a delightful new feature in the TriCaster line. You can hook up a PTZ camera and have preset camera positions correspond with macro commands, sync with holographic set movement, or control with an iPad through MIDI.
Social media publishing
Another feature that made it’s way to the TriCaster 8000 first, social media integration has been a game changer for the TriCaster product line. Even while switching live, TriCaster can send video and screen grabs with captions to social media sites such as Facebook and Youtube, and can also send content to FTP sites and Twitter.
IP Playback
One feature that will be overlooked by some is the ability to playback any video on a network through the TriCaster. This means you can plug in an RTMP video as a source and stream video TO your TriCaster instead of just FROM your TriCaster. So you can incorporate another webcast, or you can use content from an encoder like the Cube on-camera encoder from Teradek to feed live video from a remote camera feed to your TriCaster as a source. That might seem obscure, but when you really think about it, that’s pretty sexy.
Enhanced streaming publishing
The streaming panel really makes setting up a new stream a breeze and has presets for the most popular content delivery networks (CDNs) out there. There are also special plugins for Ustream and Livestream, which add platform specific functionality such as targeted multi-bitrate streaming.
Enhanced audio with new stereo pairs, panning, and user variable audio delay
TriCaster now takes full advantage of all those XLR connectors on the back of the machine. You can send out audio in stereo pairs, add real pans to mixes, and route audio to various locations. There is also an audio delay feature so you can leave your Behringer Shark at home. Nice touch.
There’s a lot more to explore, but this is a good general overview. We hope to get our hands on the new models soon!
For pricing information see Digitek System’s overview.
Colin
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Great overview. I can’t wait to try this new line of Tricasters. I have been a fan of their products for a few years and the social media integration is truly a game-changer.
Animated Frame Buffers are what I like most about this new line. Hopefully an update will be available for the 455. I heard there was one for the 855’s but…