DoingMedia

The Latino Congresso project required a live, switched feed that needed to be webcast. (We also provided a video feed to the room’s video projectors.) I looked at a few options but the simplest way I found to do all that was with the Newtek Tricaster.

Now, the only time I had seen a Tricaster was sitting on a client’s desk. We exchanged some “That’s cool!” comments but he never fired it up. So I had never seen it actually operate but had seen the screen shots — same thing, right (See my post on preparation.) Here’s what I found.

The Tricaster is a two-shoebox size Windows computer with a keyboard, mouse and flat screen monitor. It has all the normal computer connections on the back but the front is filled with a connector geek’s wildest dream: XLR, BNC, 1/4” phone, RCA, S-Video. We were using the Tricaster Pro which allowed for 3 camera switching, record to disk and web streaming (Newtek’s site has more information on the vanilla Tricaster and Tricaster Studio.) We also purchased the accessory external switcher box, which had an actual fader bar for “old timers”(sic), according to Newtek’s manual. There are actually three operating modes: Live Production (which we used); Capture Media; and Edit Media (built in video editor.)

I was able to carry the entire package, less the switcher box, from room to room throughout the conference center. A little cart would be nice if you had external drives or an audio mixer.

Since I had never used a Tricaster we hired an operator, Bob Anderson, from the vendor, TS Computers. The other option was to go through a one day training session and this project had neither the time or the budget. When I walked into the ballroom on the morning of our first event, Bob was already there and the Tricaster was set up. I let him know I hadn’t used the Tricaster before and would need to learn on the job and that I would be depending on him during the day. (I would solo on the Tricaster for an evening session.) The gist of our conversation went like this: “Hi, I’m Bob and my job is pretty simple; I just have to push a button!” (NOTE: If you are a freelancer and your job is simple or easy, or if you can make it look simple or easy, but it’s critical to the job, shroud things in mystery somewhat. Otherwise your clients will wonder why they need you.) As the day wore on I realized Bob was right. The Tricaster is very easy to use.

What I Found Out on Day One

• Audio and video connections are simple. The Tricaster is truly, really plug and play. Connect a cable and the signal flows into the Tricaster.
• Streaming is as easy (Really) as 1, 2, 3.

1. Connect an input (video and/or audio)
2. Enter the streaming server URL, user name and password which your streaming media provider has given you.
3. Press the “Stream Output” button.

• We monitored the streamed webcast output on another computer to check that we were “on the air.”
• There is no XLR audio out (on the Tricaster Pro).
• Audio levels are tricky to set or change.
• The whole Tricaster set is easy to move from one location another.
• There are built in templates for things like lower thirds, with very simple text changes, but the templates are somewhat complicated to modify.
• Video clips are simple to make available.
• There are a lot of transition effects that are flashy but not useful.

Bob created a spinning “The Webcast Will Begin in a Moment” bumper for me in Lightwave on his machine. (See my “Preparation” post.) Lightwave is not included with the Tricaster. He also showed me the “overlay” function and its lower third templates and told me about some keyboard shortcuts. I checked off “Training on the Tricaster” from my to do list.

What I Found Out After That

Tricaster Day One was over, my affable operator Bob had left for the day and I was on my own. Now I started to play.

• I asked the client for names and titles for the evening speakers but the agenda changed. Using the Overlay function and the included lower third templates I created session identifiers for the webcasts. I used lower third IDs like these for all other webcast sessions.
• We were feeding the room PA’s balanced Line audio output through the Tricaster to one or more cameras. The lack of XLR outputs (the Tricaster Pro had only a 1/4” phone jack for audio output) required “gender changer” XLR Male/Male adapters. A standard, male XLR “Out” connector on the Tricaster was expected. (We lost one of the adapters on the second day and the nearby Radio Shack didn’t have any left – because we had bought them all.)
• The Tricaster’s built in mixer looks good but is hard to operate. The user interface uses a “knob” metaphor (like a Mackie mixer) for adjustments. You operate the “knob” by hovering over it with the mouse until the right/left arrows appear, then left click and drag right or left to adjust up or down. A “slider” metaphor would have been easier to adjust since the mouse drag and slider motion would have been similar. (It’s cool that there is an audio mixer at all. The Tricaster built in mixer has two external mic and one line input and one internal “VCR” input.) Some kind of keyboard shortcuts would have been helpful.
• I would use an external audio mixer next time. I would feed its line output to the Tricaster line input and match those so I could have more control on audio level. Not sure if it was my user error or not but I couldn’t get good audio levels to my cameras. A built in 1kHz tone generator would have been helpful to set good camera audio. There is an audio clip for it.
• There is no color bar generator. That would have been handy. There is a video clip for it.
• To make lower thirds easier in Live Production mode a character generator type interface would be excellent. (This is only available in the “Edit Media” mode.)
• Cool, undocumented feature: the Tricaster remembered my streaming media provider entries between shutdowns.
• Playlists for “overlays”; that’s how the Live Production mode does lower thirds; were very handy.

I didn’t get a chance to try the built in VGA input (so PowerPoint slides could be included in the switched feed.) This is great idea.

The whole Tricaster experience was excellent for me. I was pretty skeptical going in. My (long ago) past experience with live conference events was multiple “flight packs”. These were four rack mount cases, on wheels, for switcher, camera control, character generator, graphics computer playback and record VTRS and audio mixer. The Tricaster replicated all of that to different degrees — and I could carry it room to room.

I’d say my little Tricaster trial by fire went pretty well. And there I was ready to get burnt!