How to Setup Laptop Webcam and Mic with NewTek TriCaster
Kane Peterson, NewTek TriCaster Workflow Engineer
iVGA and iVGA Pro are examples of the IP workflow offered in NewTek video production products for many years now; both enable a networked computer (Mac or Windows) to act as an input source for a NewTek TriCaster on the same LAN. If you are not familiar with using iVGA Pro with your TriCaster, you might want to take a few minutes to watch the training video for using iVGA with NewTek TriCaster 40 – the same steps would apply to other TriCaster models.
One of iVGA Pro’s features is the ability to capture audio from a recording device on your computer and send it over Ethernet along with the video. This can allow you to use the webcam and microphone on your laptop as another input into a TriCaster system. What can be even more useful is the ability to play a clip on your computer along with the audio, effectively turning your computer into another DDR.
However, for this ability to work, the audio card on your system needs to support a feature called “audio loopback.” This is where the sound from your computer is sent back into itself as a recording device. Some audio cards have this feature, usually called “Stereo Mix” or “What U Hear,” that shows up in your recording devices. If your computer has this device then you might not need anything else. Just tell iVGA Pro to use it.
However, many audio cards do not offer this feature. There are several ways to solve this:
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- If you have a system in which you can replace the audio card, buy a card that has this feature.
- If your system offers separate outputs and inputs for audio, you may be able to use audio patch cables to route outputs back to the inputs. Not all systems will work with this setup.
- One option that can work for almost any system is to use VB Cable, a software driver you install on your computer that adds a playback device (i.e. sound card) and recording device (i.e. microphone) that are “connected” inside the computer. Anything that is sent to the VB Cable Input device will automatically be received by the VB Cable Output device. This solution uses no cable (so it can’t be accidentally unplugged) and it doesn’t use any of the physical ports on your computer, which also means that you stay digital though the entire process.
NewTek TriCaster System Setup
First, download the VB Cable software here: http://vb-audio.pagesperso-orange.fr/Cable/. Install the software on the iVGA Pro computer using the default settings.Other iVGA Pro tips.
Use wired Gigabit Ethernet as your connection between the iVGA Pro client and the TriCaster when possible. While 802.11n WiFi is fast, it still isn’t as fast as Gigabit Ethernet. You will always get best performance when working with Gigabit Ethernet. Internet Explorer 9 appears to play video/audio in sync better than some other browsers when using VAC. So if you are looking to play YouTube or other Flash clips though iVGA Pro and are running into sync issues, give IE9 a try. Windows Vista and 7 have the ability disable the Aero display which will increase performance of iVGA Pro. Windows 8.x and 10 cannot disable the Aero display, this can degrade iVGA Pro performance on these systems, one of the first noticeable aspects of this performance decrease will be with audio. On Windows 8.x or 10 systems, if you have poor audio quality coming from iVGA Pro, use the “Region” option as your “Video Source” and grab a smaller area of the screen. You can also try changing the iVGA Pro image quality (by clicking on the gear icon) to help with reducing the bandwidth to keep up the audio quality and the frame rate. Make sure you set the VB Cable as the Input and Output audio defaults before starting iVGA Pro. If iVGA Pro isn’t receiving the audio you need to fully quit iVGA Pro (by right clicking on its icon in the tray and choose Exit). Then start iVGA Pro again. If you have NLE software (like SpeedEDIT) on your system, put the video in full screen mode and you basically have another DDR feeding into your TriCaster – and it has the power of a full non-linear editing system behind it! Find an application that doesn’t work with our Audio Loopback script? It can happen. Some applications will select the audio device they are going to work with, and even with our script running, they will continue to use the audio device they are set to. Skype is one example of such an application. In these cases, you are going to have to tell the application to use the VB Cable audio device. In the case of Skype, here is what you need to do. In Skype’s “Tool” menu, select “Options.” In the window that opens, select “Audio Settings” on the left side. Under Speakers, choose “Cable Input.” This will tell Skype to use this device. You will need to manually change it back if you want to use Skype without VB Cable.Correct settings for Skype v5+ and VB Cable
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