NewTek TriCaster powers This Week in Tech - TWiT TV

In this white paper technology guru and online tech personality Leo LaPorte talks about how he has utilized the NewTek TriCaster to create broadcast quality content on a lean budget.

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To keep up with the growth of the TWiT Network, the whole operation moved in 2011 to a custom-designed space in Petaluma, CA called the TWiT Brick House. With growth came new staffing models – but not huge staffing. “Now we have technical directors who do the switching for all our programs.” And there are a lot of programs, including This Week in Tech, Macbreak Weekly, Windows Weekly, The Giz Whiz, This Week In Law, Tech News 2Night, iPad Today and many others.

TWiT’s studio manager John Slanina elaborates, “Some of our shows have separate producers and some of our shows are produced by the host. Sometimes a show is done with just a host and TD, other shows have a producer helping out.” Multi-functional employees are a popular theme at TWiT. “We have eight TDs, some are editors, some are engineers. Most TDs are responsible for three or four shows each week.” And the technical plant is as lean as the staffing. “We use a single TriCaster 8000 in our main studio for our roughly thirty shows, seven days a week.” With such a large slate of programs, having unique looks to differentiate the shows is hugely important. “We love having separate sessions for each of our shows so that each technical director can customize the interface and content to their—or the show’s—preferences and needs. When a TD sits down for their show, all of the graphics, M/E configurations, DDR and audio content, transitions, and other effects are ready to go. I’d like our technical directors to have at least half an hour to set up for a show, but that rarely happens. We can change sessions on the TriCaster, configure the inputs, update the graphics, and make Skype connections all in less than 10 minutes. ” read more...