NewTek TriCaster Mini Makes Quick-Cast Mobile Productions Affordable for Local Small Businesses

Mobile Video Production Services for Small Businesses in Long Island, NY Built Around NewTek TriCaster® Mini

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John Richardson, the founder and creator of Quick-Cast, created a mobile media production company to serve the needs of local area businesses in Long Island, NY. John has always had an entrepreneurial spirit and recognized the growing need for small businesses to be able to produce video content for their web sites, social media platforms and other promotional needs. Some of the challenges facing small to mid-sized businesses through are the high cost of investment in production equipment and, even worse, the ability to find skilled production personnel to regularly create the content. Quick-Cast was created to address these challenges and has become very successful. Businesses can hire the Quick-Cast mobile crew to come to any location to stream live of to produce videos at a very affordable rate.

Instead of building an in-house production studio, or rearranging office or conference room furniture, the Quick-Cast luxury coach just pulls up to any location in Nassau and Suffolk counties and the talent can climb on board. Quick-Cast has all the equipment to stream live to multiple CDNs or to produce an edited and finished video for just about any purpose. The production can also extend well beyond the luxury liner itself thanks to the powerful antenna and robust networking capabilities.

At the heart of the Quick-Cast rig is the NewTek TriCaster® Mini mounted next to several monitors and the NewTek TriCaster Mini Control Surface. The TriCaster Mini was the perfect solution because of the small footprint required to get a high-quality live production system. The HDMI inputs and expanded NDI® capabilities provide the flexibility needed for every project. After all, when you roll a mobile production system to a new location for a new client you must be prepared meet their individual needs! One client that John works with regularly is a doggie day care service who does a regular web show on their services. Traditional production companies are not willing to invite animals into their polished studios, but Quick-Cast has the capability to produce videos easily in an outdoor environment or can host the animals on the coach when needed.

Other advantages of the NewTek TriCaster system quickly became apparent as Quick-Cast started adding more and more clients. The crew is continuously impressed by the ruggedness and overall build quality of the system. The biggest challenge in creating any mobile production environment happens when the cameras are off. These systems need to be able to handle the bumps, short-stops and other issues while driving; the extreme changes in seasonal temperature in NY; and the small space available in the trailer. In fact, the small amount of available space also creates a challenge when trying to properly light a green screen to allow their clients to broadcast in front of a virtual set. This mobile rig though is outfitted with a custom LED lighting solution and the crew relies heavily on the TriCaster’s excellent chroma-key capability to use virtual sets and deliver a professional HD broadcast.

NewTek’s NDI technology was also a game changing improvement for Quick-Cast. In the past year they have upgraded the TriCaster Mini with the Advanced Edition software and added NewTek Connect Spark™ NDI converters to allow them to take HDMI cameras off the truck and without cables. John’s IT background proved useful in outfitting the mobile rig with an extendible WiFi antenna and multiple networks. The NDI production network is separate and robust enough to bring multiple wireless sources into the NewTek TriCaster Mini as far as 300’ away from the production truck.

When talking about the equipment decisions Justin Muzante, Quick-cast Director of Production explained, “Our business model is to create an affordable solution attainable to every small business. We keep costs low by following the 80/20 rule and purchasing the equipment that will give us 80% of the highest possible results at 20% of the cost. Therefore, we chose HDMI over SDI and spent a lot less money on smaller cameras. The NewTek TriCaster though has proven to be much more valuable than it cost providing many of the same features and capability as higher end broadcast switchers. And NewTek NDI allows us to upgrade beyond the limitations of the distance of an HDMI cable.”

Intrigued by the unique business model and production capabilities, Gary Bettan of Videoguys.com invited Quick-Cast in to produce the Videoguys Live! Weekly webinar “News Day 2sday” from the parking lot of their corporate HQ. Gary said “Watching the luxury coach pull in and then expand to reveal a full production studio with not just one, but TWO available sets, was truly impressive. The Quick-Cast crew was set-up and ready in less than an hour and provided everything we need to duplicate the same production we do every week from our full studio.” After the live broadcast the production team spent some time playing with the drone that is also stored on board along with some of the other production gear.

Quick-Cast already has many regular customers and was recently featured in Newsday and on Verizon’s Fios News 1. They have streamed live events for local businesses, schools, community events, local politicians, houses of worship and more. They rely on the NewTek TriCaster Mini with NDI technology to meet every client’s need with the flexibility and reliability that a mobile production solution requires.