Review: Producing Webcasts with Telestream Wirecast and the Matrox DS4

Streaming Medai Producer by Jan Ozer

Running Telestream Wirecast with the Matrox DS4, a powerful, well-integrated capture card, handling most of the input/encoding/previewing load, yields impressive results that catapulte Wirecast into the TriCaster/Livestream Studio class of product when it comes to responsiveness.

When it comes to live streaming software, all programs are limited by the capture hardware utilized and the computer that they run on. To ensure that all of your live events come off without a hitch, Telestream, Matrox, and several manufacturers have teamed up to provide multiple turnkey platforms combining Telestream Wirecast and the Matrox VS4. I recently tested two systems from 1 Beyond, and the results were impressive.

As you may know, Wirecast is a live streaming software program with an exceptionally broad feature set, including multiple-camera switching, transitions, titles, the ability to broadcast screen-based sources and file-based videos, live greenscreen to virtual sets, and scoreboard capabilities. Wirecast comes with presets for many live streaming service providers, and can connect with any RTMP-based streaming server as well as Windows Media and QuickTime servers. There are two versions: Wirecast Studio ($495) and Wirecast Pro ($995), and Telestream has a nice features table describing their individual features.

I’ve tested and reviewed Wirecast multiple times, including a review for StreamingMedia.com in April 2010 and produced several live events with the program. But I’ve never used the product with a capture card; usually broadcasting SD output from DV input. For convenience, I always ran the program on notebooks, usually 2-Core machines that were up to the task but clearly not speed burners.

For these reasons, I perceived of Wirecast as functional and well-featured, but not an exceptional performer, primarily because on-screen preview was clearly less than full frame rate. A few minutes with these turnkey systems disabused me of the latter perception, let me tell you that. read more...

Check out these items featured in this post and available now at Videoguys.com.
	Matrox VS4 Quad HD capture and ISO Recording Card for Telestream Wirecast $1,495.00			Telestream Wirecast Pro (Win) $950.00			Matrox VS4 Quad HD Capture and Telestream Wirecast Pro $2,395.00