Streaming Media Tutorial: Wirecast Gear 230 for Live Event Streaming and Videoconferencing

If you're producing live events at sports venues, house of worship, or any other multi-camera shoots, the Gear 230 gives you all the features and capabilities you'll need to land jobs and satisfy your clients. In this article and video, sponsored by Videoguys.com, I'm going to introduce you to the new Telestream Wirecast Gear 230 live streaming solution and show you how it can take your live streaming to new heights. If you're producing live events at sports venues, house of worship, or any other multi-camera shoots, the Gear 230 (Figure 1, below) gives you all the features and capabilities you'll need to land jobs and satisfy your clients. This all-in-one live video streaming production system is a standalone Windows 10 PC, preloaded with the popular and award-winning Wirecast Pro software by Telestream. Figure 1. The Telestream Wirecast Gear 230. Click the image to see it at full size.

Rendezvous

Let's get to know the Wirecast Pro software and see what it offers. First, Wirecast Pro brings Telestream's Rendezvous integration. Rendezvous (Figure 2, below) allows you to patch in a video feed from remote participants. Getting live participants into your streams is as easy as sending them a link. Your guest can click the link to join your stream as easily as joining a web conference call, but with the added benefit of them being right inside your production. There's no need to set up complex screen captures or audio routing. Wirecast takes care of all of it for you. Figure 2. Wirecast Rendezvous You can bring in an unlimited number of local video sources, whether on your network via NDI or via third-party capture devices, and you can use the Wirecast Go app for iOS devices to get iPhones and iPads in on the fun.

Audio

Let's talk about audio for a second. Wirecast Pro recognizes up to 16 channels of audio per input, and it works with major audio protocols, including ASIO and WASAPI (Figure 3, below), so it's compatible with most professional audio interfaces. Figure 3. Wirecast Pro works with major audio protocols, including WASAPI. Better yet, using the track mixer, you can output up to eight different mixes, for complete control over your streamed and recorded audio.

Titling

Also included with the Gear 230 and Wirecast Pro is NewBlue Titler Live Complete (Figure 4, below). This cutting-edge live graphics suite includes more than 200 pre-built graphics and titles, allowing you to generate lower-thirds and animations quickly and easily. Figure 4. NewBlue Titler Live Complete in Wirecast Pro. Click the image to see it at full size. It can also generate clocks, scoreboards (Figure 5, below), and even bring in live comments from Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Figure 5. A scoreboard generated in NewBlueTitler Live Complete

Exporting to Streaming Platforms

Of course, no live stream is complete without the ability to send your broadcast to the platform of your choice. Wirecast Pro can stream to all the popular live stream platforms, like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Vimeo, Twitch, and custom RTMP destinations (Figure 6, below). Figure 6. Choosing a streaming platform. Click the image to see it at full size. If you need to stream to multiple sites at once, you're covered there too. Even better, you can keep your CPU low by using the built-in GPU-accelerated Quick Sync encoding.

What You Get With the Wirecast Gear

When you purchase the Gear 230, you get free Wirecast Pro software updates for one year included with your purchase. After that, it's just $99 a year if you always want the latest version of the software. The Gear 230 comes in a slim, 17-inch-wide case that's at home on a desktop, or in a rack or in your flight case. Telestream ships the Gear with a generous 90-day full parts and labor warranty, which you can extend up to three years if you want, so don't be afraid to bring it with you on location. On the back (Figure 7, below), you’ll find the standard PC ports for keyboard and mouse, networking, and audio in and out. You've got six USB 3 ports and a single USB Type-C, which are great for plugging in additional interfaces, like your TASCAM mixer or Scarlett Focusrite. You can use either of the two HDMI ports or the DVI for your display and multi-view. Figure 7. Back-panel I/O on the Wirecast Gear For those of you who like having a physical hardware controller, X-keys makes a control surface for Wirecast, or you can use popular MIDI controllers, like the APC Mini, or the Novation Launchpad MK2. The X-keys controller for Wirecast Gear (Figure 8, below) will be available for just $599.95. For local camera input, there are four HD-SDI ports. Figure 8. The X-keys controller for Wirecast Gear The killer feature of these ports is that they're configurable as in or out. Say, for example, if you need an iMac projection in a venue. That, plus the ability to output an NDI feed of your program mix, has you totally covered for any production environment. Inside, you have 2 TB of SSD storage for storing up to 40 hours of HD video. Basically, just hook up your favorite monitor, plug in your cameras, power up, and start streaming. The 230 gives you a slew of other features that are especially suited for sports. You've got audio mix control, instant replay, playlist creation for prerecorded video clips, chroma keying, virtual sets, clocks, timers, and scoreboards. The Wirecast Gear 230 from Telestream is where it's at for live video production and streaming. With 2 TB of storage, configurable SDI ports, title and graphics software, and multicast streaming capabilities, you'll be ready to produce for any event. All Wirecast Gear models are available at videoguys.com, and this Gear 230 is just $7,995. I also recommend adding the X-keys controller for $599.95, or at least ask for special bundle pricing.