How to Use NewTek Connect Spark with 3rd-party NDI® Switchers & Shy-Progressive Cameras

NewTek is continuing to assist filmmakers with their constant eye on making live streaming easier. Not just with the equipment they're releasing, but with articles like these helping users use their products with othere non-NewTek devices. This article aims to show users how to use their NewTek Connect Spark devices with varying cameras. Mainly with cameras known as "shy-progressive" cameras. Shy-progressive cameras are cameras that shoot and record at 1080p but when it comes to the output it will "double the framerate". That resolution isn't broadcast-friendly and won't work at all with TriCaster systems and other NDI switchers. This article lists out a few procedures to make a shy camera able to work. An article like this should show current and new users to NewTek that even with the release of new products NewTek is also committed to ensuring their ease in workflow and how to get the most out of their product.

If a 1080HD progressive camera is “outgoing”, it can not only image and (in the case of camcorders) record internally in pure progressive, but it can also deliver pure progressive over HDMI or SDI at its native frame rate. That is ideal, and simpler, as indicated in PROCEDURE 1 and PROCEDURE 2 of this article.

However, there are some cameras that image internally at a broadcast-friendly resolution and frame rate like 1080/29.97p, 1080/25p or 1080/23.976p, and when you set the live output to be 1080p, they, unfortunately, double the framerate. That is not broadcast-friendly for 1080p, and it won’t work with many TriCaster systems or other NDI switchers either. So for the purpose of this article, we are going to call those cameras “shy” too, since they can’t deliver progressive at their native frame rate live, and in those cases, we need to ask them to image progressively, but output disguised 1080i over the HDMI or SDI output. When we do that, they will actually be delivering either PsF or Telecine, depending upon their framerate. In other words, either way, they will be delivering the original frame rate over 59.94i or 50i (which are called 29.97i and 25i in Avid nomenclature). For “shy” cameras, we have PROCEDURE 3 and PROCEDURE 4, ahead in this article.

There are two different ways to determine whether your 1080p cameras are “shy” or “outgoing”, depending upon whether the manufacturer has been very detailed in the manual. If the manufacturer has been very specific, you can find out there. I have noticed that the higher the price of the camera, the more specific the manual, using the proper terminology regarding PsF. Rather than calling it Telecine, many camera manufacturers call it “50i/59.94i with a 3:2 pulldown” or “50i/59.94i with a 2:3 pulldown.: Some camera manufacturers that prefer to round might call it “50i/60i with a 3:2 pulldown” or “50i/60i with a 2:3 pulldown.” That’s the same as Telecine....[continue reading]