Videoguys DIY Live II: Wirecast Gear Edition for Setting Up a Live Production Studio
Our Videoguys' techs have set-up a live production studio with the Telestream Wirecast Gear
Earlier this year we brought you the first Videoguys' DIY LIVE Guide: NewTek TriCaster Mini. In the past 6 months we have upgraded our bandwidth, the lighting and some other aspects of the studio to create great live videos to YouTube and Facebook. Today we are going to see how versatile our studio is by swapping out the TriCaster Mini for the new Wirecast Gear 110. Our goal is to bring you great info on all of our products so check out this guide and stay tuned for DIY Live III featuring the NewTek triCaster 460... coming soon!
For more than 10 years Videoguys.com, one of the world’s leading resellers of video editing and production solutions, has been publishing DIY articles as a service to their customers. These guides have been recommended by video editing, post production, gaming and general computer blogs, web sites, and user forums all over the world—including Streaming Media Producer. The Videoguys DIY guides help customers make informed decisions when choosing the equipment they need at a reasonable budget and are different because the Videoguys use these systems themselves.
This Videoguys DIY is not about building a video editing workstation computer. Instead, our technicians were tasked with setting up a small in-house studio for tutorial videos, webinars and live production. The result is...
Videoguys DIY LIVE - version 2 - the Wirecast Gear Edition!
Click here to watch the video on YouTube
Corporate marketing, tutorials, webinars and web conferencing are all reasons why more and more people are streaming live. The accessibility of Facebook Live!, YouTube Live!, Ustream, Livestream, Zoom, and others make it easier than ever to instantly deliver your message to small or large audiences around the world and the most common question asked is “What equipment do we need to get started?” The answer to this question comes in three parts:- What do you need to build a studio?
- How can you produce an entertaining video?
- How can you deliver that video live to your audience?
Building a Studio
Shopping List |
|
Core Products |
|
| Wirecast Gear 110 | $4,995.00 |
| PTZOptics 12x USB/HDMI PTZ Camera | $1,699.00 |
| Sony XD | Varies |
| MXL FR 355K Lavalier Interview Mic Kit | $75.00 |
Options Worth Consideration |
|
| Intel NUC PC to add web conferencing capability with ZOOM software | $349.00 |
| Microphone Mixer | varies |
| Green Screen, Photographic backdrops, props | varies |
Tech Note: You can also run a HDMI or SDI output from your switcher and feed it into an encoder such as the Matrox Monarch or Teradek VidiU family of products to allow for live streaming and/or recording of your program.
For this edition of Videoguys' DIY Live we wanted to show off the versatility of our set-up by hooking up the new Telestream Wirecast Gear 110 live production turnkey system. Wirecast software has long been an industry standard for live video production and streaming from a Mac and or PC. But the Wirecast Gear is their first hardware offering to combine the Wirecast Pro software into a full functioning Windows 10 PC custom built for live production. The Wirecast Gear is different than most turnkey computer systems because of the sharp attention it pays to live production. And, it is different from other live production systems because Telestream actually encourages you to use it as a PC. You can install Adobe, Avid or any other post-production software to complete your production studio environment with ease. Wirecast Gear is a complete, all-in-one unit that is ready to go live in just a few minutes. We plugged in our cameras’ HDMI cables into the unit, connected our monitors, the wireless keyboard, and mouse, and we were ready to go live right out of the box. With Wirecast Gear we can switch multiple cameras, add graphics, use transitions, use virtual sets, and record the production to a hard drive for post production. The Wirecast Gear is portable. It is built into a lightweight box that will sit nicely on a desk or that can be rack mounted into a 1.5 RU slot for production studio environments. It's lightweight and can be easily taken on location. It comes with a wireless keyboard and a wireless mouse. We are currently using the 110 model with HDMI connections but the Wirecast Gear also comes in the 210 and 220 models with SDI ports and additional video storage. Our primary goal is to create tutorials and product videos using a basic camera setup. We started with 2 inexpensive Canon Vixia hand-held camcorders with HDMI output and added a PTZOptics 12x USB/HDMI camera. Recently, we upgraded from the Canon Vixias to a Sony XD camera. It was important for us to use the robotic pan/tilt/zoom camera to represent the needs of the schools, churches, and corporate boardroom customers we work with every day. The PTZOptics cameras are also a great way to save space and money. We lit our 10’ x 15’ studio studio with a 3 point kit from Ikan and a light overhead to light the green screen.Producing the Video
Once the Wirecast Gear was set up, we watched a few tutorials on how to use it. Switching between cameras, adding graphics, titles and special effects, and mixing audio were all done with ease. The Wirecast Gear comes equipped with the NewBlue FX Titler Pro Live software, and there's no additional setup. You can easily add and change graphics on fly if needed also you can import media from other programs as well. Making it easier for those who aren't the best with technology. One of the best things about Wirecast is how simple it is to use, and the operating system has you in mind, everything must go through the preview window before you take it, allowing for minimal mistakes during live productions.Delivering the Video
Delivering the video is the most subjective part of the process. There are lots of great streaming methods, and fortunately the Wirecast Gear will work with most of them right out of the box. You can open a pull-down menu and simply select Facebook Live, YouTube, Ustream, Livestream, Churchstreaming.tv, and more than a dozen other options or simply configure your own. We will be streaming our Videoguys productions to YouTuberegularly and have been posting to Facebook Live! It is extremely simple. When using the Wirecast Gear 110 we chose to stream to Facebook Live under Output settings. There you can find all of the other options of places to stream. Once we checked off Facebook live all we had to do was give our stream a name that would appear on the Facebook timeline or dedicated page and authorize our Facebook account to allow streaming. Once settings were configured we just clicked "create" and our stream was ready to go. Check out this quick video...There are many ways to build a professional live production and streaming solution and this is just one of many scenarios from our experts at Videoguys.com. We will be releasing other possibilities in the future.
We hope you enjoyed the DIY Live II Wirecast Gear edition and hope you check back to see our next guide with the NewTek TriCaster 460. Like us on Facebook, Subscribe to our YouTube Channel and keep checking out our site. Give us a call at 800-323-2325 to discuss any unique challenges and obstacles that you may have.
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