Why I love the TriCaster.

By John Coles

You may know that I work at Digital Tree UK (a video production company based in Manchester, UK) and that we recently upgraded our workflow. Completely. We have gone from using standard definition cameras and a standard definition video switcher to a full HD workflow. At the heart of our new workflow is the NewTek TriCaster 40. To realise why I love it so much let me explain.

The old way:

To broadcast in the past we use to have some cameras (Panasonic HCV10 x 2, Panasonic NV-GS60 and a GoPro Hero 2) running from the outputs over BNC cables in to the Datavideo SE-500. The output of the SE-500 then went into a Dazzle Hollywood FireWire capture card through to Wirecast running on a Mac mini. Before Wirecast supported Virtual Web-camera output as and option we would then output to a Livestream Broadcaster (DO NOT BUY ONE OF THESE!) via the HDMI port of the Mac mini. The frame rate was shocking and the CPU usage was through the roof. Not to mention the fact that there were more conversions from analogue to digital and back again than I care to count. The whole workflow was messy and took a lot of time to set up. It also took a lot of getting used to as there is a lot to remember to set up correctly (which did not always happen as I will show later). It was as a result of this that I dared to dream of a production platform known commonly as the NewTek TriCaster 40.

The new way:

Now our productions are powered by a NewTek TriCaster the video comes out of ether a Canon HF-R205 or GoPro Hero 2 (in the case of the GoPro there is no native component out so the HDMI is converted to component) then sent over Cat5 cables (perfect as they are relatively cheap and can do around 50m with no signal degradation) then they are converted back to component cables and ingested in to the TriCaster. That is it. Our entire workflow then happens on the wonderbox. read more...

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	NewTek Tricaster 40 with Version 2 Software Upgrade Bundle $5,990.00			NewTek TriCaster 40 $4,995.00			NewTek TriCaster 40 version 2 Software Upgrade $995.00