Production Switchers Ready for Streaming Reality
By Adam Noyes
Remote and live production have both become major areas of necessity for multiple organizations, and as a result live switchers are a hot commodity. There are some exciting new production switchers and encoders that are more than cut out for the task of elevating live streaming to the new standards of todays world.
One such production switchers is the NewTek TriCaster TC2 elite. It is worth noting that NewTek controls the distribution of the TC2 elite directly, and those who are looking to use the device must be approved by the company itself. However, there is also a great line of TriCaster devices from NewTek that are powerful production systems as well, including the NewTek TriCaster TC1.
Recently, tvtechnology.com posted a great article outlining how some production switchers can be used to create high end live streams, to fit the rising demands of today. There is a nice section of the TC2 elite, as well as NewTek production switchers in general, in this article. Check out some highlights from that article, below.
Even in this COVID-crazy year, there is still lots of video creation that involves the use of production switchers. It’s easy to think of production switchers as being in the domain of studios, production trucks and other enclosed facilities that have shut down for the duration of the pandemic, but the ability to stream the output of switchers makes them key for delivering quality programming in a range of situations.
So not only are production switchers an active product category in this seemingly written-off year, they have thrived and continue to see innovation. One of the pioneers in combining switching with streaming is NewTek, which recently added the TriCaster 2 Elite to its family of software-dened live-production systems.
The TriCaster 2 Elite is capable of dual 4Kp60 mix outputs, a single 4Kp60 output with 4x 1080p60 outputs, or 8x 1080p60 outputs—all simultaneously delivered over SDI and NewTek’s popular NDI IP protocol.
“What sets the TriCaster 2 Elite apart is our groundbreaking ‘Live Call Connect’ feature that offers support for up to nine guests via Zoom, Teams, Tencent, Discord, Skype and more,” said Liam Hayter, senior solutions architect for the San Antonio-based company. “All run natively on the system with a dedicated multiviewer mode. Live Call Connect will also analyze the call and automatically separate out the nine callers into individual video inputs for use on the system, and this also includes talkback.”
Switcher manufacturers have embraced IP connectivity in addition to more traditional television standards such as SDI. One example is the Grass Valley Kahuna 9600 4K production switcher, which can be tied to other production resources using the company’s GV Orbit networking management.
At For-A, the company has seen good response to its HVS-490 3G/4K video production switcher. An ace at streaming applications, the HVS-490 packs a lot of popular streaming features into a small package.
“[The HVS-490] provides the most ‘bang for your buck,’” said Adam Daniul, director of sales for the southeast, south central and Midwest regions at For-A America. “It’s built for reliable 3G-SDI or 4K live production, and is ideal for image magnification [I-MAG] and live streaming applications. It’s easy to afford, easy to learn, and easy to use.”