NewTek TriCaster Mini 4K UHD Announced
By Adam Noyes
One of the most exciting announcements from NewTek in the recent weeks was the TriCaster Mini 4K UHD. This system is an improved version of the new TriCaster Mini 4K|NDI, with some great new features.
Check out some highlights from provideocoalition.com on the TriCaster Mini 4K, Below.
I am happy to report that NewTek today announced the immediate availability of its new TriCaster Mini 4K UHD. It starts at ≈US$8K or ≈US$9K with a pair of HDMI>NDI modules with PoE (Power over Ethernet). Although some will be happy with its 4K UHD capabilities, I am even more grateful for two other details: 1) the return of NewTek’s unique and foolproof waveform monitor (previously omitted) for measuring and matching camera exposures from the ideal central point: the switcher, and 2) the proper display of framerates to at least two decimal points when creating sessions, rather than the previous irresponsible rounding to the closest integer, which caused havoc among novice innocent users in ex-NTSC regions, including most of the Americas and Japan. I am also thankful for balanced audio input and the openness to PAL-derived framerates (25p and 50p) even with units sold in the US, and the compatibility with innovative NewTek’s Live Story Creator, which allows scripts to be composed and sent from Google Docs or Microsoft Word with standardized embedded codes to trigger TriCaster functions after importation. As of publication of this article, NewTek has still not confirmed whether it has revived (or will revive) its functions to allow proper treatment (reverse telecine) of shy 1080p HDMI cameras, which includes ≈29.97PsF (which is disguised as ≈50i and causes an unnecessary and damaging de-interlacing process) as well as 25PsF (which is disguised as 50i and causes the same visual damage). This remains a vital issue for the high amount of shy 1080p cameras still being sold on the market by major manufacturers including Sony. If not revived by NewTek, we must compensate it externally or suffer the visual consequences.
The new TriCaster Mini 4K UHD also includes two channels of Skype for remote guests or co-hosts, which is wonderful. I am surprised that it only includes two, since Ecamm Live includes five Skype channels and also uses NDI.
