Adobe has just announced Project Rush – the first all-in-one, cross-device video editing app that makes creating and sharing online content easier than ever. This integrated desktop and mobile solution automatically syncs all your projects to the cloud allowing you to work virtually anywhere, on any device.

Since the app is available on mobile and desktop, you can start working on your phone or tablet and seamlessly move to your laptop for further editing. The app also provides integration with storage cloud-based solutions such as Google Drive and Dropbox as well as Creative Cloud platform itself, giving you an instant access to your media files without worrying too much about the available storage space on your current device….read more

Live streaming is one of the fastest growing forms of new media, but let’s be honest, most streams you see on Facebook and live platforms are choppy videos of your friends holding smartphones to their faces. This gets the content online easily and reliably, but is very rudimentary in execution and oftentimes results in some low-quality videos.

So while we see a lot of live streams are being created by your average independent content creator, rarely do we see more advanced applications of live streaming such as multi-camera, live-switched productions. And for good reason – traditionally, the tools needed to achieve high-end broadcasts were expensive and bulky, making them inaccessible for the majority of people.

But with the widespread use of social media, mass adoption of handsets and implementation of quick-and-easy live video, anyone in the world with a current-generation smartphone can go live from anywhere. This presents an opportunity to create professional live streams in an economical and creative way. That’s where Live:Air Action comes in!

What is Live:Air Action?

Live:Air Action is a live switching app available for iPads. It offers an entire suite of tools traditionally only found on enterprise broadcast switchers such as switching, graphics, lower-thirds, looping in pre-recorded videos and much more. But instead of being a giant hardware switcher, Live:Air Action has all of these bundled into an app!

How Does It Work?

It uses the iPad’s built-in back camera to capture video and allows you to add various built-in or custom-designed graphics. Once the video is ready, you can select any live streaming platform (Facebook, YouTube, Twitch, etc.) and go live directly from your iPad.

However, the best and most unique feature included in the Live:Air Action app is the ability to feed in multiple remote cameras wirelessly. Using other iOS devices (iPads, iPhones, iPod Touches) as camera sources, Live:Air Action can receive the feeds from up to 6 cameras and allow you to switch between them on the control surface. This gives more character to your production and makes for more engaging streams.

What Are The Features?

1. Multi-Cam Switching

There are 2 ways to do this:

1. Other iOS devices with the Live:Air Remote app.
2. Professional cameras w/ VidiU Pro encoder connected via HDMI.

Under the same WiFi network, other iOS devices can use Live:Air Remote to send their camera feeds directly into Live:Air Action. Every connected iOS source will populate on the main interface, where you can click to choose which feed to occupy the stream screen.

Similarly, if you want to stream a higher-quality image and own a professional video camera, connecting a VidiU Pro to the camera allows Live:Air Action to receive the camera’s feed and stream with it. This allows you to forego the iOS built-in back camera and use a high-def video camera instead.

The free edition includes switching between 3 external camera sources. Additional camera sources can be purchased in-app.

2. Lower-Thirds

Lower-thirds are texts that display on the bottom of a video feed, like the name of a reporter or brief text describing the subject of the broadcast. Adding lower-thirds helps viewers tuning in understand what’s going on, especially in broadcasts like interviews, news and sports games.

Live:Air Action makes this easy. Simply choose one of the built-in lower-third designs, type in the text you want and place it into the video. It can also be changed/removed at any time with just the tap of a button.

3. Scoreboards

A tool for all of the sports streamers out there, scoreboards can be easily added and constantly updated every time your favorite team earns a point. The app gives you the option of listing teams as Home / Away, or simply inputting the team names yourself.

4. Pre-Recorded Video

One noticeable thing you see on TV broadcasts like news or sports is the way they can overlay pre-recorded footage into a broadcast. Whether it’s commercials, pre-recorded interviews, sports recaps or whatever you need, Live:Air Action allows you to pull videos directly from the iPad’s Camera Roll into the app and play them over the video feed.

5. Transitions

You can’t overlay videos without smooth transitions though, and the app offers a collection of built-in transitions to choose from. This allows you to create a nice separation between program and commercial (or whichever video you choose to overlay).

6. Images

Many users enjoy adding images like custom-designed logos to their broadcast, which give their streams more character and identity. Live:Air Action makes this very easy too. Simply load any images into your iPad’s photo storage and load them into the app. You can have up to 4 images in your feed at the same time.

7. Recording

Ever see a good play in a sports game and wish you had recorded it? While streaming, Live:Air Action gives you the option to “clip” the last 30 seconds of the stream into your iPad’s camera roll. Use it as a replay later, post-production VOD or simply keep it for the memories!

8. URL

This new feature is for all of the Twitch streamers out there. Integrated with Streamlabs, the URL function adds a funky icon that pops up everytime you get a new subscriber or donation. This can be rearranged and resized to anywhere on the screen. Just copy your Widget URL into Live:Air Action, choose a cool image/gif for your stream, and go live.

And Much More

Chroma key (green screen), audio mixing, gif overlays, iOS delay info, and multi-destination streaming are more of the many other features available within Live:Air Action. The most popular features in traditional hardware switchers can be done from the palm of your hands.

Conclusion

Heavy, expensive switching solutions are a thing of the past. With Live:Air Action, you can live stream production-level content in an affordable and convenient way. Try it out for free on the App Store today.

MONTREAL, Quebec — 6 February 2018 — Matrox® Video today announced Matrox Monarch LCS Radar, a centralized monitoring application that provides a streamlined overview of multiple Monarch LCS lecture capture appliances. The easy-to-use web application allows IT administrators to monitor the status, health, and activity of all encoders from a single dashboard. Overseeing the critical functions of every single encoder simplifies the maintenance and upkeep of the Monarch LCS devices, ensuring smooth day-to-day operations, whether for installations of one or more departments or deployments spread across multiple campuses.

The new Monarch LCS Radar application will be making its debut at Integrated Systems Europe 2018, at Matrox stand #11-D120.

Accessible via any web-browser-enabled device on the same network environment, Monarch LCS Radar features a color-coded dashboard for simple, at-a-glance monitoring. Administrators can easily identify anomalies, while also allowing the user to access the current status of video and audio inputs, schedules, events, and production modes for individual Monarch LCS appliances. An integrated pane provides a confidence preview of audio and video inputs before or during encoding. Administrators can also automate email notifications should a problem occur. In larger installations where many appliances are deployed across the network—such as dentistry, business, and medicine departments—administrators can categorize units into distinct groups for streamlined management of one or more groupings. To access a particular Monarch LCS unit, administrators can always launch the Monarch Command Center web user interface (UI) to adjust settings, initiate ad-hoc recordings, and much more.

“We’ve been working closely with a number of universities to address all the most important features and requirements when it comes to monitoring multi-unit, campus-wide installations,” said Wayne Andrews, product manager, Matrox Video. “Administrators are now equipped with a single, comprehensive platform to monitor and maintain all units for smooth, simple, streamlined operations across the entire network.”

The Matrox Monarch LCS Radar centralized monitoring application will be available to registered customers as a free download from the Matrox site. Visit stand #11-D120 at ISE 2018 to see the application in action alongside the Monarch LCS lecture capture appliance.

Budgets are no doubt the biggest hurdles when it comes to broadcasting in schools. Traditional equipment like cameras, switchers and encoders can cost an arm and a leg, especially for schools that are focused on core curriculums and other electives. But one of the most important utilities in K-12 schools is the morning announcement, which typically requires a bit of investing to do.

So how can schools with strict budgets still provide a broadcasting system to their students?

Searching for A Solution

River Trail School in Gurnee, IL tackled the same question when searching for a way to launch their daily morning announcement program. Tammie Diana, Technology Teacher at the school, was tasked with creating the program from scratch.

“The principal had been trying to get a morning announcement program for a couple years, but never really had the time or money,” Ms. Diana explained. “When we finally created a broadcasting course, we needed gear that was both inexpensive and could get the job done. That’s when we stumbled upon Live:Air Action.”

What Is Live:Air Action?

Live:Air Action is a free iPad app that can do live switching, effects, and streaming all in one. It captures video using the iPad’s built-in back camera, allows for adding custom graphics, and can even roll pre-recorded footage from the camera’s video roll. If you have other iOS devices (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch), they can also be used as remote cameras which allows Live:Air Action to do a multicam production.

The whole app is integrated with all major live streaming platforms including YouTube, Facebook, Ustream, Twitch etc. Once the students are ready, simply choose a destination and Live:Air Action is good to go.

How Does River Trail School Use It?

Morning broadcasts are 100% student prepared and published. “Students arrive early in the morning every day to take emails from the district that need to be announced to the whole school. They write the program for the day and prepare a script for the student announcer to read,” said Ms. Diana.

The iPad is placed on a tripod, with a student ready to control the switching functions on Live:Air Action. Once ready, they use the iPad’s back camera to capture video and a microphone for audio (connected to iPad via Lightning to 3.5mm audio adapter). The feed is live streamed directly to the school’s YouTube channel, which every teacher tunes into from their classrooms and projects the feed onto the classroom Smartboard….[continue reading]

From ProperNerd

…One of the key features we needed in a PTZ camera was the IP stream and control. While the hardware for these cameras is great, the software left a lot to be desired.

The provided software was free and open source. That’s great, but it was a very old html and javascript app, all written with tables and inline css and javascript. In addition it was very buggy, some things as simple as typos meant entire features of the camera were rendered broken. So, I got started looking through the code and at first was just going to fix and clean up what they had provided. After spending some time with it I decided it would be worth it to completely start from scratch…..

Once everything was in place I realized it could fairly easily be converted into an actual desktop app. Rather than using a web browser to access it, including all the clutter and overhead that comes with, I could have it run in it’s own window and keep the desktop much cleaner….[continue reading]