Engage with and expand your congregation with customizable, high-quality live streams of your services and events. Easily collaborate, produce, and broadcast baptisms, sermons, and other special moments using Wirecast’s intuitive platform and professional support options.

Check out his video case study here!

Learn more about Wirecast here!

The Wirecast Gear is available in four different models and allows you to start streaming in minutes with an end-to-end system configured specifically for your needs. With Wirecast Pro included alongside Gear’s custom-designed hardware, it’s a live event production switcher, live news production system, Facebook Live switcher and YouTube Live switcher – all in one box.

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Featuring secondary display output, shot templates, placeholders, and support for Apple Silicon hardware.

Telestream, a global leader in file-based media workflow orchestration, media streaming and delivery technologies, today announced a latest version of Wirecast, its award-winning live production and streaming platform for Mac and Windows. The new version adds native support for Apple Silicon (M1) hardware and is packed with new features that add enhanced flexibility and further streamline production workflows.

In Wirecast Pro, users can now send their live outputs to a secondary display. The live program feed can be sent to a big screen or to an independent capture device without the need for specific hardware. When paired with a UVC HDMI capture device, users can capture live output for use in other applications like Zoom or Teams as an alternative to using a virtual camera/mic.

Shot Templates allow users to add a pre-configured shot layout to a document. Cameras and sources can now be assigned to Placeholders to quickly add a source to any number of shots. For example, an operator could assign a guest to a placeholder and once that guest arrives, they are automatically placed in all shots designated for them.

“This latest release of Wirecast raises the bar once again on production workflow for live streaming,” said Lynn Elliott, Senior Product Manager for Wirecast. “Our goal was to further simplify setup and live production tasks so that users can produce even more visually engaging content instinctively, giving them more time to concentrate on guests and their audience.”

Now, Wirecast features a Lock Shot Icon, where users can take a snapshot of a live shot and save it as an icon thumbnail. For example, PTZ cameras with multiple shots configured can display customized snapshots for each angle for quick identification during production.

Also, Wirecast features PTZ control for Sony X-Series IP cameras, which adds direct support for Sony X-series cameras from within the Wirecast PTZ controller.

Another key addition is support for LinkedIn Live Auto-Captions – When streaming to LinkedIn Live, users can now enable Automatically Generated Captions in a broadcast, which will enable viewers to see captions in their player. In addition, there is an Input Connection selector for Blackmagic devices, which adds an option to choose video/audio input connections (HDMI/SDI) for Blackmagic source devices directly from Wirecast.

Wirecast features several Clock enhancements including:

o Option to automatically start the countdown clock when it gets pushed live
o Ability to display times in minutes greater than 60 minutes for sports and other applications
o Option to display day-of-the-week only
o Option to countdown to a specific date and time, for longer broadcasts and countdowns.

Wirecast 14.2 is available now and is a free update to all users with a Wirecast Access plan.

Read the original article here!

Learn more about Wirecast here!

Learn more about Telestream here

Check out StreamGeeks Introudction to Wirecast below

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Telestream’s Press Release

Nevada City, California, February 22, 2021 – Telestream, a leading provider of workflow automation, media processing, quality monitoring and test and measurement solutions for the production and distribution of video, today announced that both its Telestream Cloud Stream Monitor and Wirecast streaming solutions have achieved “SRT Plugged” status by successfully completing interoperability testing at the SRT InterOp Plugfest.

SRT (Secure Reliable Transport) is an open-source video transport protocol, developed by Haivision and driven by the SRT Alliance, that enables the delivery of high-quality, secure, low-latency video across the public Internet. This allows for optimized streaming performance across unpredictable networks, bringing the best quality live video over the worst network connections. SRT represents an alternative to costly satellite links, purposebuilt fiber networks, or proprietary transport solutions.

Telestream Cloud Stream Monitor and Wirecast live production and streaming software participated in the SRT Alliance’s recent “InterOp Plugfest” kick-off event. The event is held annually for developers to test interoperability and compatibility between different technologies and vendors using the SRT protocol. Stream Monitor now enables users to monitor live video quality from streams transported via SRT. By repeatedly demonstrating compatibility and interoperability with other SRT Alliance members, SRT Plugged status was validated. Tests confirmed interoperability with over 20 different SRT enabled devices from a variety of market-leading encoding and content delivery systems. The latest Wirecast release was used as a live video contribution source via the SRT protocol.

“This is great news for customers looking to either monitor or contribute video over SRT, which has become an emerging standard for anyone delivering live video over public internet and cloud backplanes,” said Kenneth Haren, Director of Product Management at Telestream.

You can find the Press Release here.

Learn more about Telestream here.

COST

I normally start out with cost right off the bat, as I can write a whole review, just to turn people off with the price at the end.  There are two versions of Wirecast.  The Studio version and the Pro version.  We’ll be talking about the Studio version in this article, and you can check out the additional features for the Pro version in the image below.

For the most part, what you’re looking at with the Pro version is 7 remote guests via Wirecast Rendezvous guest conferencing, Pan/Tilt/Zoom camera control, audio effects, instant replays and virtual studios in the Pro version, as well as some advanced output options.  To be honest, the biggest feature is the ISO records, but something that’s very important for me to point out about this is that the ISO feed records are for hard wired source feeds only, and doesn’t apply to Wirecast Rendezvous feeds.  If you’re looking at having more than two guests (standard with the Studio version), then definitely look at the Pro Version.  The cost difference is $599 for the Studio version and $799 for the Pro version, so as you can see the upgrade from Studio to Pro version won’t break the bank.  I also want to point out there there is an upgrade path that’s not readily apparent from the Telestream website, but you can find on resellers pages like Videoguys.  To upgrade the Studio version from versions 4-7 to current will run you $299 and to upgrade the pro version from the same, 4-7 to current will run you $399.

WHAT IS WIRECAST?

For those of you who don’t know, Wirecast is designed to be, basically, a production hub for you to create live productions that will be output to file, or directly to the web, based on your needs.  Whether you’re looking for just a straight three camera cut and dissolve production, all the way up to 12 (or even more) camera, full graphics packages (lower thirds, etc), audio mixes and multiple output destinations I’ll use the example that I had earlier of a church service.  So, with COVID (at least here in Toronto, Canada), churches have been shut down, but offer live web services every Sunday streamed live to YouTube.  Wirecast gives users the ability to do this.  Simply take the output of the sources (sources include video, audio, screen capture, USB, Capture Cards, NDI, iOS, IP and web stream sources), and cut or dissolve them together, producing a “finished” product that can be recorded live to tape, or even live to the web, for their audience to see.  Start your productions as basic as you need, and scale them up from there.  Add text, titles, utilize Chroma key, along with social media integration (Twitter comment curation and display, integrated Facebook Polling, live viewer counts, etc) and even an integrated Stock Media Library.  It’s really very easy to get yourself up and running with Wirecast.  I have used Wirecast for live Press Junkets and was really happy with the quality of the end product, and it really didn’t take that much of a learning curve to get me up and running.  With all that said, there is a new version of Wirecast, so let’s see what Telestream has updated it with.

WHAT’S NEW IN VERSION 14

• All new Chroma Key (with special guests Luma Key and Color Key)
  • New options for more accurate keying, including spill suppression, edge coloring, and clipping ranges. Plus a Luma Key (useful if you have a logo with a white or black background you wish to remove), and Color key (useful for images (logos) that have non-black and non-white backgrounds).
• Better, more reliable incoming video source connections
  • Improved reliability for Wirecast Go, Rendezvous and webstream sources, plus efficiency improvements with GPU decoding for NDI sources
• Text and font improvements
  • Smoother text scrolling and a new font picker to select font variants
• More options when sources get disconnected
  • When a source gets disconnected, you can now choose to replace it with transparency or a custom image
• Improved ability to size and scale sources
  • We’ve added new options for sizing and scaling sources, making it easier to precisely size your videos and images on the canvas. Plus, incoming sources are now scaled automatically, and will maintain their size based on settings you choose.
• Latency and syncing improvements
  • We’ve made improvements to – and we’ve also given you more control over – the way incoming audio and video are synced together, ensuring more accurate lip-sync.
• Updated technologies
  • Updated to NDI 4.5, ported OpenGL to Metal on macOS, updated webstream plugin (libVLC), for improved connectivity and efficiency
• Better notifications and stats
  • The status bar is now moved to the bottom of the screen, giving more space to show System CPU and App CPU, as well as other streaming stats.

For me, the biggest improvement has come with Wirecast Rendezvous and Wirecast Go (the iPhone/Android app that remote guests would download and log into, to connect to your live broadcast) as it seems to be much more stable and more reliable now, than it was in the past.  If you’re planning on having “special guests” in your broadcast, this is absolutely essential.  There would be days where I would constantly have connection issues and other days I wouldn’t and  the team seems to have resolved now, and to go hand in hand with that, I really like that they have added better options when someone gets disconnected by accident.  I can now have a logo, or “Please Stand By” or something pop up when a feed is lost.  Very nice!  I’m also glad to see that they have updated Chroma key (which I’ll be honest, I don’t use much).  Anytime a chroma key is added to any application, it needs to have all the standard bells and whistles that editors and compositors are accustomed to like spill suppression, clipping ranges, etc.  The fact that they have added in a Luma Keyer is great.  I’m going to make myself sound super old, but I remember the days where we were keying our logos on a table with camera above it, and the fact that we don’t need to mess around, and can do quick keys on black and white logos is great.  What’s important for the developers of Wirecast to keep in mind is that they need to treat Wirecast like it’s a production truck, and upgrade each of the features of the “truck” to match what we’d find out there on the big productions.  I’m not saying go crazy, but if you’re going to add a Keyer, give me all the options of a keyers.

With all this being said, there are still a few things I’m not overly happy with, with Wirecast, so let’s talk about that now.

WHAT’S STILL NOT WORKING

For me, the biggest problem with Wirecast is the ISO’s.  First of all, they are only included in the Pro version.  I’m fine with you limiting how many ISO’s I can record, but give me a couple in the Studio version that I can work with, and then if I need more, open that up in the Pro version.  Also, and I’m sure this is probably a technical limitation of Wirecast but, especially with Wirecast Rendezvous (where I can have remote guests log into my production), give me the ability to ISO them.  That’s a big deal, and currently the only ISO’s you can do in Wirecast is with hard patched sources like cameras/etc.  Most of my guests come in via Rendezvous, and having the ability to ISO them would make my life a heck of a lot easier!

UPDATE:

Soooo……through the powers of the internet, the Wirecast Product Manager Lynn Elliott reached out, as well as commenting on this article to let me/us know that there is a new “.1” beta version of Wirecast 14 that does give you the ability to ISO record your Rendezvous streams, which is totally AWESOME news!

Thanks for the review, Kevin. I’m excited to mention that version 14.1 is in Beta, and has a new feature called “Shot ISO”. This enables you to independently record any shot in your document, including Rendezvous shots, audio-only shots or any other shots you create in your document. The latest beta can be downloaded from the Telestream Forum site here: https://telestreamforum.forumbee.com/t/x2hmg4y/14-1-beta-november-16-2020

CONCLUSION

I like Wirecast, and this update is no exception.  The issues I have with it are all very minor.  If you haven’t used it up until this point (version 14), it  has really been fleshed out to be an all-in-one production package that can even be hardware upgraded, if you’re really serious about it.  Most of the new features that are being added in the subsequent versions are “overhauls” to existing features to make them even better than they have been in the past.  If you’re looking to start broadcasting productions directly to the web, or even to files on your computer to upload at a later time, Wirecast is the tool to get your rolling!  You can start out super simple like I did, and then add cameras, title’s, backgrounds, separate sources and so much more over time, and take your simple “home” productions and turn them into professional looking web streams.  For more information, or to download a free trial of Wirecast 14, you can click on the link included here!

Read the original article here!

Learn more about Telestream here!

Learn more about Wirecast here!

The latest update of Microsoft Teams now supports NDI! In this 5 minute tutorial learn how easy it is to bring in Teams guests as separate sources into Wirecast via NDI. Great Job!

Watch this webinar we did about 2020 updates with Wirecast right here!

Learn more about Telestream here

Wirecast Gear gives you an easy to use, fully configured live video streaming production system. Because we’ve already done all the work, there is no need to build your own system! Start streaming in minutes with an end-to-end system configured specifically for your needs. With Wirecast Pro included alongside Gear’s custom-designed hardware, it’s a live event production switcher, live news production system, Facebook Live switcher and YouTube Live switcher – all in one box.

Each model of Wirecast Gear comes with Xeon Server architecture, up to five HD-SDI or four HDMI professional camera inputs and all the live video streaming production features of Wirecast Pro, the Stock Media Library*, NewBlue Titler Live Complete, and Switch Player, all in a compact, powerful hardware system.

Wirecast Gear offers a unique blend of performance, ease of use and affordability. Just plug in your cameras and start producing and streaming your professional events with the industry-leading turnkey video production system.

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