Wirecast Now and Later
By Adam Noyes
Telestream recently released a great article on Wirecast and some popular applications that it fits into for streaming. The article includes house of worship, education and more. Check out some highlights, below.
Right now, the need for live streaming and the ability to be able to meet remotely is at an all-time high. Musicians are streaming live from their homes, teachers are presenting lectures, friends are doing on-line happy hours and the list goes on. But an important question to be asking is, what is the best way to get the information to your audience both now and in the future?
There are tons of great options for remote meetings, one, in particular, that is especially popular right now is Zoom (and yes, Wirecast integrates with Zoom). If you don’t already know, Zoom is a video conferencing software that allows people to either phone or video into an online meeting room. Once in the meeting room, people can conduct an online video conference call. It’s great for taking the place of everyday meetings while working remotely.
COVID-19 has created a need for workers to be able to communicate effectively while remote and the need arose almost immediately. The virus created a forced disruption of office culture, and while Zoom fits most people’s needs for the basics of office life, as remote work continues, people and companies may find themselves looking for more capabilities and different ways to reach their audiences.
Let’s use a real-life analogy from personal experience. A while back, I had a dishwasher that one day, mid-cycle, popped open. I needed the dishwasher to finish so water wasn’t just sitting in it, so we grabbed a mop, stuck it under the handle of the dishwasher and jammed it against the island forcing the door closed. I hate to admit, but this went on for much longer than it should have but it got the job done, it was a lot more cost-effective than replacing the dishwasher, but it was a bit annoying and definitely an eyesore. After months of using the ‘ol mop trick, we caved and bought a new dishwasher.
For some, you may be way smarter and be able to fix the dishwasher yourself or maybe you like the quirkiness of the mop. But for others, the time will come when you know there is something more for you out there.
That’s where Wirecast comes in. It’ll work for your needs now, whether you’re a teacher, House of Worship, artist, non-profit, government agency, broadcaster… you name it but will also scale up and meet your needs in the future. For example, national and local governments are using Wirecast for daily social media and online briefings for their citizens. The communications folks at these government entities wanted to have the extra production capabilities you get with Wirecast, so their broadcasts are more interesting and could contain graphics and titles.
To understand the functionality of Wirecast, it’s important to think of live-production broadcast in three parts:
- Pre-production
- Live production
- Distribution