ACross
07-27-2007, 04:41 PM
:tcicon: Fellow NewTek users,
I am sure that many of you have been following this closely, but as you might have noticed, yesterday we sent out the press release announcing the shipping of TriCaster STUDIO and at the same time put the updates to our web site live.
I am probably showing my age by writing this, but I have been at NewTek quite a long time, and I cannot count the number of products that I have worked on in that period; when I reflect on that, I truly believe that TriCaster STUDIO (and VT[5] which is based on the same basic revision of our technology) are likely the ones that I am the most proud of. If you do no more than take a look at the feature list alone it is an impressive product, a single 16lb box can do everything that you need for a 6 camera live production, including having individual keying and virtual sets on every input with virtual camera zoom and which can be transitioned between. It has two VCRs, titling, VGA input, hundreds of transitions and can output to a monitor, the web and VGA all simultaneously while recording everything back to disk! All of this can be controlled by a single person and set up in just a few minutes.
Taking a step back however, I think that TriCaster STUDIO (and VT[5]) have far more potential than their features alone might indicate. It has long been the case that the use of multi-camera, high quality, virtual sets have been outside the realm of live production for everyone other than the high end parts of the market. Even if you did manage to put together a system that could put you into a virtual environment, you where subject to severe limitations like needing an entire system for every camera input, or not being able to perform transitions between different camera angles that might not even have had secondary video sources in them and once you look at breaking these limitations you are starting to talk big money.
The irony here is that the use of virtual environments strikes me as something that is needed far more by everyday live production than by the elite high end; it is after all the people who do not have the time, money, man-power or space to set up elaborate environments to work with that can benefit the most from this technology. Our virtual set products bring this capability to a reality by assigning individual sets onto each input of the switcher, in effect this means that with a TriCaster STUDIO you have 9 completely independent channels of matte generation and virtual set integration (Cameras 1-6, VCR 1-2, VGA input) that can be seen on the preview bus before taking them live, transitioned between and generally treated like you have 9 complete external systems up-stream from your switcher. What’s more, all of this, costs less than one might have paid previously for just a single channel system.
Last but not least, (and close to my heart since I worked on this) the quality of our effects are truly unrivaled by other systems no matter what the price. We can render reflections, refractions, bump maps, shadows, radiosity, high quality video scaling, and much much more. We already provide you with an easy way to personalize your own sets and are working on making it even easier to build and design “full” sets without needing a saw and hammer.
For those of you that have followed our company over the years, you will know that our mission statement has always been about breaking down the barriers that have been built up to keep true high quality live video production from becoming the norm. In our early days we adopted “revolution” as our marketing message and I think that with the combined forces of live streaming, virtual sets and the other benefits that these products will give you, we have never come closer to that goal than now.
I hope that you share my excitement. If you have any questions or comments for me, please do not hesitate to drop me an email.
Andrew Cross, Ph.D, :alien:
Sr. VP of Software Development, NewTek, Inc.
www.newtek.com
I am sure that many of you have been following this closely, but as you might have noticed, yesterday we sent out the press release announcing the shipping of TriCaster STUDIO and at the same time put the updates to our web site live.
I am probably showing my age by writing this, but I have been at NewTek quite a long time, and I cannot count the number of products that I have worked on in that period; when I reflect on that, I truly believe that TriCaster STUDIO (and VT[5] which is based on the same basic revision of our technology) are likely the ones that I am the most proud of. If you do no more than take a look at the feature list alone it is an impressive product, a single 16lb box can do everything that you need for a 6 camera live production, including having individual keying and virtual sets on every input with virtual camera zoom and which can be transitioned between. It has two VCRs, titling, VGA input, hundreds of transitions and can output to a monitor, the web and VGA all simultaneously while recording everything back to disk! All of this can be controlled by a single person and set up in just a few minutes.
Taking a step back however, I think that TriCaster STUDIO (and VT[5]) have far more potential than their features alone might indicate. It has long been the case that the use of multi-camera, high quality, virtual sets have been outside the realm of live production for everyone other than the high end parts of the market. Even if you did manage to put together a system that could put you into a virtual environment, you where subject to severe limitations like needing an entire system for every camera input, or not being able to perform transitions between different camera angles that might not even have had secondary video sources in them and once you look at breaking these limitations you are starting to talk big money.
The irony here is that the use of virtual environments strikes me as something that is needed far more by everyday live production than by the elite high end; it is after all the people who do not have the time, money, man-power or space to set up elaborate environments to work with that can benefit the most from this technology. Our virtual set products bring this capability to a reality by assigning individual sets onto each input of the switcher, in effect this means that with a TriCaster STUDIO you have 9 completely independent channels of matte generation and virtual set integration (Cameras 1-6, VCR 1-2, VGA input) that can be seen on the preview bus before taking them live, transitioned between and generally treated like you have 9 complete external systems up-stream from your switcher. What’s more, all of this, costs less than one might have paid previously for just a single channel system.
Last but not least, (and close to my heart since I worked on this) the quality of our effects are truly unrivaled by other systems no matter what the price. We can render reflections, refractions, bump maps, shadows, radiosity, high quality video scaling, and much much more. We already provide you with an easy way to personalize your own sets and are working on making it even easier to build and design “full” sets without needing a saw and hammer.
For those of you that have followed our company over the years, you will know that our mission statement has always been about breaking down the barriers that have been built up to keep true high quality live video production from becoming the norm. In our early days we adopted “revolution” as our marketing message and I think that with the combined forces of live streaming, virtual sets and the other benefits that these products will give you, we have never come closer to that goal than now.
I hope that you share my excitement. If you have any questions or comments for me, please do not hesitate to drop me an email.
Andrew Cross, Ph.D, :alien:
Sr. VP of Software Development, NewTek, Inc.
www.newtek.com