TriCaster STUDIO, VT[5]

[ACross]

[Cross posted from the TriCaster Forums]

: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

[ACross]

:vticon: Dear VT users,

First of all, let me take this opportunity once again to apologize for the delay of VT[5]; this was absolutely not the intent when we announced the product more than a year ago. I know that the wait has been painful, but I truly believe that in the time that has passed since then what was a cool upgrade to VT has become probably the single biggest update since the original VT.

If we turn the clocks back to last year's NAB, we first talked about VT[5]. At that time our plans for the product where to include SpeedEDIT and upgrade our live switching overlay capabilities within VT[5]. Given that SpeedEDIT is by far, the most significant overhaul to our non linear editor that we have made in it's entire life (with the addition of resolution independence, real-time HD, MPEG, etc... etc...) and we where aiming to resolve the single biggest limitation of our switcher, this was really a significant advance for our VT product, and one that we where already very excited about.

When we were well into the SpeedEDIT product cycle, we made an invention that allowed us to implement a real-time virtual sets system unrivaled by almost anyone in the industry. This involved a fundamental change, and rewrite of the entire way we process video inside our VT and TriCaster real-time environment. This discovery was so exciting to us because we believe that it changes the entire mind-set in which our products can function, and brings totally new capabilities to a price point and level that simply was not possible before. Our goal at this point was to find a way to get it into our product line so that you gain the benefits just as soon as is physically possible. rather than waiting until a product far down our road map is released, we decided that the best thing both for NewTek and customers would be to integrate it into the next upgrade, VT[5], even though this might delay the product somewhat. For the TriCaster family, we designed and integrated this technology into the TriCaster STUDIO. To apologize as best we can for the delay we have given all pre-order customers a number of gifts, including two full extra seats of SpeedEDIT and a music library; but the real reason to be excited is that ultimately you are getting a VT[5] product that exceeds what we originally announced by such a large factor that it is not in the same league. Indeed, the current list of new features is over 6 pages long ... watch this space for the details of this over the coming weeks.

Given that TriCaster STUDIO and VT[5] share the same basic technology, reaching this milestone is significant not just for the TriCaster product line, but also because it means that the core attributes of the most complex new VT[5] components have gone through testing and are now in TriCaster STUDIO, a shipping product. The VT[5] implementation is somewhat more sophisticated than the TriCaster STUDIO (for instance you can assign a virtual set effect, or up-stream key to all of the 24 switcher inputs simultaneously) and we are getting close. In my view, this is going to be a very cool product ... and I hope you agree it’s well worth the wait !

As is always the case, if you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to drop me an email.

Best regards,

Andrew Cross, Ph.D, :alien:
Sr. VP of Software Development, NewTek, Inc.
www.newtek.com

[lwaddict]

Thank you guys for the updates and special thanks for addressing the VT5 thing...I've been wondering what was going on. But the VR Sets have me intrigued as I've been using Ultra for awhile now, but that's all after the fact rendering. This may be a very kewl year.

[kleima]

Andrew,

I sounds exciting! I can hardly wait! Actually, our next major project will require virtual sets. We had been looking at Serious Magic Ultra, but now we are going to be able to do it right in VT[5]!
Thanks for the update!

[mzafrany]

Dear Andrew,

I am exited about VT [5]. From what I saw on TC-ST there are several virtual settings you can have on the same source (like different zoon levels). Can we assign multiple instances of the same input, each with different virtual set setting, to different switcher input? This is needed so we can switch using the RS-8 or even use the T-bar between 2 sets settings on the same source.

I can think of 2 ways to have this.

1) Allowing assigning the same source to several switcher inputs and assigning a different effect to each switcher input.
2) Treat each virtual set setting as a new video input (C1aE2 will be composite 1a with effect setting 2).

Will there be multiple DSK support in VT [5]? We need this to have a station logo with some CG on the same screen.

:)

[Rich Deustachio]

As a follow-up to the multiple DSK question, does this give VT5 editor (SE) the ability to have DVEs that can warp two sources at the same time? This was another very old feature request of VT2.

[ACross]

As a follow-up to the multiple DSK question, does this give VT5 editor (SE) the ability to have DVEs that can warp two sources at the same time? This was another very old feature request of VT2.

VT[5] is going to ship with SpeedEDIT 1.2. SpeedEDIT does however have it's own engineering team, so continued progress on that component is no longer subject to other projects that we have ongoing. This is already visible, we release a 1.2 of SpeedEDIT, previously this would have had to coincide with a corresponding VT release.

[NVentive]

We've been working our way into the "converging media" markets for a while, and suspect these new Newtek developments are going to be huge for us. We are routinely stumbling across new opportunities for our studio in this 'brave new world' (yeah, we're showing our age, too, with a reference like that) and suspect that a new forum, perhaps linked to the job opps page, might be a good way for people to share things they've found that will open up new earning avenues for fellow users.
For instance -- by using ustream.tv and talkshoe.com, you can run a great live interactive broadcast session with no bandwidth bill at the end. With a simple embed code, you can drop the broadcast on your client's page. You can run live video, roll packages from ddr's, do powerpoint, take live phone calls, and run a chat room all at the same time. What's more, ustream can record it as a flash so it can become a VOD for your client after you're done. Adding V sets to that will be awesome., but ustream crops and that might be a challenge.
Also -- is anyone doing wellcomemat.com? We just sold a whole series of home-related info shows that will have the video played in really cool tabed flash - for free- on the clients page. By not spending money on video hosting, he can spend more with us.
Newtek is giving us some really great new tools -- should we have a space to discuss how we can plug this in to the new technology of distribution and earn an extra buck or three?

[tfrank]

VT[5] is going to ship with SpeedEDIT 1.2. SpeedEDIT does however have it's own engineering team, so continued progress on that component is no longer subject to other projects that we have ongoing. This is already visible, we release a 1.2 of SpeedEDIT, previously this would have had to coincide with a corresponding VT release. Does that mean "yes" to the previously quoted question?

[kleima]

Can SE 1.2 warp 2 sources at a time?

[ScorpioProd]

I translate Andrew's response to mean:

You don't see it in SE 1.2, and SE 1.2 is what is in VT[5], so therefore:

No.

No, SE 1.2 can't warp two sources at once, that's not something the DVE engine can do. The DVEs in SE are basically the DVEs in VT[4], just rerendered or modified to support all resolutions.

[tfrank]

No.

Bummer!

[Rich Deustachio]

Well this is what I don't understand....you guys can get it to warp two sources in real time live, but you can't get SE to do it in post. Seem to me getting it to do it live would be harder to achieve.

So basically there are no surprises for VT5, what you see in SE 1.2 is what you get in VT5.

[creach]

....you guys can get it to warp two sources in real time live, but you can't get SE to do it in post. Seem to me getting it to do it live would be harder to achieve.

Altho the NewTek philosophy seems to support as many different useage modes as possible, your statement nicely wraps up the feelings of the folks that use this amazing box exclusively for post, like us.

Just my 2¢
Dan

[SBowie]

Well this is what I don't understand....you guys can get it to warp two sources in real time live, but you can't get SE to do it in post. I'm not entirely sure I am clear on what it is you would like to do but find you can't - could you give a specific example, please?

[tfrank]

I'm not entirely sure I am clear on what it is you would like to do but find you can't - could you give a specific example, please?
Not speaking for Rich and knowing little about SE, but my wish/desire is to have a DVE beteen alpha sources like CGs. It's something that has been on many users wish lists for sometime.

[SBowie]

Sure, and I agree ... but that doesn't seem to fit the 'warp two sources' remark I'm trying to follow. Thanks, though!

[Rich Deustachio]

When VT2 was released Eric Pratt was making DVEs for it and said he couldn't make two source DVEs, for example your on screen video pulls back and is on a box, the box turns and the next source is on that side of the box and comes full screen. Not saying that is the specific effect I want, just that having the ability to warp two sources opens up a whole other door when it comes to DVEs and effects.

I am not trying to down VT5 or SE, I just wanted to know if VT5s version of SE was exactly the same as the freestanding SE, or if because VT5 costs so much more it included an upgraded version of SE, like SEVT or something on those lines. Since there was this fantastic breakthrough and that caused the delay of VT5.

I guess not from Andrew Cross' response.

[SBowie]

... for example your on screen video pulls back and is on a box, the box turns and the next source is on that side of the box and comes full screen. Not saying that is the specific effect I want, just that having the ability to warp two sources opens up a whole other door when it comes to DVEs and effects.I see. Well, maybe I can help by explaining a couple of things.

First, until this point it remains true that a DVE (as implemented in VT[x]) cannot manipulate two sources in realtime in the manner you describe above. On the other hand, setting aside LiveSet type effects for a moment, are you aware that you can already move, stretch, scale, fade (etc.) countless video clips simultaneously in VT-EDIT (with a similar end result)?

In versions up to 4.6, there would be no way to do that in the Switcher using two (or more) live sources because of the aforementioned limitations of DVE's ... but it's a long time since this prevented you from performing multiple simultaneous transformations in the editor.

Now, returning to the Switcher for a moment -- presuming VT[5]'s implementation of the LiveSet technology doesn't differ too radically from TC-STUDIO's variant, a lot of new ability is coming our way. For example, LiveSet effects designed to do so can take advantage of multiple Switcher sources - unlike DVEs.

On the other hand, to date these are static effects - in the nature of, for example, a pre-configured over-the-shoulder shot ... or multiple sources mapped on 'virtual' screens. They are not transitions per se, as DVE's are - although you can use DVE's to switch from one LiveSet configured shot to another. (Hope that last bit didn't confuse too much!)

I just wanted to know if VT5s version of SE was exactly the same as the freestanding SE, or if because VT5 costs so much more it included an upgraded version of SE, like SEVT or something on those lines. Since there was this fantastic breakthrough and that caused the delay of VT5.I am not expecting there to be an integration of LiveSet technology into the version of SE embedded in VT[5], though apparently there is some thought of just that for the future (which would be exceedingly cool, as LS can do a lot more than virtual sets - not that the latter isn't already impressive.)

Even without that, though, integrating SE into the VT environment will bring numerous other benefits - and the LiveSet features can be accessed via the Switcher and recorded in realtime where that might be useful (this is true even for those who lack an SX-8 / 84, as multiple DDRs and the Editor can serve as Switcher sources.)

Hope this clarifies things a bit - I realize you're not trying to poke holes, and am just trying to discern and assist with your point.

[lwaddict]

With regards to virtual sets...

Will we be able to create our own?

[SBowie]

Yes. It seems there will be several incarnations of LiveSet creation tools. The simplest is very easy to use, though it lacks some of the advanced abilities of the more sophisticated tools.

[John Perkins]

I just wanted to know if VT5s version of SE was exactly the same as the freestanding SE, or if because VT5 costs so much more it included an upgraded version of SE, like SEVT or something on those lines.

The SpeedEDIT in VT5 is almost exactly SE1.2 with a few changes here and there to better integrate with VT. For example, the Voiceover feature uses the VT/SX for audio input instead of a sound card.

I think what you are missing is that LiveSets are not DVE's and do not have the functionality to replace DVEs. LiveSets are upstream of the switcher and modify incoming video. It's not and either/or situation, DVE's can be applied to an input that has a LiveSet.

Could we see LiveSet technology in SpeedEDIT in the future? Yes, it's great stuff and I'd love to have it everywhere. The SpeedEDIT team has full access to this code and if it makes sense in a post environment, it's up to their product planning. Right now it is very much tailored to a live environment.


I know that this feature is mainly thought of as virtual sets, but that's really just the tip of the iceberg. It is a general purpose processing engine that is so powerful that the first obvious use was as a world class virtual set engine.

Think about that: The first obvious use was to do something so hard that it normally takes several $10,000 boxes to handle it and often not nearly as well. :devil:

Pretty much anything you can think of can be done in real-time. The hardest thing is being creative enough to keep up. In two years, I have no idea what uses people will have come up with, but I guarantee you that it is open-ended enough to handle it.

[ACross]

VT5 costs so much more it included an upgraded version of SE, like SEVT or something on those lines. Since there was this fantastic breakthrough and that caused the delay of VT5.

I am not quite sure I follow this comment. The VT[5] upgrade only costs $595 compared to a SpeedEDIT cost of $495 ... and for the $595 you get a free copy of SpeedEDIT in addition all the other tools included with VT ... Live switching, effects, ddrs, Aura, Lightwave, etc... etc...

[Rich Deustachio]

Initial cost to purchase not the upgrade cost. If someone was to purchase either VT5 or SE standalone is what I was referring to.

Don't get me wrong I am not bashing SE or VT5, I just wanted to clear up some misconceptions that some users had that VT5s editor was going to include features that standalone SE doesn't have.

NewTek has to see the editor only customers side. When you guys justify the delay of VT5 with the fantastic breakthrough (which I am sure it is) of new found technology that makes live switching more powerful, while us loyal VT editors are still waiting for VT2 editing requests. I realize SE has added features like HD editing etc. but still lacks many of the requested features that are standard in even the lowest end editors.

It's just a little frustrating and makes me question whether I made the right choice in staying with VT as my main editor.

[billmi]

Initial cost to purchase not the upgrade cost. If someone was to purchase either VT5 or SE standalone is what I was referring to...

NewTek has to see the editor only customers side.

I think they did, by making the editing solution available stand-alone and resolution independent while remaining realtime.

New customers now can buy just NewTek's editing solution without having to buy the hardware, 3D package, paint/animation package, and live switching package with it.

That costs a whole lot less for the editing only customers.

[tfrank]

NewTek has to see the editor only customers side. When you guys justify the delay of VT5 with the fantastic breakthrough (which I am sure it is) of new found technology that makes live switching more powerful, while us loyal VT editors are still waiting for VT2 editing requests. I realize SE has added features like HD editing etc. but still lacks many of the requested features that are standard in even the lowest end editors.
Just to further "beat the drum" on this issue, I completely agree.

[creach]

NewTek has to see the editor only customers side. ...I realize SE has added features like HD editing etc. but still lacks many of the requested features that are standard in even the lowest end editors.

Ditto.

Don't get me wrong, NewTek. You folks offer *The Best* bang for your buck in comparison to ANY other NLE, altho your box is infinitely more than an NLE.

Dan

[Adam_LightPlay]

As Steve B. said, you can do just about anything with an unlimited number of layer of video in the Editor, going all the way back to VT-2.
However, in post, if you want easy pre-made ways to map and warp multipule video channels onto boxes, balls, screens, etc. Check our 3D Arsenal from NewTek and our old friends Don And Ralph.

[Keith Nealy]

The VT[5] implementation is somewhat more sophisticated than the TriCaster STUDIO... and we are getting close. In my view, this is going to be a very cool product ... and I hope you agree it’s well worth the wait !

This seems to indicate that VT5 will still take a while longer (Just how long?) to implement as there is no schedule hinted at.

Also, with all these new high power virtual set tools what is going to be the new minimum system requirement to handle all this?

I recommend waiting till this system actually is shipping before you upgrade your computer. I made this mistake with a previous announcement of SpeedEdit and then had to wait as my computer became "old technology" before SE even shipped. Had I waited I could have bought the next version for less than I paid for the older version.

I'll get more excited when this actually ships. Been there, done that.

aloha,

Keith