Television has taught us how live video production ought to look, and we generally accept that live video is a powerful communications medium, but professional live production tools are out of reach for most educational and enterprise organizations. NewTek upsets the economics of professional-class live video production without sacrificing functionality, and in so doing has made live video capabilities accessible to a whole new tier of the market.
A control room on your desk.
Back in the 1980s, NewTek invented desktop video production with a hardware-software combination for the Commodore Amiga called the Video Toaster. Now, San Antonio-based NewTek is back with the TriCaster, a $5,000 portable live video switcher for production of corporate videocasts or Webcasts. The TriCaster can switch inputs from three live cameras, prerecorded video, graphics, and still pictures. It can generate text overlays on-screen, provide a variety of transition effects, and mix audio inputs or accept audio from a standard mixer board. The system can be run either from a PC keyboard or an optional console that looks like a simplified version of a TV control-room switcher console. The TriCaster replaces several pieces of video-production gear, including a video switcher and the transcoder needed to convert standard video output for Webcasting. Total cost for such equipment used to run in the high five digits.
Digital technology has made video production cheaper, and a $5,000 box from NewTek compresses the functionality of a live TV production truck into a small, self-contained computer.
NewTek has created what may very well be the ultimate solution for churches needing a lot of power with a little price tag. At a suggested retail price of $4,995 the TriCaster suddenly opens the doors of video production to the majority of churches. I highly recommend your church demo one at a local dealer and see for yourself this new "killer app".
NewTek did what few manufacturers do when it comes to the church market: they listened. And then they made it.
TriCaster is a whole lot of video power stuffed into a 10 lbs. unit.
...video cueing enables the user to cue a video, transition to it from a live source, and transition back at the end of the clip - automatically with one button push! Yet more volunteer-proofing.
TriCaster, I believe, will help accelerate the adoption of Web Video applications across the board by making it simple to produce video content that has immediate and identifiable eye appeal.
Thank you so much NewTek! - the TriCaster just arrived and within 3 minutes out of the box, we've set it up to capture from our studio cameras, and a laptop as a test for our real shoot tomorrow! We are thrilled with its ease of use. Good stuff!
In these times, flexibility is key, not only for a professional, but also for a solution. NewTek has packed a lot of production power into a portable, versatile system.
NewTek has put together an incredibly powerful little package at an almost unbelievable price point. The live switching alone is probably worth the price of admission, but when you throw in video capture and editing, all in a portable form factor, you've got an incredibly useful tool at your disposal.
I am not easily impressed but I was blown away by what TriCaster brings to the Video creation table.
A television producer who writes for us replaced his $225,000 switcher with the $5,000 TriCaster and found the system could hold its own.
We were impressed with the “out of the box” experience we had with TriCaster. In little time we were switching between camcorders and capturing video clips for editing. The on-screen interface looks just like a studio switcher in a broadcast facility. Actually, it’s better because the computer interface displays thumbnails on the buttons, not just camera numbers.
TriCaster promises to fulfill the needs of a live truck.
If you’ve been looking for the perfect digital mixing and production solution for your church, school or corporate boardroom – TriCaster is for you!
Your productions will look like they came out of a production truck loaded with expensive gear.
NewTek really knows how to stream top-quality video to the web. With the press of one button, you have a dedicated output…so you can broadast directly from the TriCaster…There is so much included in this wonder box.
