At NAB 2012,
NewTek (Booth #SL5111) debuts a completely re-engineered line-up of TriCasters, including the TriCaster 8000, TriCaster 855 and TriCaster 455, all of which are designed to quickly and efficiently deliver live video to multiple platforms.
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NewTek CTO Andrew Cross
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"The producer of 30 years ago wouldn't recognize the world of production today," says NewTek CTO Andrew Cross. "The amount of content that needs to be produced is going up and up, and it's not just for broadcast but for so many new platforms.We started thinking what we could do to change production switchers to meet the needs of today's producers."
An ordinary switcher ingesting an 8-camera one hour show would take eight hours to ingest the material and at least 20 hours to edit it. "Imagine if you could produce that show live," says Cross. "Then it's real time and no editing is needed. The ability to record all inputs and output streams to disk is crucial. We believe if you have this ability, it's a game changer."
TriCaster 8000, which features a redesigned control surface is targeted at production and media publishing producers of large, complex events who need full integration of social media production tools. "This is our next generation product that takes this to a whole new level," says Cross. "The TriCaster 8000 allows you, while you're doing a live show, to push highlights to the website,
Facebook,
Twitter,
YouTube,
Flickr and wherever else you need to be. Fifty percent of people under the age of 26 are on Facebook while they're watching TV, so delivering the show and all of the parts of the show to these places, all at once, is increasingly important. With traditional switchers, people have to kludge it together."
This new system offers unlimited scalability with third-party router support, recordable macros that can be triggered simultaneously and extensive effects and graphics with eight M/E rows. Tricaster 8000 also features a "Share" panel for video clips, stills or batches of ISO-grabbed frames of the live show to be posted to a range of social media platforms or FTP-transferred to a directory, all in one pass.
The TriCaster 8000 will ship in Q3 of 2012 at a retail price of $39,995. Click on image to zoom.
The market for the TriCaster 8000 -- which will ship in Q3 of 2012 at a retail price of $39,995 -- is any kind of producer creating mid-sized productions. "I think our audience for this is far broader than users of professional production equipment," says Cross, who notes that more media is being created by more people and shared in more places.
The TriCaster 855 is available immediately for a retail price of $29,995. Click on image to zoom.
TriCaster 855 is a facilities-class system with 24-channel switching, inputs for up to eight cameras, five digital media players for video cips, graphics and titles and two network channels for sharing computer screens and displays from wireless iOS devices, with eight M/E style virtual inputs and three outputs. TriCaster 855 is available immediately for a retail price of $29,995.
The TriCaster 455 is also available immediately for a retail price of $19,995. Click on image to zoom.
TriCaster 455 is targeted at mobile producers who need similar capabilties but without concerns for location limitations. The system -- which is scaled to work in any restricted space -- includes a 14-channel switcher with four camera inputs and the production and graphics power to deliver a network-level show from almost any location. TriCaster 455 is also available immediately for a retail price of $19,995. TriCaster 455 and 855 are designed as the path forward for the former TriCaster 450 and TriCaster 850 lines.
"The ability to record all inputs with both the 455 and 855 are crucial," says Cross. "We think it's a game changer if you can produce the show live, making it real-time, with no editing needed. You can record and eight streams of video to disk with an 855, and be able to go back to the source footage if you get some of the edits wrong."
"We believe this blurs the line between live production and post," he concludes. "The traditional way of doing a show is to capture all the video and edit it afterwards, a long and laborious process. If you can do some significant part of that live, it's a huge win. We believe this really enables people to get shows produced much more quickly."
NewTek has taken a huge step in rethinking the production-post paradigm. That's a workflow that is changing dramatically in the worlds of feature film and TV production, so why not also in live production? In re-orienting its product line to put social media up front and center, NewTek is anticipating the coming era of Connected TVs and TV Everywhere. It's a bet that's sure to pay off.
Images courtesy of NewTek. Photo credits: Rob Roudabush
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