POSTED BY

Xeni Jardin

AT 9:31 AM
Thursday April 30, 2009

Reviews

BB Video review: Tricaster, and the Future of Live Video Online


(Download MP4, or watch on YouTube.) In today's episode of Boing Boing Video, we review the Tricaster, a compact device that facilitates high-quality live internet video broadcast production for a lot less dough than the equivalent amount of traditional TV production gear.

A number of web video productions are now using the Tricaster, including Leo Laporte's TWIT.tv, and Mahalo's newly launched Kevin Pollak chat show. I visited the Kevin Pollak set this week to view the device in action with BBV editor Wes Varghese and Richard Metzger. Metzger has also been experimenting with live-to-hard-drive production (= tape his interview show using the Tricaster, then it's ready to go as a produced piece without a lot of editing.).

What interested me most about the device was the possibility of changing the economics of live video online. The Tricaster costs about $10K, and just renting a satellite truck full of switching gear and engineers for conventional live production costs a hell of a lot more - like, start adding zeroes.

So, the possibilities I see are much like the possibilities we began to see for web video 10 years ago, when digital video cameras suddenly became a lot more affordable, and video editing software became cheaper, more widely distributed, and a lot easier to use. Bottom line: more live video, in more of it the hands of people who wouldn't be producing live video otherwise.

Newtek, the company that makes the Tricaster, loaned Boing Boing Video a review unit and we're going to be doing some experiments soon.

Below, and after the jump, some screengrabs from backstage video I shot on the Kodak zi6. The featured guest on this installment of the Kevin Pollak show was Jon Hamm of Mad Men. Diggnation/Totally Rad Show/Project Lore star Alex Albrecht was also in the house, as was George Ruiz of ICM, who shot some nicer photos here. Kevin Pollak show crew notes: Alex Miller was running the TriCaster. Kenny Chen was the floor director, Josh Negrin is sitting next to Alex at the Mac Pro and Jason McIntyre is sitting at the 2 iMacs.





RSS feed for new episodes here, YouTube channel here, subscribe on iTunes here. Get Twitter updates every time there's a new ep by following @boingboingvideo, and here are blog post archives for Boing Boing Video.

(Special thanks to Philip Nelson of NewTek, to Jason Calacanis, and to Boing Boing's video hosting partner Episodic.)

Sponsor shout-out: This Boing Boing Video episode is sponsored by WEPC.com, in partnership with Intel and Asus. WePC.com is a site where users come together to "share ideas, images and inspiration about the ideal PC." Participants' designs, feature ideas and community feedback will be evaluated by ASUS and "could influence the blueprint for an actual notebook PC built by ASUS with Intel inside."
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7 Comments

oddharmonix

#1 – 11:27 AM April 30, 2009

This looks like an updated version of the Trinity Play system from 8 or so years ago. The integrated audio, dvr and network connection are nice. with some scrounging and tech knowledge one could get up and running on a used trinity system for a lot less I think.

oddharmonix

#2 – 11:28 AM April 30, 2009

One more thing... will it do HD video?

Xeni Jardin

#3 – 11:45 AM April 30, 2009

@oddharmonix, I believe they're coming out with an HD version.

freetardzero

#4 – 2:54 PM April 30, 2009

OK, fancy box. Newtek's gear is definitely top-drawer. But I'd hesitate to call it the future of live online video. I'd prefer to award that designation to a product like Boinx's BoinxTV, or ChannelStorm, another software-only studio replacement. Why would I spend 10 large on an appliance, when for $400 I can do it with software? Even if I have to buy a dedicated Mac Pro (which I wouldn't), I'd still be ahead cash. BoinxTV will do everything that's needed for live content broadcasting, including stream to viewers or reflect off a dedicated server. Multiple cameras? Yep- no real limit, just whatever your hardware will handle. Input anything you want to it- graphics, audio, local video files; chroma-key, over-the-shoulder, titles, animations; stream an rss feed across the bottom like a stock ticker. Output to hard drive, DV, web...

Obviously, it's going to have a few less bells and whistles than something like the Tricaster (or the Toaster before it), but for the money, I'd bet that anyone other than large media companies would do just fine with something like BoinxTV. And no, I don't work for them, but I have it, and love it!

Anonymous Anonymous

#5 – 12:48 PM May 1, 2009

I am a media consultant for many companies and the box certainly has its place. It is good. Not great. Certainly not a panacea. It is not good for broadcast quality but web or internal communications it works well. Definitely not for everyone. God help you if you need to be flexible during a show.

I have some clients that produce medium non-broadcast video where quality is not an issue. These types of boxes, there are about ten different ones to choose from, are good inexpensive solutions. Additional savings can be had with the right person running the box. You can reduce traditional crew sizes by 40 to 70 percent.

Strangepork

#6 – 12:50 AM May 3, 2009

The Tricaster is cool, we just used one to stream a sporting event live, while capturing to tape and hard drive in HD. It all went smooth, you just have to get your network settings all happy.

Anonymous Anonymous

#7 – 9:16 AM May 4, 2009

It's a great overview, but it leaves out just about everything you need to know. Of course can't tell you how a picture looks, and how well a ayatem works the more you "push it". Tricaster seems to have 18 video inputs in 6 banks, and if you try to use them all, what happens? It has 4 audio inputs, which is fine much of the time, but not always. I mean, this looks like a great tool for recording small-venue music and art performances, but you'd need a dedicated sound team for that.
I don't really DO live broadcasts or webcasts, but a tool like this could be incredibly useful for multi-camera shoots, but only if the picture is good, if the engineer can tweak the video inputs, if the audio is of excellent quality, and the system can store all the data I need.
I can't see that the system is expandable in terms of drivespace, but I imagine there's a way.
So basically, I need a local demonstration... sigh... just like every other tool we use...

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