We have been looking at the options for mixing/switching/streaming/recording Techcast Focus and some new shows in the planning phase. We had been looking at:
Newtek Tricaster – Great hardware solution but expensive (on our current budget)
BoinxTV – Mac based solution
Vidblaster – Windows based solution.
We had also looked at a product called Wirecast from Telestream. But after an initial look earlier in the year we had dismissed it as being too ‘simple’. However we came across many people who were using it so went back to have another look. We also found out that there was a beta underway for a new version (4).
Wirecast is available for Windows or Mac so we downloaded the mac free trial (a watermarked version) of Wirecast 3.5 and have been playing around with it for the last couple of weeks. Then this week Wirecast 4 was announced, which while not a visually significant upgrade for the standard version does now give an option to upgrade to a Pro version with interesting features such as virtual sets.
We found that Wirecast not only could do what we needed but also seemed to be more processor efficient than BoinxTV. Using it for ‘real’ will be the real test but we feel sufficiently confident that we have taken the plunge and purchased the standard version and will be using it for a new, non tech related, series of podcasts. Will let you know how we get on! We will also do a Techcast Focus episode on how we are using Wirecast 4 for the new show.
You can checkout Wirecast 4 here.
Mark
