Useful features of the 460/860 upgrade for the sports producer

NewTek recently released an upgrade for the 455 and 855 TriCasters. Many owners of these machines can do a simple software upgrade but machines that  started out life as an 450 or 850 and were later software upgraded to x55 status will need a more expensive hardware upgrade instead. Contact Digital Arts (1-800-692-6442) for details.

The update includes hundreds of new features and improvements. In fact almost every part of the software was touched by the update. But which features are most useful to the live sports producer? Well, here's my list:

• Improved Workflow - It uses the new TriCaster 8000 style UI, once you use it you'll never want to go back.
• Still/Animation Buffers - You now have 10 still/title buffers plus 5 animation buffers to work with. So you don't need to tie up a DDR or other media player to do things like bugs and animated scoreboard graphics.
• Macros & Snapshots - Assign even the most complicated operations to a single button press. Or snapshot the state of the entire TriCaster for instant recall. This can greatly reduce the TD's workload and prevent on-air mistakes.
• M/E Auto-Play - Any media players or buffers used in an M/E mix will auto-play so you can switch to an M/E with no delay and with no fumbling to hit start on multiple media players.
• Preview M/E - You can now configure the on-screen previews to include the M/Es. This is an especially great feature for those using Livesets where you can actually see the set with the talent as it will appear on the output.
• Improved Audio Follow Video - Simplify even the most complex A/V setup by selecting any video source to automatically trigger the appropriate audio selection. Again this can reduce the TD's workload and prevent embarrassing mistakes.
• Audio Routing with Multiple Output Mixes - Independent routing of any channel from any input to any and all of the four audio output mixes. Provide mix minus, second language, or audio descriptions.
• Independent Audio Delay Settings - Compensate for any video delays up stream or down stream from the TriCaster.
• Social Media Publishing Support - Upload and publish stills and video clips to various social media sites with one click. This makes it simple to provide your viewers with a rich second screen experience just like the big guys.
• Mix/Effects Banks - Create full sub-mixes (transitions and overlays included) and send them to the aux out or even record them.
• Network Out - A full quality mpeg stream is available to external devices or other TriCasters. You can pretty simply view this on any computer using a free program called VLC.
• IP camera support - Use webcams as a source into a network input.

Special prices on the upgrade are available through October25th from Digital Arts. 1-800-692-6442.