Anyone still using wirecast?

Is there anyone out there that still uses wirecast? If there is, please post here so I can get a count.

[Raises hand] Just did yesterday for stake conference.

You used the words "still using". It hasn't been that long since Wirecast was a viable option. Is the church now moving away from using it?

I had hoped that wirecast would give us the ability to record. I've also wanted to have it be a backup for a failed VidiU teradeck streaming device. Is this no longer a supported streaming technology?

roblad wrote:I had hoped that wirecast would give us the ability to record.

It does, but probably not at the same time it's working on encoding an upload stream, unless you either reduce the quality or have a real monster of a PC.

roblad wrote:I've also wanted to have it be a backup for a failed VidiU teradeck streaming device.

Yup, or a good VidiU device, but they're having server-side issues. I had no problem configuring Wirecast to use the church's portal system; and for backup, in less than a minute I can recall a previously saved configuration and start streaming to the free YouTube Live servers. Text the URL to all the receive sites and you're be back on the air.

roblad wrote:Is this no longer a supported streaming technology?

That's my understanding. I was told the church negotiated some sort of bulk rate with Telestream for quite a few Wirecast 6 licenses. Up until about 3 weeks ago, these were available for stakes to buy in the LDS store, but it's no longer available. If a stake were to purchase a license, they would have to get it direct from Telestream, who offers a 10% discount to nonprofit groups. Although the mhtech website still has installation and ingestion settings for Wirecast, if you chose to use it, you're probably going to be on your own.

If someone is thinking about Wirecast, they offer a free, full functioning, "trial" version that has no expiration. They watermark both the video and audio, but it allows you to make full-up tests to the church's portal system and/or other streaming servers. If a license is later purchased, applying it simply removes the watermarks and retains all your saved settings from your testing sessions.

Wirecast is a production tool that can input audio, video, and graphics content from a number of sources. For live video, input will depend upon the capture hardware installed on your computer. I tested with a Blackmagic Design 4K Extreme that can input HD-SDI, HDMI, and a range of analog formats.

I tested with the first two, but not the latter. Wirecast can also capture DV and webcam input, and input from some versions of Skype, Google Hangouts, GoToMeeting, and FaceTime (depending upon operating system and versions; check telestream.net for more details).

A key feature that Wirecast provides is that is will record a program and write out to a MPEG4 file. For events that we have wanted to record, we used to use a DVD recorder, People prefer passing things around on a thumb drive instead of DVDs, so being able to record to disk, is great. The only catch is that the PC must have sufficient performance so that the CPU isn't driven to 100% during the recording. There are other software programs that will do this however that are much less expensive than Wirecast. Wirecast can serve as a good backup to a Teradeck that fails.

We have an older version of Wirecast that is only being used as a backup to OBS Studio

We use OBS Studio as a backup in case there are issues with our VidiU device

Note: Open Broadcaster Software (OBS Studio) is not supported by headquarters

Do you use OBS studio with the Church's streaming server? In my testing, I can't get the two to work with each other.

We use OBS Studio 23.1 as a backup to the Teradek VidiU.

Have not used Wirecast in years

Just used Wirecast for another stake conference. That end of things worked very well.

I still use Wirecast, in fact it's all I use. Real time video program monitoring, along with an accurate audio meter. Teradek Vidiu has neither. Biggest issue for me is the audio, you're flying blind without a good meter...

daveg123 wrote:Biggest issue for me is the audio, you're flying blind without a good meter...

I sync the Teradek Vidiu audio indicator with my audio board, then use the audio board as my meter.

daveg123 wrote:I still use Wirecast, in fact it's all I use. Real time video program monitoring, along with an accurate audio meter. Teradek Vidiu has neither. Biggest issue for me is the audio, you're flying blind without a good meter...

That and a graceful audio compressor in Wirecast that you can switch in. I've done my share of listening to signals driven into clipping and it's not pleasant.

That's probably the next thing I'd recommend - a gated compressor to put in front of the encoder.

Hi,
I still use Wirecast Pro. I've purchased the pro version directly from telestream. It works great with The Teradek Vidiu. I live in Tahiti, French Polynesia.
Our stake is spread out on two main islands. For stake conference, webcasting is the most viable option in order to reduce cost and travel. Wirecast Pro has a recording feature.

russellhltn wrote:That's probably the next thing I'd recommend - a gated compressor to put in front of the encoder.

A gated compressor? I wouldn't recommend any gating on program material. Gentle compression, yes. Gating, no...

Maybe we're talking about something different. The gated compressor I worked with had a gate on it's control function. Unlike an ALC which keeps increasing the gain between speakers, the compressor would "hold" at the last setting until the new speaker started talking. There was no gating of the program material.

Digging up the manual for a Shure SE30, the operations guide called it a "gated memory", but the "headline" still called it a gated compressor.

The SE30 is an old broadcast limiter (10:1) some used back in the 1970s for sports and similar events, it later found some favor in a few recording studios as a bit of an audio "mangler." Not sure if you are actually using this unit on your broadcasts, if so there are much better options out there.

daveg123 wrote:The SE30 is an old broadcast limiter (10:1) some used back in the 1970s for sports and similar events, it later found some favor in a few recording studios as a bit of an audio "mangler." Not sure if you are actually using this unit on your broadcasts, if so there are much better options out there.

It's what I knew and something I wouldn't mind to mange the levels. If you have suggestions, I'm all ears. I have been wanting something to manage the volume.

Anything dbx. The 166 and 266 series have many variants that might be an option, all depends on what you want to spend. Lots of used outboard out there...