FCP with live Green Screen composite

[Nate Stephens]

VeescopeLive will composite on your computer monitor what the final output would look like. I don’t think FCP will..

If you have a DVI to what you need encoder, you might be able to use Veescopelive.

Interesting question.. let me know your solution

[Joe Goldman]

Nate,
Thanks for the prompt reply. I’ll let you know what I find out as well.
-JG

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Joe Goldman] “Can this be achieved simply with Green screen setup with Camera tethered to Final Cut Pro (Mac G5) and output directly via a digital projector? (without any additional components) “

No. You will need additional components and FCP won’t work at all for you.

A Kona card would. It has a downstream keyer. I have never tried this though so your mileage may vary.

[Mark Raudonis]

FCP is the wrong tool for the job.

Here’s what you want: https://www.varasoftware.com/products/

It’s called “Wirecast” and it takes a firewire signal (SD or HD) from your camera and basically turns your computer into a complete switcher (with audio). You can also stream live to the internet with it.

Pretty remarkable program. Costs around $495. I’ve used it for live to the internet four camera shoots (all green screen). Two thumbs up from me.

Mark

[Nate Stephens]

Mark, I have read about Wirecast… How good is it?

The 4 cameras you switched between, were the camera previews live?

Did it look good on a large screen? Does it actually stream HD video?

How hard was setting up the interenet connection / stream..servers?

I am thinking about purchasing Wirecast… but that is a lot of software for 500 and I was wondering if it is real…

Did it crash…. on a laptop or Mac Pro

[David Peralta]

I think you might be interested in Conduit Live by dv garage. Last night at the FCPUG Supermeet @ Macworld They demoed it with a Blackmagic Intensity Card and a Canon HV20 and got an amazing key from the HDMI port feeding from the HV20 into the Intensity Pro.

Don’t know how you can output from there, but it looked great live!

hmm… I wonder what this button does…

[Mark Raudonis]

Nate,

To answer your questions:

Yes, it’s real. Yes it works. Yes it can stream HD video.

Keep in mind that when you go to the web, you’re no longer really HD. Every thing gets compressed down to a very limited bandwidth. However, you can certainly start out in HD, and that should give you a better looking image. And… it’ll be 16 X9.

Considering the equipment that this program replaces, $495 is a bargain.

Setting up the internet connection/streaming is not for an amateur. Further, you’re going to have to contract with someone like Akami to handle the load. If you think you can just put it on a spare server and tell the world, “come and look”, you will crash and burn. Only a major provider has the bandwidth to support multiple streaming.

Mark

[Nate Stephens]

Thanks Mark…

I have freelanced for OSU’s 3 camera Medical web stream they do every Friday. Studio, control room, everything Betacam SP grade fed into a PC based web stream… And they have a whole department of web gurus to make it work… So it has been the web part that is difficult..

Did you use Akami? Do they have a how too booklet on using and setting up their services?

Did you use a laptop or desktop for your show…

[Mark Raudonis]

Wirecast is available for BOTH mac and PC. When we’re going out to the web, we use a PC version, since it seems to play nicer with the “other end”… ie. Akami.

Yes, that’s who we used. I wasn’t “hands on” for this, but I do remember a lot of phone calls and finger pointing! If you’re doing a live feed, you have to make sure that your end is solid. What happens once it reaches them… who knows. At least you can say it left your building OK.

Mark

[Patrick O’donnell]

Hi Mark

Many thanks for this info, the product is perfect for us and it will replace Hardware that we currently have that is expensive.
May I ask if you have a link that you can post to any of your live work using the product so we can see the quality in action. (Even if its on demand it would be great)

Many thanks once again and I hope to be able to help you one day in the same manner you have helped us

Patrick O’Donnell