[Kane Peterson]

I don’t know Final Cut Express that well, but perhaps this information might help.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2011430?start=0&tstart=0

Kane

[Kane Peterson]

While TriCaster does give you a lot of capabilities in one solution, we do not require you to have to it all driven by a single operator, unless you want to. We do support the control surface being used by one operator, while another operator uses the keyboard and mouse to assist. You can also have LiveText, Chryon or a Compix system connected to allow for titles and graphics to be fed into the system from another station controlled by another operator. Our Timewarp control panel would allow you to have a ‘tape-op’ position as well for someone to control both of the DDR play out channels from their own control surface. Finally, audio can be controlled via Avid Artist Mix interface or iPad which would allow your audio operator to control all aspects of the audio mixer in the TriCaster.

While we have built a system that allows a single operate to do amazing things by themselves, we do realize that the more people you have working together, the better the end product can be and TriCaster does allow for this kind of workflow. This is the direction the industry is headed, if you look at what other manufacturers introduced at NAB this year, many of them are following in the same direction we have been moving in for many years now: an all in one production system.

I realize that no amount of saying it’s reliable might change your mind. While I feel that our systems are very reliable, these kind of statements have to be ‘earned’ and not just given. Things found in TriCaster XD systems which have been available for many years now are features like ‘software-failsafe’ in which if a single software module was to crash (for example someone loaded a corrupted video clip) it will not take down the entire system, the module would just restart itself. There is also hardware fail-safe in which in which the last video input is routed to the first output in the case of a major failure. At NAB 2013 we added a new feature to the TriCaster 8000 which is system mirroring: now you can have two systems running in parallel with each other. We added this feature for the users that told us they cannot ‘go down’ for any reason what so ever. This is even better than breaking everything out as separate systems. With other solutions you are breaking out all of the systems to ‘spread the risk’, with TC8000 mirroring, you have a backup of everything.

[Kane Peterson]

I don’t know FCP that well. But if PAL is your final output, then it should be PAL, upper/odd/top field. Frame size of 720×576 @ 25 fps.

I think all of those should be the defaults of a PAL project type.

[Kane Peterson]

Can you tell us what model TriCaster you have? That would help to know.

As for the file size, a safe all around format to use on TriCaster is MPEG-2. Otherwise, as Ryan mentions, we have a codec called SpeedHQ that you can use (the codecs he was referring to). These file will be larger than your typical MPEG-2, but they are easy to create and support alpha channel. However, you need to be using a TriCaster XD system to use them (ie a TriCaster that can work in HD video modes).

Kane

[Kane Peterson]

To really determine if the TC8000 8 inputs is enough, we would need to know what you plan to connect to it. Each Network input can take fill and key, so they are like having 4 additional inputs. The built-in dual DDRs (that also support fill and key), can save you from 4 more inputs that you wouldn’t need to connect to a clip server.

To be open, I let you know that I work for NewTek, so I favor the system that I sell. But I’ve found many times that people ask for more than 8 inputs, but once we figure out everything needs to be used, the 8 inputs on the TC8000 are usually more than enough when used with the other built in features on the TC8000. (I’m not even counting the stuff coming that we showed it at NAB.)

Kane

[Kane Peterson]

Just courious why wanting to go to ATEM when the TriCaster does everything out of the box you are looking to put together using multiple solutions on the ATEM system?

[Kane Peterson]

Need a bit more info. Are you connecting the video output of the TriCaster into Premier? Or are you taking captured files from the TriCaster to Premier?

It sounds like you are taking video output from TriCaster and trying to capture in Premier. If that is the case, it appears that your system can’t keep up with the video input. Perhaps your storage is too slow? Is this SD or HD that you are trying to capture?