Broadcasting - multiple cameras

A broadcast cutting between multiple camera angles is more complex than a single camera configuration. There are two ways that this can be achieved:

1. External hardware camera switcher / vision mixer (recommended)

Many TV production companies will already have their own vision mixers - which will output video in a format suitable for ShowCaster. Alternatively, for a high quality, inexpensive product with an interface which TV producers will already be familiar with we recommend the Blackmagic Atem Television Studio. This supports up to 4 HDMI / SDI inputs, live monitoring, text overlay and a choice of transitions (but not picture-in-picture - higher end models are available to support this).

Coupled with a Blackmagic Intensity Pro (desktop) or Blackmagic Intensity Shuttle (laptop) capture device into the PC (more information here) this offers an excellent configuration - and will work directly with the ShowCaster broadcaster.

Beware that cheap hardware switchers typically take a few seconds to cut between cameras - making them unsuitable for live broadcasting where instant switching is required.

2. Camera switching software

Multiple capture cards enable multiple cameras to be directly connected to a single PC - challenges include:

• Sufficient PCI slots must be available - most PCs only have room for two
• A powerful PC will be required to capture multiple cameras simultaneously - necessary for seamless camera switching

Software which supports camera switching is available for both PCs and Macs - including:

• Telestream Wirecast
• Vidblaster

For further information please see Broadcasting - third party encoders.