Wirecast - 3.0.5

Over the past year we've used Wirecast to webcast a few dozen events, typically from a MacBook Pro. For each webcast, Wirecast is set up with one or two live video sources, pre-recorded QuickTime movies and mp3s, jpegs/pngs, and titles. From one to three streams are produced live (320x240, 160x120, and audio-only) with one recorded to disk for future video on demand.

Early on we experienced occasional issues with devices not being recognized, but most of these problems have either been attributed to poorly-behaved firewire devices (two Canon DV cams on the same firewire bus messed with each other, for example) or have disappeared, presumably due to Wirecast updates.

The features of Wirecast are very powerful and allow for quick changes during operation. Examples we've dealt with include slide changes submitted after an event has started, video source changes requiring cropping one minute before going live, and incorporation of video and audio downloaded during a live webcast.

There are some quirks with shot setup that can be frustrating. Source material paths and capture devices are remembered with a project, so it is not very flexible when sources are changed or material is renamed/moved. Only a small number of characters for each shot name are displayed, making it difficult to distinguish between dozens of similar shots for pre-recorded material. Pre-recorded material requires editing of each shot to enable the audio track for each video and to set the looping for the shot and audio to the desired value (a default preference for these settings would help a lot).

The developers have been very responsive and the product has improved in both features and stability with each release. We've been previewing the 3.0 version and are really looking forward to using the Desktop Presenter and other features.

This is definitely a professional-level product, so the price tag is justified, but it would be nice to see a "Wirecast Express" in the $199 range that bridges the gap between Wirecast and QuickTime Broadcaster.

Was very excited to see this software come out. QuickTime Broadcaster from Apple is very poorly supported and the appearance of a commercial grade piece of software, even if it is a tad pricey, was welcomed.

Initial tests showed that it had some very nice features and *seemed* to work well. We purchased.

In the first use in a live venue, it was a near disaster. We found many operational bugs which make very difficult to sustain professional output. Workarounds were furiously figured out during a live event in front of over 2500.

The #1, defect found in the software that caused the multitude of other symptoms was the lack of the use of the Macintosh Alias manager. This resulted in:
1) opening a project and having all of the shot related files become inaccessible (redo all work)
2) powerpoint file exports as imports to WireCast with same named 'Slide1.png' confused WireCast but way down the working road. Wirecast cross linking these files when projects containing multiple Slide1.png files were saved and then reopened later resulting in projects completely and utterly scrambled. It all looked good as we worked... but reopening the project at show time was a royal mess.
3) shots previously deleted in main display continuing to show in shot editor
- shots added after this happened did not show in the shot editor, some did
4) shots added (drag and drop into main display) showed up as older shots of same name in shot editor. Of the 12 'Slide1.png' files loaded, all 12 appeared in the selection list visually to be the first one loaded in the shot editor. Clicking on one other than the first showed the "Slide1.png" which was loaded in order
5) shots in the main display shuffled, became out of order

These problems were just the tip of the iceburg but perhaps the most infuriating. Volume output to streams are several db lower than input. When an audio source is selected, it is not always honored; quitting the software an starting it sometimes resolves. Default (main window) audio selections are not maintained between closing and opening the project file...

The software is, over all, very well thought out. As for the code execution... developers need to drop and give me 20 pushups while the tester owes me 50. It was a nightmare today and I have two more days. The market needs this software, I need this software ... 'it needs fixin' and after that, it will be great. Till then, not recommended for any live event of any scale.