The best way to learn Wirecast is to work quickly through all its main features. These three tutorials show how to use Wirecast features to create and broadcast presentations.
These tutorials familiarize you with important Wirecast concepts. The better you understand how to use Wirecast, the better it serves your broadcasting objectives.
Because each tutorial builds on the information in the previous tutorials, take the tutorials in order. Working through all the tutorials takes about thirty minutes.
Note: If you work through the tutorials before activating a Wirecast license, or with Wirecast in demonstration mode, Wirecast periodically superimposes a logo watermark over the video, and a voice-over watermark over the audio.
Note: For licensing information, select Wirecast > Preferences > License. Click Purchase, or, contact Telestream at: desktopsales@telestream.net.
This tutorial guides you through creating and streaming a presentation.
To prepare for this tutorial, do the following:
1.Select Help > Create Document for Tutorial.
2.Select Switch > Smooth.
3.Select Switch > AutoLive.
4.De-select Switch > Live/Preview Swap.
5.Select Layout > Show Live Only.
Wirecast displays the Live Broadcast Area, and the Go button with the red AutoLive LED turned on. You change all of these options during the tutorial.
To familiarize yourself with the main windows, controls, and menus of Wirecast, see The Default Layout.
Wirecast uses the concept of a shot to construct presentations. A shot contains one or more media sources or files, along with settings for the sources and files. A shot contains at least one media file, such as a photo or a video clip. However, a shot can contain a number of sources and files, such as a live camera, a title, and background music. A shot can even include a whole playlist of clips.
You can assemble most of the files and sources for your broadcast in shots, before you start broadcasting. Also, you can edit a shot and change its settings.
See Tutorial 2: Editing Shots.
Individual shots are displayed in the Layers. The Transition Controls are located just below the Live Broadcast Area where the two default transitions are shown: Cut and Smooth.
Replacing a shot in the Live Broadcast Area with a shot in the Preview Area is called “taking a shot live.”
See Layers and Final Mix Audio Panel.
1.With the second Transition Controls button labeled Smooth and highlighted, click the Ripples shot in the third layer.
The Ripples image fades in on the Live Broadcast Area. The Smooth fade action occurred when you clicked on Ripples. This is because the Smooth fade is the transition selected.
2.Click a shot labeled Clear Layer.
The Ripples image fades to black. The Clear Layer shot enables you to display black video.
Note: Wirecast doesn’t support a true dissolve transition. The Smooth fade transition is the transition closest to a dissolve.
If you switch from shot “A” to a shot that contains shot “A,” the Smooth fade interpolates the difference between the two shots and animates the changes. This makes a shot element larger or smaller, and changes its position as needed.
However, if you switch from shot “A” to an entirely different shot “B,” then the Smooth transition simply fades between the two shots.
3.To make the cut your default transition, drag down across the first Transition Controls button and select the Cut control.
4.Click the Ripples shot in the third layer.
The Ripples image cuts in on the Live Broadcast Area.
When you select Cut as the default transition, switching from shot “A” to shot “B” simply cuts from the first shot to the second. When Smooth is selected, transitions fade in and out.
To select a different transition, click the small arrow on the right side of any of the Transition Controls buttons, or drag the mouse downward to display the menu of transitions. When the list of transitions appears, select a transition to assign to that button.
1.To change the left Transition Controls button from Cut to Bands, click the Cut button and drag downward until the menu appears. Select Bands from the menu. The left Transition Controls button is now labeled Bands.
2.Now click back and forth between the River and Ripples shots using Bands.
You can use these keyboard shortcuts for the two default transition buttons: Command+1 and Command+2.
Note: Wirecast displays as many as three Transition Controls buttons. To set the number of transition buttons that Wirecast displays, select Preferences > General.
See The Default Layout and Final Mix Audio Panel.
To determine how fast a transition occurs, do the following:
1.Select Switch >Transition Speed.
2.Choose a transition speed, from Slowest to Fastest.
Note: Before you start this section, select Smooth as your default transition.
You can display several shots in the Preview Area and Live Broadcast Area at the same time by placing them in layers, one above another.
To broadcast a layered shot, do the following:
1.Select the Logo shot in layer 2.
2.Select the River shot in layer 3.
The Live Broadcast Area displays a layered shot containing both images.
See Layers.
So far in this tutorial, Wirecast has been running in AutoLive mode. Wirecast sends any shot you select in a layer automatically to the Live Broadcast Area. This mode is very useful for those users who want to set up all of their shots at once and then single-click shots as they run their presentation.
The disadvantage of this single-click method is that you can’t preview the shot before taking it live.
A red LED, next to the Go button is lit when you are in AutoLive mode.
1.For this tutorial, turn off AutoLive. Select Switch, and deselect AutoLive.
A dialog box informs you that AutoLive is off.
2.Click OK in the dialog box to continue.
3.Click the Ripples shot.
Notice that Wirecast doesn’t send Ripples to the Live Broadcast Area. That is because AutoLive is turned off.
4.Now, click the Ripples shot, and then click the Go button.
Wirecast sends the Ripples shot to the Live Broadcast Area.
Note: When AutoLive is off, you must click the Go button (or press Command+G) to display the selected shot in the Live Broadcast Area.
A benefit of having AutoLive off is that you can make several changes to your shot first, and then have all changes sent to the Live Broadcast Area at the same time.
Do the following:
1.Verify that AutoLive is off.
2.Click Sample Title in Layer 1.
3.Click Clear Layer Shot in Layer 2, and then click the Ripples Shot in Layer 3.
4.Click the Go button (or Command+G)
Wirecast takes the Ripples and Sample Title shots live at the same time.
One problem you may have noticed is that you can’t see the changes you are making before broadcasting them. To solve this problem, Wirecast enables you to see a preview of what you broadcast.
1.Select Layout > Show Live and Preview.
Wirecast displays the Preview Area to the left of the Live Broadcast Area. The Preview Area uses a green LED to identify it. The Live Broadcast Area uses a red LED to identify it. Wirecast also displays green and red LEDs to identify which shots are associated with the Preview or Live areas.
2.Click the River shot on Layer 3.
Wirecast displays the River shot in the Preview Area. When shots are selected they display a green or red LED to indicate selection for Preview Area or Live Broadcast Area.
3.To send the River shot to the Live Broadcast Area, click the Go button.
4.To remove the title from the River shot in the Preview Area, click the Clear Layer shot in Layer 1.
5.Turn on the Live/Preview Swap option by selecting Switch > Live/Preview Swap (check mark displayed). Notice that the Go button displays a double-arrow, indicating that the Live/Preview Swap option is on.
See the Go button on the screenshot in The Default Layout.
6.Select the Ripples shot and click the Go button to send the Ripples shot to the Live Broadcast Area.
Notice that the Ripples and River shots have swapped areas. Also, the shot LEDs have changed color. The green shot LEDs indicate shots included in the Preview Area and the red LEDs indicate the shots included in the Live Broadcast Area. You can view the shot that is live in the Live Broadcast Area as you prepare your next shot in the Preview Area.
The first tutorial explained various ways in which you can use existing shots. However, you can also create and edit shots during a broadcast. This tutorial demonstrates how to edit your shots.
1.To edit a shot, double-click its icon in a layer.
Wirecast opens the Shot Editor panel. The Shot Editor has six tabs: Shot Layers, Shot Layer Properties, Audio, Chroma Key Properties, Smooth Transition Properties, and Additional Source Properties.
2.Practice editing a shot using the various options in the Shot Editor Window tabs.
This tutorial demonstrates how to set up and broadcast your Wirecast presentations. You can broadcast to a specific computer (Unicast), multiple viewers (Multicast), or even record your broadcast to disk.
There are two main components for broadcasting your presentation (or saving it to disk): encoding and selecting a destination.
First, decide how to encode your broadcast. Encoding is the type of compression used (JPEG, MPEG4, etc.). Wirecast comes configured with many common encoding options.
See The Encoder Presets Window for details.
You must select a destination for the broadcast. You can send the broadcast to a server or save it to disk.
1.To start streaming, click the Output Settings button.
See the Output Settings button on the screenshot in The Default Layout.
Wirecast opens the Select an Output Destination dialog.
2.Select a destination, and click OK.
3.Select the output settings desired, and click OK.
Note: In the Control/Status bar, the Output Settings icon blinks until a connection is made. Once you are connected the Output Settings icon turns green. If you can’t connect, Wirecast displays an error message.
See Control/Status Bar.
Note: While streaming, the streaming status is displayed at the top of the default layout. Connection strength is indicated by how many bars are displayed in the Output Settings icon. Fewer bars indicates a weaker (slower) connection. If you are streaming to Facebook, additional statuses are displayed on the right side of the status bar.
See Streaming Status Colors.
4.Click the Record button.
See the Record button on the screenshot in The Default Layout.
5.To stop streaming or stop recording, click Record again.