Once you’ve created a document and have configured the inputs and outputs for your broadcast, you’re ready to broadcast with Wirecast.
Topics
To start Wirecast, double-click the Wirecast icon that was placed on your desktop during installation.
You can view shots in the Preview Area before taking them live, with AutoLive disabled. Alternatively, you can take shots live with one click, without previewing, with AutoLive enabled.
Do the following to switch shots when AutoLive is disabled:
1.Click a shot in a layer, or several shots in different layers.
Wirecast displays the shots in the Preview Area.
2.Click a Transition Controls button. Alternatively, press the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+1 to select the first Transition Controls button or Ctrl+2 to select the second Transition Controls button.
See the Transition Controls button on the screenshot in The Default Layout.
3.Click the Go button.
Wirecast places the shots in the Preview Area into the Live Broadcast Area, and broadcasts the shot.
See AutoLive, The Default Layout, Final Mix Audio Panel, and Go Button.
Switching to a playlist is the same as switching to any other shot. To switch to a playlist, when AutoLive is disabled, do the following:
1.Select the playlist shot.
Wirecast displays the shot in the Preview Area.
2.Click the Go button.
Wirecast displays the shot in the Live Broadcast Area, and broadcasts the shot.
See AutoLive, The Default Layout, and Go Button.
To switch shots when AutoLive is enabled, click a shot in a layer.
Wirecast places the shot in the Live Broadcast Area, and broadcasts the shot.
Note: When you select multiple shots on multiple layers, Wirecast displays all of them in the Live Broadcast Area, with layer 1 on top and layer 5 at the bottom.
See AutoLive, The Default Layout, and Go Button.
You can lock Wirecast layers, Preview window, or the Shot Editor, to prevent unintentional changes during live screencasts. To lock layers, the Preview Window, or the Shot Editor, do the following:
1.Select Edit > Lock, and choose the option desired.
See Lock.
Before you can broadcast with Wirecast, you must configure your output settings.
To start broadcasting, select Output > Start/Stop Broadcasting > Start All.
Note: If you try to broadcast without first configuring an output, Wirecast opens the Output Settings window for you. See The Output Settings Window.
You can apply video filters to a video source or to a shot on a layer. If you apply a video filter to a source, the filter remains on the source wherever the source is used in the Wirecast document. If you apply the video filter to a shot, the filter remains only on the specific shot and layer where the filter is applied, not on the source.
To apply a video filter to a source, do the following:
1.In a layer, select a shot.
2.In the Shot Editor, select the Source Properties tab.
3.Click the plus (+) button to the right of the heading, Video Filters.
Wirecast opens a drop-down menu of available video filters.
For descriptions of the video filters, see Video Filters Tab.
4.Select the filter desired.
Wirecast applies the video filter to the source selected.
5.(Optional) To add another filter, click the plus (+) button and make another selection. You can apply multiple filters to a source.
You can apply video filters to a video source or to a shot on a layer. If you apply a video filter to a source, the filter remains on the source wherever the source is used in the Wirecast document. If you apply the video filter to a shot, the filter remains only on the specific shot and layer where the filter is applied, not on the source.
To apply a video filter to a shot on a layer, do the following:
1.In a layer, select a shot.
2.In the Shot Editor, select the Video Filters tab.
See Video Filters Tab.
3.Click the plus (+) button to the right of the heading, Video Filters.
Wirecast opens a drop-down menu of available video filters.
4.Select the filter desired.
Wirecast applies the video filter to the source selected.
5.(Optional) To add another filter, click the plus (+) button and make another selection. You can apply multiple filters to a shot.
You can remove an existing background from a shot by applying the Background Removal filter.
To remove a background, do the following:
1.In a layer, select a shot.
2.In the Shot Editor, select the Video Filters tab.
See Video Filters Tab.
3.Click the plus (+) button to the right of the heading, Video Filters.
Wirecast opens a drop-down menu of available video filters.
4.Select Background Removal.
Wirecast opens the Background Removal control panel in the Source Video Filter tab, and applies the Background Removal filter to the source selected.
5.Select the mode of removal from the Mode drop-down menu.
See Background Removal.
The countdown timer under the Live Broadcast Area can show the countdown for any of the shots, including playlist shots, displayed in the Live Broadcast Area.
To select a shot for the countdown timer, take one or more shots to the Live Broadcast Area. Then, do the following:
1.To open the counter display mode menu, click the gear icon under the Live Broadcast Area.
2.Do one of the following:
•Select the top item (the name of the currently playing shot) to display its countdown time alone.
•For a playlist, select the bottom item (New Playlist - Completion) to display the countdown time of the current shot and of the playlist.
See Playlist Countdown Timer Display.
You can take snapshots of the Live Broadcast Area on-the-fly. Wirecast saves the snapshots as PNG files in the folder designated for snapshots. To take a snapshot of the Live Broadcast Area, do the following:
1.Make sure the snapshots are kept in a folder convenient for you.
2.Start broadcasting.
See Broadcasting.
3.When the desired frame appears in the Live Broadcast Area, click the Snapshot button.
See Snapshot Button.
With the Final Mix Audio panels, you can set the volume level, or you can mute the final mix audio level, for the Preview Area or the Live Broadcast Area. There are separate Final Mix Audio panels for the Preview Area and for the Live Broadcast Area. The controls for both Final Mix Audio panels work the same way.
To display the Wirecast audio mixer, select Window > Audio Mixer.
See Window Menu.
To display Final Mix Audio for preview and live displays, select Layout > Final Mix.
To hide Final Mix Audio select Layout > Final Mix again.
To control the volume for either the Preview Area or for the Live Broadcast Area, select the respective Final Mix Audio panel, and do one of the following:
•To set the volume, click and drag the slider control up or down.
The decibel scale next to the slider indicates the audio level. When you take a preview shot live, the live audio levels match the levels set in preview.
• To mute the audio output, click the Mute button.
To add a filter to an audio channel, do the following:
1.Open the audio mixer.
See Displaying the Audio Mixer.
2.In the Live Sources pane, click the Add New FX button.
Wirecast opens a drop-down menu of available effects.
3.Select an effect.
Wirecast adds the name of the selected effect to the Live Sources pane of the audio mixer.
See also Adding VST Plugins to the Available Audio Plugins.
To add a filter to the final audio mix, do the following:
1.Open the audio mixer.
See Displaying the Audio Mixer.
2.In the Final Mix pane, click the Add New FX button.
Wirecast opens a drop-down menu of available effects.
3.Select an effect.
Wirecast adds the name of the selected effect to the Final Mix pane of the audio mixer.
See also Adding VST Plugins to the Available Audio Plugins.
To open any layer in its own window, do the following:
1.Select Window > New Layer Window.
Wirecast displays a list of the layer windows you can open (Main Layer 1 through Main Layer 5).
2.Select the layer you want to open.
Wirecast displays the layer in a separate layer window.
This separate layer window works exactly like the layers in the default display, but you can move layer windows independently of one another.
See also Layers.
You can include comments made by viewers on various social-media platforms in your broadcasts, through the Comment Moderation window.
See Social Media Shots and The Comment Moderation Window.
To sort social media comments by super-chat comments, then favorite comments, then all other comments, click the Favorite header in the Comment Moderation window.
See The Comment Moderation Window.
Once you have a social media title in your document, and comments coming into the Comment Moderation window, select a comment in the Comment Moderation window, and select your social media title in the main shot display.
To moderate comments, do the following.
1.Select one of the following:
–Create Title Shot from the lower-left corner of the Comment Moderation window View comments pane.
–(+) Choose Overlays > Social Media Title.
Wirecast opens the Social Media Title window.
2.Select a social media title, and adjust any settings in the Social Media Title Properties window.
3.Select Social > Comments.
Wirecast opens the Comment Moderation dialog box.
4.Once you have comments coming in, and a social media title in your document, click the Live radio button for one or more comments in the Comment Moderation window.
The selected comment appears in the Social Media Title in the Preview window.
5. Click Go Live to send the social media title to your live broadcast.
• Once your social media title is live, you can select any other comment in the Comment Moderation window. Wirecast transitions the first comment out and the next comment in.
•If you have Rotate Selected.. checked, simply leave your social media title live. Wirecast automatically rotates the selected comments into your broadcast.
See Social Media Shots and The Comment Moderation Window.
You can moderate Facebook or YouTube comments from a computer that is broadcasting your program from Wirecast, while you stream the broadcast to Facebook or YouTube via a second computer, streaming server, or RTMP server.
These are two typical scenarios for this method:
•You produce a show using Wirecast on one computer, and transmit the feed to another computer or streaming service. The second computer or service streams the broadcast to Facebook or YouTube. Some producers use this method to balance resources between two computers.
•You produce a show using Wirecast, and stream to Facebook or YouTube from the same computer. In this scenario, you use a generic RTMP server, not the built-in Facebook or YouTube destinations in Wirecast.
Do the following:
1.Make sure you have authenticated Wirecast with the desired social media platform.
See Social Media Shots.
2.To open the Comment Moderation dialog select Social > Comments.
Wirecast opens the Comment Moderation dialog box to the Active Accounts pane.
3.Click the Add Facebook or YouTube Feed (+) button.
See View Active Accounts.
Wirecast opens the Select Destination dialog box.
4.Log in using credentials that have rights for the page, group or channel you want to access.
Do one of the following:
–Click the name of the social media platform to which you are streaming and from which you want to grab comments. Log in with your user account credentials.
–Check the box for Login as new user, create a user account, and log in.
In the Comment Moderation window, Wirecast displays the posts in your feed for the platform selected.
Wirecast displays a drop-down menu of events.
5.Choose the name of the event or live stream desired.
Once your stream has started, you should see the comments come through to your moderation panel, as you would if you were streaming directly from that computer.
6.Select comments for display as you would when moderating comments on a Wirecast computer which is broadcasting.
See Moderating Social Media Comments.
See Social Media Shots and The Comment Moderation Window.
See also How to bring social media comments from a live stream that is not coming from your Wirecast system.
Wirecast generates live captions from spoken-word audio using AI technology. The captions are visible when the MP4 file, or RTMP stream, is played in a caption-supporting player, such as Switch (for MP4 files), or Facebook.com or YouTube.com (for RTMP streams).
You can switch between multiple languages in the same recording or stream. Wirecast transcribes them all.
Currently, the Wirecast live-captions feature supports only Roman-alphabet languages.
The accuracy of the results depend greatly on factors such as the language being spoken, the quality of the audio, the topic, and the context.
Note: Since live captions uses Machine Learning (ML), it is subject to hallucinations: transcribed sounds that are not spoken words. Always check the results. Correct hallucinations and other mistakes before exporting or delivering the captions.
Note: RTMP with captions automatically uses the stream-delay feature (10 seconds by default but you can set it higher). This stream-delay covers the extra processing time for captions.
Wirecast doesn’t support all H.264 codecs. The MainConcept H.264 encoder doesn’t support captions. The supported codecs for captions are: Apple H.264, NVIDIA NVENC, Intel Quicksync and x264.
•ARM CPU. Intel Macs don’t support live captions.
•Internet connection, for downloading language models from telestream.net
•H.264 video codec for embedded captions in compressed H.264 SEI NAL units
•NVIDIA GPU, for providing GPU-accelerated caption transcription
•Internet connection, for downloading language models from telestream.net.
•CUDA 12.x or later, for providing GPU-accelerated caption transcription.
•H.264 video codec, for embedded captions in compressed H.264 SEI NAL units.
You can turn on captions for RTMP and MP4 outputs in the Output Settings dialog. To turn on live captions for RTMP and MP4 outputs, do the following:
1.Select Output > Output Settings.
2.Select a server destination from the Destination drop-down menu. Click OK.
3.In the Output Settings dialog, check the box for Transcribe speech and embed as CEA-608/CEA-708, and click OK.
You can add a border around a video layer, and control the parameters of the border. To create a border, do the following:
1.Open the Shot Layer Properties tab.
2.To open the border controls, click the triangle next to Border.
3.Adjust the border controls as desired.
See Border.
To control a remotely-controlled pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) camera, do the following:
1.Configure Wirecast for the PTZ camera.
See Setting Up PTZOptics Camera with a Dynamic IP Address and Setting Up PTZOptics Camera with a Static IP Address.
2. Select a PTZ camera shot in a layer.
3.In the Shot Layer Properties tab of the Shot Editor, click the triangle next to PTZ, and click the PTZ Controller button.
Wirecast opens the PTZ controller panel.
4.Control the camera with the controls in the PTZ Controller.
See The PTZ Controller Panel, PTZ Control in the Shot Layer Properties Tab, and Tracking a Face with Virtual PTZ.
To have Wirecast keep a face in a video clip centered in the frame automatically, do the following:
1.Select a shot, or a source video.
2.Apply the Virtual PTZ filter to the selected source or shot, as you would any other video filter.
See Applying a Video Filter to a Source and Applying a Video Filter to a Shot.
3.In the Virtual PTZ control in the Video Filters tab, adjust the amount of tracking by dragging the slider.
See also Controlling a PTZ Camera.
When you finish configuring your ISO sources, you're ready to start recording. There are a couple of ways to start your ISO recordings.
1.Click Replay+ISO to open the drop-down menu. Select either Start All or another ISO that you have set up.
2.Alternatively, click the ISO-REC button at the top of the default layout. This starts all your configured ISO recordings.
See Configuring ISO Recording.
When starting ISO recordings, Wirecast might display the error message, Av recording failed to start. View the user log for details and edit the Replay+ISO configuration to resolve issues. Also, Wirecast posts specific error messages to the user log. The dialog contains an Edit button which opens the ISO configuration dialog.
Many types of ISO recording errors occur after you start recording; some occur soon after. Wirecast reports these asynchronous errors only in the Notifications window not in separate error messages.
While you interact with the ISO configuration dialog, Wirecast searches for a number of configuration errors and potential problems. Warning icons appear in the dialog next to the configuration fields. If you hover the cursor over a warning icon, Wirecast displays a tool tip detailing the problem. Also, Wirecast displays the topmost warning message in red text at the bottom of the dialog until you clear all warnings for the selected configuration.
A warning icon appears near each ISO configuration that has a problem. A list of the configuration problems Wirecast detects follows.
• No source/shot is selected for recording
• The recording uses a source or shot that no longer exists
• The recording uses the same source or shot as another recording
• No media tracks are enabled for recording
• The source does not produce media that matches the enabled tracks
• The recording uses the same output file as another recording
• The file name contains restricted characters
• The selected output folder does not exist
• The space available on the selected drive is insufficient for recording
• The file duration must be between 10 seconds and 12 hours