Gathering user experiences about TC8000
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Hello,
we are considering buying a Tricaster 8000 for our facility. It's a rather large broadcaster and studio facility, and this is the first Tricaster we would install.
To be honest, I'm not totally sure that this is the right solution, the main problem is that it has too few video inputs. It doesn't looks like a problem according to every review I read, but I'm having a hard time stripping down signal requirements (at the very least, 2 cameras, a fill/key GC, a video server and a two live feeds). I won't probably use internal clip stores and graphics, because I need to integrate the corporate workflow. So I'm interested to know if someone had a similar experience with a live production.
Besides, can someone report hardware failure or technical problems I should be aware of?
Thanks.
Silvio,
Wonder if you made the purchase yet on the TriCaster 8000. Would love to know what you learned. I have had some experience on the 8000, having used it in a broadcast last November. I have plenty of TriCaster experience and have taught the product for the past few years. Frankly, I'm blown away with the capibilities of the 8000. If it works as expected, it can really do some amazing things. The addition of Macro's makes accessing the complexity of the system (the boat load of keyers on a boat load of ME's) accessable. My only challenge was getting a series of Macros to do exactly what I had intended. For instence, you have to ask, will the macro fire the currenlty selected clip, or the specificly desired clip; things like that. That all comes from deaper hands-on experience than I had in the three days we planned for the production. And, since those days included taking the 8000 out of the box from the back of my car, hooking it up to an external audio board, interfacing cameras, internet, and loading/designing graphics, it was a pretty huge challenge. In the end, we did succeed and the client was happy. Not bad for an all-in-one HD switcher, audio mixer, ddr, still store, character generator, and recording device. Let me know if you need more info.
All the best,
Gary Lieberman
Hello Gary. It's true, for it's price the 8000 is an impressive machine. Macros are handy, but I have to say I really miss a macro editor, it is almost impossible to record a macro timed exactly the way you want.
As far as I know, we bought that machine but we are not using it at the moment, because there are too few phisical inputs. After stripping our needs down to a bare minimum, we still need at least 12 SDI inputs, but 16 would have been better. So we turned out to a in house solution based on a 1 M/E Grass Valley Kayak (we actually don't need M/Es, just a few eMEMs for key resize).
I hope there will be another project soon to put our 8000 at work,
all the best!
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Silvio,
I too hope I get another crack at the TriCaster 8000, I really think that NewTek is on to something here. As with any hot product, the marketplace is where one hears feedback from users about the things that are missing in the current product. I really think that a macro editor is the missing link, but hey, the product is still new. My issues had to do with understanding the logic behind the macros. For instance, when recalling the third clip in the current bin, is it recalling that specific clip no matter which bin is currently select, or specifically the third clip in the the current bin, or, if we rearange the clips in the current bin, does that matter? Stuff like that. I'm sure someone knows the answers, but has anyone seen that documented. What have you discovered?
Gary