i've just had to restore back a version to the last version of wirecast 4.0.1 from the latest and greatest 4.1 because it appears that the frame rate setting (bit of a workaround and i'm still not sure why) is missing as an option in version 4.1.

without this option, the framerate of our captured video is really slow and i'm getting only anywhere between 13 and 18fps on locally recorded video to a raided drive array.  this causes problems for the studio and so we had to go back.

at first i could not understand why the framerate was so low and thought it was just my old mac pro running slow after recording this weeks catchup show and only getting around 14fps (that's why this week is a little jerky - sorry) so knew i had to investigate.  turns out that in the encoding settings the options we had for 60fps appears to be missing now in the apple immediate codec.

after trying lots of codecs this worked the best for us and for some unknown reason if we have it jacked at 60fps we get around or over 30 fps recorded locally.  if we set that to 30fps we get around 14fps.  

i'm pretty certain it's a cpu issue because my duel core mac pro is old xeon tech and tbh has seen better days but as we are a startup studio we have to work with what we have and so this little speed bump makes everything to us.  not having the options means the studio can't record decent video.

you can see in the rolled back version of wirecast 4.0.1 the setting that allows for 60fps.  i'm pretty sure what this flag does is basically open up the writing speed because before i raided the drive it only could write around 20fps so it's defiantly a settings to write as much as it can which it turn appears to keep the frame rate up because the drive can 'keep up'

you can see with this screenshot (i never got one before i downgraded - sorry) that we are back up to 30fps + which is fine for our output video - i was getting worried because we have a client in next week and i do not want to have problems with writing speeds!

i'm going to shoot this feedback blog over to telestream and see what they say about it.  i'm thinking that they simply removed the option to tidy things up but that special flag meant everything to us and our old technology! :)

been looking at 10bit hardware encoders recently for full on quality and full framerate that can be fed by a hdmi output.  i'm looking at using the blackmagic intensity output hdmi connector to fire the quality back at full hd past any compression (thus enabling us to stream at the same time because not on the cpu) into a standalone ssd or 7200 rpm drive for full quality.  it should improve our video quality massively and make for much better content quality.  

it's about £300 i'm thinking of having a sponsoring drive for it! :)

quicklink | http://www.krcs.co.uk

due to my good friends at krcs nottingham i managed to pick up the 4th generation ipod touch when it was released a few months back (feels like a few months anyway) and i wanted to do a blog post about how i'm getting on with it.

firstly let just tell you what i came to find about krcs.  they are a family run business in the victoria centre in nottingham - the only place i know that is an apple reseller in the city (which is a bit weird - guess they do not have enough of a footfall to have a store here - they do in brum?) - the store has been put together in the same style as a normal apple location with everything put in rows and some tasty bits of kit are on display.  i've had the pleasure to get to know the staff and i'm not kissing ass here the staff have been awesome, in fact they have really been on the ball when i need kit and equipment.

right, so to the ipod touch.

when i bought the tough for just over £250 i had been saving up my cash for well over a month - when your selfemployed/employed purchasing things like an iphone4 or smartphone are quite a big deal and can mean a couple weeks month or a chunk of your monthly wage.  as i'm effectively unemployed getting the iphone4 was never going to happen - plus i really do not want anything that has to have a contract.   not that i could get anything with a contract anyway because i'm effectively off the grid right now.

step in the ipod touch 4th generation with a fairly decent front and back camera, wifi, ability for me to do my audioboo and no contract or monthly fees to worry about.  yes, using this with a three mifi device gives me pretty much all the features of having a contract iphone4 - even down to making calls by using skype and other calling tools.  

for day to day wear and tear i have to say it has been fantastic.  it's has a very robust build quality to it and i find the battery life amazing now that apple has the fantastic a4 chip at the helm.  can you imagine what they might do with that chip in years to come.  i can definitely see a fusion device between tablet and macbook air with multiple a4 chips or even a laptop with an a4 chip onboard too that will give you access to existing apps in the app store but running on your hybrid machine.  a fantastic future of applications ahead.

after selling my iphone 3g after nearly eighteen months of service that was getting a bit slow and had a few logic boards replaced in that time.  the ipod touch latest generation feels like a device they have always been trying to build.  i think they have absolutely cracked it with the ipod touch.  battery consumption is optimized, the retina display is simply stunning and i've had no problems with the audio interviews i have done with it.  that said, i think the iphone4 must have a better microphone because i'm not totally sold on the quality of the itouch here and my xlr converters no longer seem to work which is a bit of a shame ;(

the three mifi and the ipod touch are THE perfect combination for each other.  a one click on with the mifi and you have a wireless network between the mifi and the ipod touch.  your ready to do everything you would as if you were on a fixed wifi.  this opens up other areas that normally operation of an ipod touch would not normally allow - you basically can go mobile internet with it.  taking photos and posting with instagram, recording and posting audioboo audio interviews and using skype to either send sms text messages or place calls with.

now with the nomadjackets it's about time to upgrade.  not to an iphone4 but probably just to purchase another ipod touch 4th generation unit to go on the front of the jacket - you still need another device to be able to tweet with while you running a conference centre looking for people to interview.  if you have not seen the jackets you really should check out this audioboo i did the other day with the tailor of the nomad jacket, jamie.  he's a real talent and i'm looking forward to getting something awesome of the ground with him that will be selling jackets to the US.

sorry.  off topic.

so yes, the ipod touch was the right investment.  the retina display for me more than anything is the best thing to happen to the ipod touch in a long time and the fact that getting access to content now looks super sweet and has the added features of taking photos or doing facetime chat is a boon.  if you have been looking at an alternative route to getting a smartphone with apple but without the expensive of a contract the ipod touch 4th generation is something you should be seriously looking at.

i love the tricaster.  just not the price, but that's because i'm poor.  if i was not poor it would be the perfect thing to get to cut down on potential issues with kit and the broadcasting component of a studio - currently we use a four year old mac pro that can just about keep up with HD.

i met philip nelson at podcamp2 where i first heard about the units.  it's based around a shuttle xpc normally and is this standalone box with everything you need to do vision mixing right up to broadcast standard.  just check out the genlocking on these beasts!

the tricaster HD was looking really sweet and it really showed how an optimized setup can be done in a small space.  even the lighting did not have to be bulletproof as some of my video shows.  they had a small section for the lady sitting in the corner with some lighting and the genlocking was crystal sharp.  really awesome stuff and the ability to have virtual sets gave it that broadcast quality we are all used to watching.  we need some of that in our fibrecamp studios.

does inspire me to move forward with it thou - i still believe we need community spaces.

ipad2.  it's faster and it has cameras.

it has a front and back camera but more than anything it has that sweet new a5 chipset with duel cores.  it should have a lot more power to be able to do stuff than before - i even saw a newer version of imovie out for it which got me thinking about what could be next for someone like bambuser.

taking the quality up a notch
obviously the first place for bambuser to go is with optimizing their platform for the ipad2.  i personally see a lot of refinements coming from apple regarding the cameras.  the hardware is there but i think they still need to optimise the quality there.  also for me the ipad2 is not a native way of doing any kind of streaming because currently it's a two hand operation which makes it difficult to use for a videoblogging - i'd also like to be able to switch between cameras while streaming and have an external microphone setup on both sides of the ipad so i can get decent audio front and back inside of at the top.   it's great if your doing face to camera videoblogging journals everyday however and i think that is something that bambuser should develop out further on top of their api.  i think they could do a lot in this area - i've got a bunch of mashup ideas here.

building a mixing application
because of the extra screen real estate my first thoughts were of taking the old mixing desk idea that bambuser has of mixing lots of bambuser streams and making something more concrete for managing lots of 'ontheground' people at an event with an editor mixing between the sources.  it's a perfect unit for it and bolting on a universal chat room for all of those channels combined.  i'm also thinking that you could initiate intro/outro and text rollovers for each source - it would be a pretty slick controller for something like that.  again, something i would love to develop on top of the api - it would certainly optimise the 'news gathering' experience of nomad jackets walking around austin with an editor switching to things that were interesting.  

a 'pulse' style app for video clips
one of the things as a digital nomad that i have a problem with is consumption of clips in a manner that makes it easier for me to watch on the go.  i want almost a curated experience or newspaper style timeline approach to clips and content from an event with maps and the ability to add ambient context and edit clips to get to the 'good stuff' - taking a similar approach to the way that the 'pulse' application works making an application that allows me to sweep through content on bambuser from an event, venue would be excellent.  similar to the way that rezpondr worked but themed for that conference.  i guess it's the viewer part to the controller part i was talking about for the mixer application.  i'm sure people would pay a small amount for it as well if it was developed.

i hope i can get some stable work in the near future that will enable me to play with an ipad2 myself and look about getting in a team to develop something through the bambuser api.