OT: live multi-cam mixing software

rs170a wrote on 2/13/2009, 6:40 AM

I came across this the other day and thought some folks here might be interested in taking a look at it.
The software is called Cut Four and is from AvTake.
They're claiming up to 4 cameras live into a computer (DV only).
There are a few "gotchas" but they don't seem insurmountable.

Mike

Comments

jrazz wrote on 2/13/2009, 9:04 AM

Thanks for sharing Mike.

My concern would be with the audio. I assume it would switch from camera to camera (or not pick up any audio at all? If so, then it would seem better to do this in post anyways, especially if you are going to mic the talent and use another mic for ambient and disregard the other 6 channels of audio (or use in case there is a problem).

I would assume this product (and others) are on the market for a reason and maybe these are ill conceived issues that would quickly be put down if i simply used it. I may do the trial and see how it works. I believe my system can handle it but I would need to pick up 3 extra firewire pci-x cards and make sure the software will run on a 64 bit OS even though it is not supported.

j razz

rs170a wrote on 2/13/2009, 12:13 PM

Jeremy, here's what the company says on their Support Page about audio.

DO I NEED SEPARATE AUDIO MIXER?
It's really recommended if you have many microphones or audio sources. CutFour does not mix audio between inputs (firewire audio inputs are not 100% synced). You can switch any one DV camcorder as audio source. Hardware audio mixer master audio output can be plugged to any DV camcorder audio inputs.

WHY THERE IS NOT POSSIBLE TO USE SOUNDCARD AUDIO INPUT?
This causes audio A/V sync problems. That's why we have chosen audio input only from DV camcorder input.

IS THERE AUDIO PREVIEW OUTPUT?
Yes. You can monitor master audio from audio card output.

Mike