I've been looking at Serious Magic's Ultra package and am thinking of using it for an organization that wants to create monthly public access program. Any comments, recommendations, or caveats?
Search this forum, you'll find lots of praise for it. There is a thread on this subject from just yesterday. Without spending a lot of $$, it's very hard to beat what Ultra does.
Ultra is awesome and easy/fast to set up and use. However it is a bit pricey for PEG use - unless the station has a lot more money to spend on this sort of thing than most outlets. Or are you saying you are going to buy it? Either way - Ultra is overly simple, IMO, to use. When you shoot, just shoot some footage of the screen alone first. Without changing anything, put your talent in and shoot. When you open Ultra you load up the empty footage and Ultra "reads" the screen. Now put the footage you are going to use there - choose your background shot/footage. Done.
ok - you can play with it a bit more, but really - it *is* that easy.
Also the "live" preview is great for "on set" previews as well. If you have any doubts get a hold of Serious Magic, they can usually work something out that if you do not find it usefull they will allow you to return it and refund your money...but you have to do this prior to buying it.
This sounds encouraging. Please tell me it does not use PACE protection. I have had three software packages that used PACE and I have had three bad experiences.