Though there is no magic number, once CPU utilization gets beyond 60%–80% or so, you start to worry about dropped frames, interruptions, and outright software failures. To test the system, I created multiple projects with multiple outputs and measured CPU utilization during these operations. The 420 back panel shows the extensive I/O. The DVI and VGA DisplayPorts marked “Not used” in Figure 3 are the two outputs for the 310 and 320, and the pink-and-green Line Out and Mic In are available on all three units, complemented by the same ports on the front of the unit.įigure 3. You see the four HD-SDI inputs on the right, the single HDI input/output up top, and the two XLR/TRS combo jacks that are available on all three units. As you can see, the four DisplayPorts on the 420 are, in fact, DisplayPort outputs, and Telestream includes a single DisplayPort to DVI connector in the box to get you up and running. The connectors on the 420 are shown in Figure 3 (below). The 420 also has one HD-SDI program out for confidence monitoring or to send to an external encoder, a workflow that some live-event producers favor over encoding in their mixer. As you’ll see, these really come in handy when outputting multiple streams of H.264-encoded output. The 420 I tested has the NVIDIA Quadro P220 graphics card, which includes four DisplayPort outputs and the four integrated hardware encoders referred to in Figure 2. Click the image to see it at full size.Īll three models come in a rackmountable 2RU chassis that can fit in a standard 19' rackmount or run as a desktop unit with rubber feet included. Here’s how the systems differ in terms of I/O. All systems come with Wirecast Pro, and this itself comes with NewBlue Titler Live, which supplies animated 3D titles, scoreboards, and other graphics and Facebook comments, curation, and display.įigure 2. Buy the 310 for four HDMI inputs the Gear 320 for four HD-SDI inputs and the 420 for five HD-SDI inputs, baseband SDI output, and four integrated hardware encoders. According to the Intel product page, the Intel Xeon E-2176G processor has six 3.70 GHz CPUs and hyperthreading for 12 logical cores.įigure 2 (below) shows how the configurations differ in graphics and I/O. Gear comes in three basic configurations, though you can customize them as you like. My recent tests of a Wirecast Gear 420 system ( Figure 1, below) show that it quite aptly meets this definition. Telestream’s Wirecast Gear systems are for live-event producers who are sold on Wirecast and want a stable, highperformance system to run it on.

Wirecast software review