NewTek LiveText Review

LiveText™ is NewTek's standalone CG (character generator) with
Ethernet connectivity to the TriCasters™ and VT™ (TriCaster 2.0
or VT 5.2 required). This lets you off load CG editing to a second
computer or laptop so you can either pre-produce your CGs or have a
dedicated CG operator during a live switch. The TriCaster has always been envisioned to be run by a single
operator. This is great for a simple production but as you add
cameras replays and dynamic CG pages the work load can pretty quickly
overwhelm one person. NewTek has been addressing this with several of
their recent new products like the TimeWarp Instant Replay controller
and now LiveText. ; Installation of LiveText on my computer (WinXP SP3, 2.66 GHz
Core2Duo with two gigabytes RAM and an Invidia GF8400 graphics card)
was straight forward and no configuration was necessary. It installs
and you are ready to go. On the TriCaster (or VT) you just select the
LiveText machine just as if it were running iVGA by picking it, by
name, off a pull down list in the 'External' (iVGA) panel. This
presumes your network is up and running and the two computers can
'see' each other.

The TriCaster 2.0 software sports an 'Ext' button on the overlay
section of the interface that once engaged it feeds the signal from
LiveText directly to the overlay. All the TriCaster operator has to
do is verify that the CG in the overlay display window is the one he
wants and then either 'Fade' or 'Take' to display the CG.  The LiveText operator can create pages on the fly and then assign
them to the TriCaster's overlay by simply clicking the red 'Live'
button or by double clicking the pages thumbnail. If the overlay is
live on the TriCaster the page will be displayed instantly so it's
possible to update a page while it is being displayed.  Creating or editing pages is very straight forward using the large
page edit window. The interface is almost identical to the Edit Text
panel in TriCaster 2.0 and very similar to the CG Designer in VT[5]
so current users will have no problem adapting. ; LiveText uses
whatever fonts you have installed in Windows and the font selection
list actually displays the fonts so they are easy to choose.
You can interactively resize text, apply face colors or even
complex gradients in addition to apply outlines and several different
types of shadows.  LiveText ships with about fifty predefined
gradients and user text styles can be added to style preset lists
with a mouse click. Of course you get a full compliment of horizontal
and vertical alignment, layer ordering, and grouping controls.
LiveText also includes a selection of basic drawing tools so that
you can easily create graphic elements directly in the program.  If
you need to import more complicated graphics - LiveText supports most
common bitmap graphic formats with alpha channels intact. PSD from
PhotoShop are supported but have their layers flattened on import so
be aware.  You can easily create scrolls and crawls with full control over
speed and end behavior i.e. Loop, scroll off screen or stop on last
frame. It's also possible to lock elements on the page so that they
don't move and you can even combine scrolls and crawls (scawls?)on
the same page if you care to.Ninty-nine fully editable templates are included so you don't even
have to start from scratch with everything from full screen promos to
lower thirds. These serve as both pre-done pages you can and examples
of some of the things you can accomplish in LiveText. The last cool
feature is LiveText supports both 4:3 and widescreen 16:9 aspect
ratio and automatically configures itself to match your TriCaster 's
output mode.  The bottom line is anyone doing sports with their TriCaster should
consider LiveText a must have. For everyone else, including VT
owners, you should give it a closer look because it might really make
your life easier. By off loading the whole CG process to a dedicated
operator you can reduce the stress of a live production by whole
orders of magnitude. You can also free up your TriCaster during pre-production allowing
you to build CGs on a separate computer.  Unlike some versions of the
VT's CG Designer LiveText seems to be rock solid reliable, and the
installation was painless. The only thing I'd like to see added is
away for the LiveText operator to remotely fade the overlay on
the TriCaster up and down and cross fade from one overlay to another.
But as it stands this is a great addition for both TriCaster and VT
users. LiveText requires a cpu with SSE2 instruction set (typically a
Pentium 4 or better) A DirectX 9 compatible graphics card (AGP or
PCI-E recommended) and at least 1 GB RAM (2 or more preferred) and a
VT with version 5.2 software (shipping soon) or any TriCaster
(Tricaster, TriCaster Pro, TriCaster Studio or TriCaster BroadCast)
with 2.0 software. Update: LiveText 2.0 is now shipping and offers support for both
the TCXD300 and TCXD850 HD TriCasters.

LiveText 2.0 also includes DataLink a plug-in that dynamically
updates titles and overlays from external text feeds, including:
databases, xml files and most scoreboards. With DataLink, any Title
Template can access data across the network and, in real-time,
display scores, times, prices or any other rapidly-changing
information on screen. DataLink used to retail for $995 but is now
included at no additional cost.