Tutorial: Configuring ViewCast Osprey 820e for a Live-Switched Wirecast Webcast
This tutorial describes how to install and configure ViewCast's dual-channel Osprey 820e card ($1,795 MSRP; as low as $1,400 street) into a Windows system for driving two cameras within Telestream Wirecast, and discusses the board's highly functional set of utilities and SimulStream feature, which allows it to feed audio and video streams to more than one encoding application.
In this article, I detail how to install and configure ViewCast's dual-channel Osprey 820e card ($1,795 MSRP; as low as $1,400 street) into a Windows system for driving two cameras within Telestream Wirecast. I'll also spend some time discussing the board's highly functional set of utilities and SimulStream feature, which allows it to feed audio and video streams to more than one encoding application.
In terms of hardware, the Osprey 820e (left) is a PCI Express (x4) card with two DVI-I hardware connectors and a single unbalanced stereo input port. The DVI-I connectors come with dongles that enable HDMI capture, including audio, or VGA/DVI graphics, as well as component, composite, or S-video input. Each DVI-I connector can handle HDMI audio input; otherwise, there's a single unbalanced audio input.
Choosing Your System
Minimum system requirements for the 820e are very stiff and highly technical. For example, to process full HD video on both channels, ViewCast recommends dual i7-3930K 6-core CPUs running at 3.2 GHz. Neither of the two workstations into which I installed the 820e-a single-CPU, 4-core CPU HP Z400 and a dual-CPU, 8-core Z600-measured up to these recommended specs. Both core totals are not including hyper-threaded technology (HTT). With HTT enabled, the Z400 has 8 cores and the Z600 has 16.
You also have to install the card in a PCI Express slot with "direct lanes to the CPU," or you may experience DMA issues. I encountered these issues when I installed the card in one of the Z400's Gen 1 x8 PCI express slots, and resolved the problem when I moved the board into a Gen2 x16 slot, which is typically reserved for a second graphics card. If you're comfortable swapping boards around inside a computer, you should be able to figure things out, but if the thought makes you break out into a cold sweat, you should probably seek some assistance.
Install the Driver First
As the title of this section suggests, you install the 820e driver software first, then the hardware. After the software install you have to reboot the computer, which is a convenient time to install the hardware.
Once you have the driver and board installed, you can access all utilities and configuration options from within Wirecast, or whichever program you're using to capture video. To configure the card in Wirecast, choose Sources > Show Source Settings to open the Source Settings window.
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