Niagara Max: Powerful, Pint-Size Encoder
Software Bundle
One of our favorite things about the Niagara Max with the ProPac upgrade is its well-rounded software bundle, which includes ViewCast’s own SCX (Stream Control eXtension) Manager, Osprey's SimulStream and Accordent’s PresenterPro. The base unit (without the ProPac upgrade) lists at $21,995 and doesn’t include Presenter Pro or the Videonics A/V mixer.
The SCX software manager offers monitoring and control of multiple remote or distributed encoders throughout the enterprise, or across the Internet, via SNMP or XML-based applications.
During our tests, the SCX Manager ran flawlessly, and if your client's or venue’s IT department is already running VNC (a freeware remote terminal software program from AT&T, common in IT shops), you won’t have a problem getting your Change Control Request (CCR) through for ports that are probably already open.
SimulStream, which is comparable to Winnov’s BMS (Balanced Media Streaming) software and Pinnacle’s MultiStream, allows one A/V source to be encoded at up to four bit rates using RealNetworks’ SureStream or Microsoft’s Intellistream. Or, if you’ve got a video input going into the second Osprey card in the Max, you could encode two Real streams and two Microsoft streams. (Even if you’re only using a single source feed, you could encode two Real and two WMP streams.)
PresenterPro is a powerful interactive browser template app that lets you merge live or on-demand video with other multimedia elements, such as PowerPoint slides, pictures and Flash animations, to create lively interactive presentations. PresenterPro is in the same general "streaming business presentation" category as the PresenterLive software from SofTV, Akamai’s Forum and iBeam’s Activecast. PresenterPro worked very nicely and gave us no trouble at all.
The Osprey 2000 drivers, themselves, offer the very attractive ability to change contrast, brightness, hue and saturation while viewing the input source. If, while you’re tweaking your image, you find you’re doing more harm than good, you can either "restore previous," which brings you back to the last tweak you made, or "restore defaults," which takes you back to the software’s default setting.
This rather crude but very practical software lets you tweak the video just enough to avoid traditional video pre-processing methods. If you want to be able to apply other effects to your video, you’ll need to upgrade to the ProPac, which includes Focus Enhancements' MXProDV mixing board. The MXProDV lets you mix up to four video sources (two DV and two analog) and offers roughly 500 realtime video effects, a TBC, level meters and chroma key.
The Price Seems Right
We were quite pleased with the performance, but we still thought the price was little steep. To test that notion, we researched how much a comparable system would cost if we built it ourselves. We found the same server for sale online for about $9,000; the two Osprey cards would set you back about $6,000; and a comparable presenter program will run you anywhere from $8,000 to $15,000 (including Web hosting). At that point, we had already spent $23,000 (minimum) — not counting, of course, the internal technical bandwidth for build-out and support that would be required for both systems.
With the Niagara Max, if something goes wrong with the box, there’s one number to call to get back up and running. However, an optional 24/7, 365-day support package, such as Pinnacle offers with its StreamGenie Presenter (see review), would be a plus for professionals.
The Bottom Line
A couple of years ago, setting up a streaming encoder for a live event required several people, and a truckload of equipment. Today, ViewCast’s Niagara Max can be set up by one person and then deployed remotely.
There are a number of similar products on the market, so before making a decision of this magnitude, you’ll want to look around. The Niagara Max, like much of the ViewCast hardware we’ve tested, worked, worked straight out of the box, and worked reliably — it’s a safe choice. With a product this complex in such a competitive market, that’s just about the highest praise we can provide.