StreamGenie Presenter: Killing Several Birds with One Stone
Video sources connect to Presenter’s standard BNC and 4-pin DIN connectors and audio sources funnel through a separate mixer into the Presenter’s two XLR inputs. Use the Antex XLR audio outputs for monitoring audio. Once your sources and audio monitoring are connected, simply click the StreamGenie icon on the desktop, and you’re up and running. No configuring of the audio or video cards was required.
Presenter’s interface has five regions. The subswitcher/DVE region simultaneously displays any two of your six video sources in roughly 176x144 pixel windows, and triggers transition effects (e.g., cuts, dissolves and page turns) and graphic overlays. The mixer region controls audio levels and displays a level meter. The program monitor region displays video output in a 320x240 pixel window, and indicates when the program is streaming. The effects bin region contains thumbnails and text descriptions of transition effects and graphics available to the DVE. Over 60 professional effects and three useful graphics are included.
The fifth region contains tools to configure capture settings, color correction, Real G2 and Real 8 encoding and Windows Media 6 and 7 encoding. Other tools in the region access SofTVpresenter (software for creating rich media Web pages), Title Deko (software for creating graphics and titles), PowerPoint slide triggers, and a display of the compressed video output. This last feature is particularly helpful for observing whether detailed graphics and camera shots are still clear once compressed. Although review of the user manual is required for the tools in this region, the tools are generally user friendly and the power they deliver makes it worth the effort.
Road Test
We fed multiple sources into Presenter, which simultaneously streamed live in Real and Windows Media, archived to the local hard drive in both formats, and sent uncompressed program to an external record deck. The unit ably handled up to three 320x240 streams simultaneously (e.g., a single-rate Windows Media stream and a two-rate Real SureStream), despite CPU usage approaching 90 percent.
Special effects and graphics keys worked flawlessly, and the built-in TBC executed each video switch smoothly and instantaneously. Moreover, no real-time function was more complicated than double clicking an icon and then clicking a well-labeled button. The encoded and archived output consistently met target frame and data rates, and the output to our record deck was of professional quality, due to high quality digitization upon capture and all rendering performed with uncompressed video.
Although the encoders ignored right channel audio at times, Pinnacle suspects a loose hardware connection in our particular unit, which it can easily repair. We make note of it, as obviously this would impair your production, but we’ll assume this isn’t an issue others would likely encounter.
The Bottom Line
With a $24,000 price tag, Presenter is clearly designed for professional webcast productions. It substantially increases the ease of equipment transport, setup, and operation traditionally required for this high level of professional production, while keeping within the price range of purchasing the equivalent components individually. The unit’s engineering and usability are impressive and performance is outstanding. If you can afford it, and you need portable production and streaming, as well as a Web-based business presentation capability, this is an excellent choice.