Newtek Live Call Connect

Live Call Connect offers users increased agility with seamless integration of multiple remote callers from popular video communication applications like Zoom and Microsoft® Teams into TriCaster systems as unique video inputs.

How does Live Call Connect work?

Live Call Connect allows you to install and host well known conferencing applications on your TriCaster to seamlessly bring multiple remote callers into a TriCaster production. Applications supported include Zoom, Skype, Microsoft® Teams, Discord, GoToMeeting and Tencent.

A Step-by-Step Guide to Live Call Connect

1.    Start a Live Meeting :  

Live Call Connect runs as an external desktop application launcher within the TriCaster framework to run the native conferencing applications. End users should install the verified whitelisted applications and manage the meetings. Once installed, the application icon for each app will appear at the bottom of the desktop but won’t necessarily be running. Selecting an installed application that isn’t running will launch it, if it is already running, it will open the application. A dynamic connection between live callers and sources on the TriCaster will automatically be generated.

 A user simply launches the app, begins the meeting and each caller is automatically converted into a video stream, combined with system loopback audio, to bridge into the TriCaster system as an input.

 Live Call Connect will automatically detect and separate individual caller screens as discrete inputs.

 The number of sources can be configured in the admin panel, and in a live session cannot be changed. The adaptive system will automatically keep the maximum available sources distributed across the channels.

2.    TriCaster 2 Elite Input Configuration

Anytime an application is running, inputs will appear in the input configuration panel. Users will see each desktop application and their inputs exposed as sources. The running desktop applications will appear under local, with individual callers from that application appearing as channels in sub-menus, if available.

3.   Controlling the Application

Control of the desktop application will be handled by a widget that will be attached to the application window. It will be placed along the top edge of the hosted application and default to where most applications have open space.

The widget will have three controls:

1. A dragger to slide the widget left or right within the application.

2. A mouse mute/unmute control.

3. A button to pop up a list of remote caller options.

Dragger

The dragger will simply allow left/right sliding in case the widget overlaps something vital.

Mouse Mute

Most video conferencing applications have controls that appear on rollover, which would look bad on the output unless the user is using a web browser and needs to see the cursor for presentation purposes. The application desktop will automatically handle the mouse. Mouse mute and unmute will do two different functions depending on the application.

1. If the application is a browser, by default the mouse cursor will be shown on the output and the mode will be “unmuted”. Clicking mouse mute will hide the mouse cursor on the output. The cursor will always be visible to the operator of the TriCaster.

2. If using a video conferencing application, the default state will be “muted”; the mouse will be completely prevented from moving into the caller video area. Unmuting the mouse will allow the mouse to move freely.

Caller Menu : 

When a video conferencing application is open, a menu

will appear with a list of the maximum number of callers for that application. The current recommended limit is nine callers to achieve the best quality content. The application layouts will be pre-determined, per application for Live Call Connect

to dynamically detect and route remote callers. If you are using a browser to drive a remote call or share video content, the menu will be disabled.

1.    Caller Separation

Once a video conference begins, each caller is separated into individual channels automatically. The callers video output is uniquely captured at the proper ratio and made available to the user as sources in the TriCaster. The entire conferencing application can optionally be shown

by selecting “Full Application”. It is highly recommended that users maximize the desktop applications to achieve best results.

2.    Browser Capture

As an extra feature, users can launch a web browser to easily bring screen content into productions. This is a great tool for pre-loading live web page screens to capture media or breaking web news during a show. The browser capture will only display content from the current selected tab.

* Be careful with copyrighted content. Using a YouTube video can result in legal issues.

Additional Information

Skype TX Controller

Users can run the Skype controller software without requiring a separate machine, just install it like the other video applications.

Best Practice Tips

It is highly recommended to use a 4K monitor output for best quality.

Keep applications open in full screen for best quality