Scoreboard Overlay

[John Perkins]

This set is for use in live sporting events where you are able to dedicate one locked down camera to the scoreboard.

The upper third (or so) of the camera on the Effects row will be scaled and overlayed on onto one of the corners of the screen and a slight shadow is applied.

All four corners are included.

Attached is a zipped executable. Running the executable will self extract it. Normal zip compression was four times larger than what I used (7zip) and slightly over the forums current 2MB limit.

 

[brians0105]

Let me think out loud...

Could we apply this liveset to our camera inputs, and then bring Kris' scoreboard skin in as the DSK? This would allow us to have the time automatically on the screen instead of manually keeping track of the time w/ Kris' skin.

Does this make any sense?

Brian

 

[SportsJunkie]

John,
Being relatively new to the Newtek family, I have surfed up and down these forums. I am a little confused. Is it possible to do exactly this...PIP - but on the Tricaster Pro? I need to be able to have the scoreboard - the live, original scoreboard - not a third party app, and be able to locate it in either of the four corners. As Jef has pointed out in other threads, the action moves in both directions. Sometimes, especially in basketball, I need to have the clock "up" but the action could quickly switch from left to right. I need to be able to relocate the clock accordingly. The challenge is I have the Tricaster Pro, not the Studio.

 

[brians0105]

SportsJunkie,

I'll jump in and say that I don't believe you can with the TC Pro. What John has created with this sports overlay will do what you want, but only with the TC Studio, VT5, or the new TriCaster FX... but not the TC Pro. John's creation uses the new LiveSet technology that is not found in the regular TriCasters.

Hope this helps...

Brian

 

[Tarheel Cougar]

We use Bob's 3rd channel with VT4.5 to do this, and are waiting to install our VT5 upgrade until this summer when we're done with sports for awhile. Only problem is that Bob's plugin uses the DSK layer so we can't use it with Kris' score plugin at the same time--like brians0105 wants to do. I have zero experience with live sets so far, but it looks like using this, you would have to adjust the camera to fit the hole that is cut out by this liveset (very tough to do without return video)--meaning you can't resize the hole on the fly or zoom on the camera picture (Cross your fingers that the camera doesn't get bumped). This would be a great solution if you could alter the cutout easily to fit custom graphics, and adjust the position of the video without moving the camera if an obnoxious crowd "bumps" your shot.

 

[Safe Harbor]

SportsJunkie,

I'll jump in and say that I don't believe you can with the TC Pro. What John has created with this sports overlay will do what you want, but only with the TC Studio, VT5, or the new TriCaster FX... but not the TC Pro. John's creation uses the new LiveSet technology that is not found in the regular TriCasters.

Hope this helps...

Brian

Once the TriCaster ProFX upgrade for TC Pro is released it may work, since that will add the LiveSet technology to TC Pro. Maybe give NewTek a call and see if the upgrade will give you the ability to do this.

 

[John Perkins]

I have zero experience with live sets so far, but it looks like using this, you would have to adjust the camera to fit the hole that is cut out by this liveset (very tough to do without return video)--meaning you can't resize the hole on the fly or zoom on the camera picture (Cross your fingers that the camera doesn't get bumped).

It isn't just a keyhole, it is resizing, positioning and cropping the incoming video. All you have to do is look through the viewfinder and place the scoreboard in the top of the safe area, so no return feed is really needed.

As far as bumping the camera, that's going to be a problem no matter what you use to overlay the scoreboard.

If you wanted, you could make a few more positions for full screen or other zoom levels very easily using the Aura plugin. This one only took me about 5 minutes to make.

 

[John Perkins]

Here is the source file for this LiveSet.

Sorry for the zipped exe, I had to get it under 2MB. Unzip the file and the self extracting exe will unpack the Aura project this set was created with.

 

[Tarheel Cougar]

Pardon my ignorance, and its because we haven't had enough downtime to install the VT5 upgrade yet, but how easy is it to zoom, crop, adjust the parameters of the virtual set on the fly in a live environment? Say for instance if the camera is bumped, can you put the "virtual set" PIP on preview, re-adjust the matte position, and then bring it back on program during live switching action?

 

[joseburgos]

You would not be able to re-make a LiveSet that fast.
I assume this camera would not be with-in reach?
More info for you to consider a LS, the camera would point to the score board in a full frame focal length.
Then the LS would position a nd scale it to fit as an overlay.
If the camera was bumped, then you can turn LS off and re-align the camera via preview with an alighment built into the LS so as to make making the frameing exact and quick.
Once it looks good in preview again, then you just turn the LS back on and it would be perfect again.

When you have the VT[5] upgraded, this will be a little better to grasp.

You could design a score board with graphics to match the production.
I design custom sets with many built in features if your interested.

Take care,

 

[SBowie]

You would not be able to re-make a LiveSet that fast.

Well, I doubt it's the best way (maybe don't bump the camera?), but you really could do this in a very short period of time using Aura. For example, you could:

- put the clock on Preview
- use Aura's frame grabber to grab the live image
- cut away all the dross around the clock
- turn on the Stencil for that layer
- merge a "Full Layer" proxy over it
- generate the new LiveSet shot.

I bet I could do all that in less than a minute.

(If I was in a position where I really had to do it very often - I could write a script that just required me to set four points at the corners of the clock and hit the "Generate" button, overwriting the previous LiveSet in the process, getting it down to about 6 clicks ...)

 

[joseburgos]

And produce a live sporting event via the switcher at the same time?
I would pay to see that

Take care,

 

[SBowie]

Heheheh - good point! To be honest, I don't know how those guys do half of what they do already!

If Aura was running in the bg with Preview onscreen, I bet with a script I could get it down 1) drag out a rectangle to surround the clock in its current position, and 2) generate the shot ... but you're right, if it we me I think I'd try to find another way.

 

[joseburgos]

I like the script idea and you should think about it some more.
Too good a concept not to follow through on it buddy.

Live production on a VT is something that always amazes me and props must go out to these people.

Take care,

 

[SBowie]

I like the script idea and you should think about it some more.

OK, took awhile, but the script is nearly done, and lots of interesting things learned.

I used two images I found online as Switcher sources (in DDRs). The clock on the FX row is actually in the upper left corner of the frame.

When I run the script in Aura, it shows me the video source from the FX row on the Aura canvas, and I drag out a rectangle around the area of interest. The rest is automated, according to flexible defaults.

Applying my default settings in this case, the script created a new LiveSet shot which crops out the clock, nails it consistently to the same point onscreen - in this case just inside the text safe area at lower right - and adds a 6 pixel black inside border to the inset. (There are numerous other options in the Defaults editor, such as opacity level, border color, and edge feathering.)

I timed this, of course.

It took me exactly 15 seconds to create the new LiveSet, from the time I hit Alt-tab to switch from the VT screen to Aura and back with the updated shot compiled. Actual time spent in Aura: 11 seconds. It took 10 additional seconds to toggle the shot in the Input Setup panel (you have to do this to update a LiveSet when it has been replaced), with the result shown above.

 

[SBowie]

Sweet - I just figured out a way to avoid the refresh issue in Input Setup - scratch that extra 10 seconds.

This is working as an instant Picture-in-Picture generator too ...

 

[joseburgos]

Sounds great, can't wait to test.

 

[SBowie]

It's getting pretty close, but the initial installation, configuring, and options are involved enough to require docs, so it'll be a day or two yet ... and I haven't tested it in Mirage yet either, though it should work (in Aura it 'knows' where to find the VSFX folder, while in Mirage it has to assume VT is in the default location."

I shaved a little bit more time off by avoiding the need to refresh the LiveSet after replacing it ... but not as much as I hoped, because the new method takes a little longer to compile. My best time is about 17 seconds (from Alt-tabbing out of VT to Aura) to having the new shot generated, enabled and on the screen in VT.

 

[SBowie]

OK, this thing is pretty much done - just need to beat on it a bit to shake out any kinks.

Discovered today my newer system is a LOT faster at punching out a new LiveSet than the P4 I'd been working with. I'm down to less than 11 seconds for the complete trip from VT to Aura/Mirage, create the updated LiveSet, back to VT, enabled in Input Setup and showing on Program Out.

Pretty cool that you can make something custom like this in 10 seconds!

p.s. - John, although this spun off your clock set idea, the content forum is really the wrong place for the additions, so feel free to split the thread and move it, or just delete it. I'll start a new thread for the tool when it's finalized anyway.