What is TriCaster?
The TriCaster system allows you to make anything from keynote presentations and webcasts to online training and sporting events look amazing with quality, consistency and efficiency. More information about TriCaster on their website.
Adding a TriCaster 'device' to the Automator
In the top right corner of the Automator, we see 'Devices' - this can be either in red or green depending on the status of the configured devices. Click it and select 'Add device'.
Next, select 'Tricaster' from the 'Device type' dropdown list, then give it a name.
Once the TriCaster device is selected and given a name, we will see all fields needed to configure it so it can be used with the Automator.
Basic device configuration
You can enable or disable the TriCaster, you can enter the hostname, as well as the HTTP and Socket ports. Once these settings have been entered, the device should show as 'online' (green) in the top right corner.
The settings that are entered by default by the Cuez Automator represent the default settings for the TriCaster, but you can change these settings (host name and ports) as needed, depending on your exact configuration.
Media handling configuration
Next, check the box to indicate that this TriCaster will be handling media. More settings will appear, allowing you to configure where media needs to be downloaded and which media we want our TriCaster to download.
Download folders
The 'Download folder' is the folder where the Automator will download all media to for the TriCaster, with its location seen as from the Automator.
The 'Device media folder' is the folder where the Automator will download all media to for the TriCaster, with its location seen as from TriCaster itself.
Keep filenames
Automator offers the option to keep the original filenames of the media that will be downloaded from the Episode into the download folder. By default, Automator saves the files with a unique ID. In case you want to manually check the files in the download folder, it can be helpful to check the box to keep the original filenames to have the files be more recognizable.
Automatically delete files
We can also set files to be automatically deleted after 24 hours or a week. This way you don’t keep all downloaded media in case it is not needed anymore.
Define Blocks with media
Finally we can configure which Blocks will need their media downloaded for our TriCaster. For this, click 'Add media field' at the bottom, select your Block configuration (for example 'Clip') and then the field name of the media (usually 'Media'). Repeat this step for all Block configurations that need their media downloaded by the TriCaster you are configuring.
As soon as these final settings have been configured, the media from the Episode will start downloading to the folders that were defined. A green checkmark next to a thumbnail (in the Script) indicates the media was successfully downloaded.
Configuring actions
The next step is then to configure each Item and Block configuration with the (set of) functions you want to perform on the TriCaster when triggering the Item or Block - more on that in this article.