When did you start working for Siemens Stream Team? What’s your background?

I actually conducted an in-house study for Siemens Technical Academy from 1991 to 1993 and started to work for Siemens in 1993 as a software developer. After more than 6 years programming with Microsoft Visual FoxPro and working part-time as a network admin, I switched position in 1999 to become a web server administrator. After spending a few of weeks in the new department, we had our first customers interested in embedding live and on-demand video on their websites. No one in our team had any sort of experience in that area, and I thought I might try to satisfy these customers’ needs. I didn’t mind making extra hours ‘cause I had so much fun with video streaming that I made longer hours to work on it beside my normal work day. I thought it was worth putting the service forward, so I ended up founding the StreamTeam, which was actually… Me and myself!!! Streaming Media has been an official service of our department since 2004. I am the service manager: I am responsible for service design, development and operation.

If you had to sum it up, what would you say about Siemens Stream Team?

The Stream Team is a sub-team of our Conferencing Services & Solutions Team. It was born in 1999 as –unofficial- part of our web hosting and web application development team. In the first years, we concentrated live and on-demand streams that were intended to be used for Siemens Intranet. As a matter of fact, there was another team at Siemens doing live encoding and recording by that time. They did not have the server power to handle the increasing number of concurrent users, but we did. We took it over once they discontinued their service.

You stream live corporate conferences and various events with the TriCaster: do you think NewTek TriCaster is easy to set up? And the executives you film, what was their reaction in the first place?

We don’t use our TriCasters as streaming encoders but we do use them as video mixers and recorders, and they are actually very easy to set up. And when it comes to the speakers, they have got used to it, and even though some of them may have been nervous at first, they’re fine with it.

Why did you pick this product preferably to any other?

The first time I saw a TriCaster was during the Streaming Media Conference & Exhibition 2005 in New York. Philip Nelson did a presentation and I was so impressed that I knew we had to have one! Unfortunately, it was only available in NTSC by that time, so I had to wait until the PAL version was available in January 2006. We had the choice between a traditional video mixer, Sony Anycast Station and NewTek TriCaster. We didn’t want to get a traditional video mixer, since the features were limited, plus we had to keep transportation as simple as possible. In the end, TriCaster came with a more open and easy-to-use user interface and I thought the possibility to edit overlays while you were on air was just awesome! And – to be honest – I had already fallen in love with TriCaster the first time I saw it!

What are the assets of NewTek TriCaster™? What additional tools would you like?

Our course BSc Video and Broadcasting is both academic and vocational in nature. The ability to be able to give students firsthand experience in live broadcasting is crucial to their studies.

How long did it take to the students using the TriCaster to get to know how to handle it?

This came in stages (uninterrupted use within academia is rare) and overall we would suggest a week of solid use.

You said the TriCaster did a splendid job: what makes the difference?

We now use a Standard and a Studio version of TriCaster. Many things have been improved since the launch of the first TriCaster and it’s getting much faster. There were minor issues with the previous versions but honestly, the software has been running without encountering any problems from version 2.0. The main hardware is robust and appropriate. We carry one TriCaster in a cushioned case and the other one is installed in a mobile 19-inch-rack. NewTek TriCaster is very easy to operate, there are tools the team and I really really like: good-quality and customizable overlays, having 2 VCRs in the Studio version, a cursor pointing out the remaining disk space, the screen capture via network (iVGA) and switchable audio inputs (mic/line). We would really appreciate the possibility to embed script commands (text, url, custom) within the streams. Then we could use TriCaster as an encoder for most of our live webcasts which would make it easier.