Video Toaster
Encyclopedia
The NewTek
Video Toaster is a combination of hardware
and software
for the editing and production of standard-definition and high-definition video
in NTSC
, PAL
, and resolution independent
formats on Commodore
Amiga
computers and subsequently on computers running the Windows operating system. It comprises various tools for video switching
, chroma key
ing, character generation
, animation
, and image manipulation. The Video Toaster won the Emmy Award
for Technical Achievement in 1993.
, Kansas
. Engineer Brad Carvey
(brother of American actor/comedian Dana Carvey
) built the first wire wrap
prototype, and Steve Kell wrote the software for the prototype. Many other people worked on the Toaster as it developed.The first Toaster training tape was produced and copyrighted by George Lee. It was called The Toaster Microwave. His tape and the Toaster made it as far as Japan. George now resides in Pasadena, CA working in the television industry.
The Toaster was released as a commercial product in December 1990 for the Commodore
Amiga 2000
computer system, taking advantage of the video-friendly aspects of that system's hardware to deliver the product at an unusually low cost . The Amiga was unique among personal computers in that its system clock at was precisely double that of the NTSC color carrier frequency, , allowing for simple synchronization of the video signal. The hardware component was a full-sized card which went into the Amiga 2000
's unique single video expansion slot rather than the standard bus slots, and therefore could not be used with the A500
and A1000
models. The card had several BNC connector
s in the rear, which accepted four video input sources and provided two outputs (preview and program). This initial generation system was essentially a real-time four-channel video switcher
.
One feature of the Video Toaster was the inclusion of LightWave 3D, a 3D modeling, rendering, and animation program. This program became so popular and useful in its own right that in 1994 it was made available as standalone product separate from the Toaster systems.
Aside from simple fades and cuts, it had a large variety of character generation, overlays, and complex animated switching effects. These effects were in large part performed with the help of the native Amiga graphics chipset
which were synchronized to the NTSC video signals; the result being that while the Toaster was rendering a switching animation the computer desktop display would not be visible. While these effects were unique and inventive, they could not be modified. Soon Toaster effects were seen everywhere, advertising the brand of switcher a particular production company was using.
The Toaster hardware required very stable input signals, and therefore was often used along with a separate video sync
time base corrector to stabilize the video sources. Third-party low-cost time base correctors (TBCs) specifically designed to work with the Toaster quickly came to market, most of which were designed as standard ISA bus cards, taking advantage of the typically unused Bridgeboard slots (although they only used the bus to draw power and nothing more).
Like all video switchers that use a frame buffer to create DVEs (Digital Video Effects), the video path through the Toaster hardware introduced delays in the signals when the signal was in 'digital' mode. Depending on the video setup of the user, this delay could be quite noticeable when viewed along with the corresponding audio, and so some users installed audio delay circuits which would match the Toaster's video delay lag, as is common practice in video switching studios.
A user still needed three VTR
s and a controller to perform A/B roll linear video editing
(LE), as the Toaster would serve merely as a switcher (which could be triggered through General Purpose Input/Output (GPI) to switch on cue in such a configuration) but the Toaster itself had no edit controlling capabilities. The frame delays passing through the Toaster and other low cost video switchers would make precise editing a frustrating endeavor. Internal cards and software from other manufacturers were available to control VTRs, the most common systems went through the serial port to provide single frame control of a VTR as a capture device for Lightwave animations. A Non-linear editing system
(NLE) product would be added later, with the invention of the Video Toaster Flyer, though the product never really worked to professional standards because it could not consistently play video without jitters. As a result, the Flyer never caught on as a viable product.
Although initially offered as just an add-on to an Amiga, it was soon available as a complete turn-key system which included the Toaster, Amiga, and sync generator. These Toaster systems became very popular, primarily because at a cost of around $5,000 US, they could do much of what a $100,000 professional video switcher (such as an Evans and Sutherland) could do at that time. The Toaster was also the first such video device designed around a general purpose personal computer that was capable of delivering NTSC broadcast quality signals.
As such, during the early 1990s the Toaster was used quite widely by many Amiga
, desktop video
enthusiasts and local television
studios and was even used during The Tonight Show
regularly to produce special effects for comedy skits
. It was often easy to detect a studio that used the Toaster by the unique and recognizable special switching effects. The NBC television network
also used the Video Toaster with Lightwave for its promotional campaigns, beginning with the 1990-1991 broadcast season ("NBC: The Place To Be!"). Also all of the external submarine shots in the TV series seaQuest DSV
were created using Lightwave 3D, as were the outer space scenes in the TV series Babylon 5
(although Amiga hardware was only used for the first season). Interestingly, due to the heavy use of dark blues and greens (where the NTSC television standard is weak), the external submarine shots in seaQuest DSV could not have made it to air without the use of the ASDG Abekas driver (written by Aaron Avery at ASDG - later Elastic Reality, Inc.), written specifically to solve this problem.
An updated version called Video Toaster 4000 was later released, using the Amiga 4000
's video slot. The 4000 was co-developed by actor Wil Wheaton
, who worked on product testing and quality control. He later used his public profile to serve as a technology evangelist
for the product.
. In addition to just processing live video signals, the Flyer made use of hard drives to store video clips as well as audio and allow complex scripted playback. The Flyer was capable of simultaneous dual-channel playback, which allowed the Toaster's Video switcher to perform transitions and other effects on Video clip
s without the need for rendering
.
The hardware component was again a card designed for the Amiga's Zorro II expansion slot, and was primarily designed by Charles Steinkuehler. The Flyer portion of the Video Toaster/Flyer combination was a complete computer of its own, having its own microprocessor
and embedded software
, which was written by Marty Flickinger. Its hardware included three embedded SCSI
controllers. Two of these SCSI buses were used to store video data, and the third to store audio. The hard drives were thus connected to the Flyer directly and used a proprietary filesystem layout, rather than being connected to the Amiga's buses and were available as regular devices using the included DOS
driver. The Flyer used a proprietary Wavelet compression algorithm known as VTASC, which was well regarded at the time for offering better visual quality than comparable Motion JPEG based non-linear editing systems.
One of the card's primary uses was for playing back Lightwave
animations created in the Toaster.
PCs.
In 2004, the source code for the Amiga version was publicly released.
With the additions of packages such as DiscreetFX's Millennium and thousands of wipes and
backgrounds added over the years you can still find the Video Toaster
system in use today in professional systems. NewTek renamed the VideoToaster to "VideoToaster[2]", and later, "VT[3]" for the PC version and is now at version 5.3. Since VT[4] version 4.6, SDI
switching is supported through an add-on called SX-SDI.
A spin-off product was released by NewTek known as the TriCaster, a portable live production, live projection, live streaming and NLE system. The TriCaster packages the VT system as a turnkey solution in a custom-designed portable PC case with video, audio and remote computer inputs and outputs on the front and back of the case. As of April 2008, four versions are in production: the basic TriCaster 2.0, TriCaster PRO 2.0, TriCaster STUDIO 2.0 and the new TriCaster BROADCAST, the latter of which adds SDI and AES-EBU connectivity plus a preview output capability. The TriCasterPRO FX, a model that was situated in line between the original TriCaster PRO and TriCaster STUDIO was introduced in early 2008, and has now been discontinued. Its feature set has been added to the new TriCaster PRO 2.0. TriCaster STUDIO 2.0 and TriCaster BROADCAST use successively larger cases than the base model TriCaster 2.0. The units within the product line above the base-model TriCaster 2.0 enables use of LiveSet 3D Live Virtual Set technology developed by NewTek, that replaces tens of thousands of dollars worth of conventional 3D virtual set equipment alone, and is also found in NewTek's venerable VT[5] Integrated Production Suite, the modern-day successor to the original VideoToaster.
In late 2009, NewTek released its high definition version of the TriCaster called the TriCaster XD300. It has ability to accept 3 formats (NTSC, 720p or 1080i) which can be mixed, two downstream keys (one still and one motion), a positionable DVE and enhanced chroma keyer and 3 switchable inputs.
At NAB Show 2010 NewTek announced its TCXD850, a rack mountable 8 input switcher with 22 channels. It was released July 15, 2010.
NewTek
NewTek, Inc. is a San Antonio, Texas-based hardware and software company that produces live and post-production video tools and visual imaging software for personal computers...
Video Toaster is a combination of hardware
Computer hardware
Personal computer hardware are component devices which are typically installed into or peripheral to a computer case to create a personal computer upon which system software is installed including a firmware interface such as a BIOS and an operating system which supports application software that...
and software
Computer software
Computer software, or just software, is a collection of computer programs and related data that provide the instructions for telling a computer what to do and how to do it....
for the editing and production of standard-definition and high-definition video
High-definition video
High-definition video or HD video refers to any video system of higher resolution than standard-definition video, and most commonly involves display resolutions of 1,280×720 pixels or 1,920×1,080 pixels...
in NTSC
NTSC
NTSC, named for the National Television System Committee, is the analog television system that is used in most of North America, most of South America , Burma, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, and some Pacific island nations and territories .Most countries using the NTSC standard, as...
, PAL
PAL
PAL, short for Phase Alternating Line, is an analogue television colour encoding system used in broadcast television systems in many countries. Other common analogue television systems are NTSC and SECAM. This page primarily discusses the PAL colour encoding system...
, and resolution independent
Resolution independence
In computing, resolution independence is the concept that elements on a computer screen can be drawn at sizes independent from the pixel grid. This is done so that those with larger screens and more compact screens can still view the UI at the same size....
formats on Commodore
Commodore International
Commodore is the commonly used name for Commodore Business Machines , the U.S.-based home computer manufacturer and electronics manufacturer headquartered in West Chester, Pennsylvania, which also housed Commodore's corporate parent company, Commodore International Limited...
Amiga
Amiga 2000
The Amiga 2000, or A2000, is a personal computer released by Commodore in 1986. It is the successor to the Amiga 1000.-Features:Aimed at the high-end market, the original Europe-only model adds a Zorro II backplane, implemented in programmable logic, to the custom Amiga chipset used in the Amiga 1000...
computers and subsequently on computers running the Windows operating system. It comprises various tools for video switching
Vision mixer
A vision mixer is a device used to select between several different video sources and in some cases Compositing video sources together to create special effects...
, chroma key
Chroma key
Chroma key compositing is a technique for compositing two images together. A color range in the top layer is made transparent, revealing another image behind. The chroma keying technique is commonly used in video production and post-production...
ing, character generation
Character generator
A character generator, often abbreviated as CG, is a device or software that produces static or animated text for keying into a video stream. Modern character generators are computer-based, and can generate graphics as well as text...
, animation
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
, and image manipulation. The Video Toaster won the Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
for Technical Achievement in 1993.
First generation systems
The Video Toaster was designed by NewTek founder Tim Jenison in TopekaTopeka, Kansas
Topeka |Kansa]]: Tó Pee Kuh) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Shawnee County. It is situated along the Kansas River in the central part of Shawnee County, located in northeast Kansas, in the Central United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was...
, Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
. Engineer Brad Carvey
Brad Carvey
Bradley William "Brad" Carvey is an American engineer best known as the builder of the first wire-wrapped Video Toaster, a system used in the production and editing of movie and television video...
(brother of American actor/comedian Dana Carvey
Dana Carvey
Dana Thomas Carvey is an American actor and stand-up comedian, best known for his work as a cast member on Saturday Night Live and for playing the role of Garth in the Wayne's World movies.-Early life:...
) built the first wire wrap
Wire wrap
Wire wrap is a technology used to assemble electronics. It is a method to construct circuit boards without having to make a printed circuit board. Wires can be wrapped by hand or by machine, and can be hand-modified afterwards. It was popular for large-scale manufacturing in the 60s and early 70s,...
prototype, and Steve Kell wrote the software for the prototype. Many other people worked on the Toaster as it developed.The first Toaster training tape was produced and copyrighted by George Lee. It was called The Toaster Microwave. His tape and the Toaster made it as far as Japan. George now resides in Pasadena, CA working in the television industry.
The Toaster was released as a commercial product in December 1990 for the Commodore
Commodore International
Commodore is the commonly used name for Commodore Business Machines , the U.S.-based home computer manufacturer and electronics manufacturer headquartered in West Chester, Pennsylvania, which also housed Commodore's corporate parent company, Commodore International Limited...
Amiga 2000
Amiga 2000
The Amiga 2000, or A2000, is a personal computer released by Commodore in 1986. It is the successor to the Amiga 1000.-Features:Aimed at the high-end market, the original Europe-only model adds a Zorro II backplane, implemented in programmable logic, to the custom Amiga chipset used in the Amiga 1000...
computer system, taking advantage of the video-friendly aspects of that system's hardware to deliver the product at an unusually low cost . The Amiga was unique among personal computers in that its system clock at was precisely double that of the NTSC color carrier frequency, , allowing for simple synchronization of the video signal. The hardware component was a full-sized card which went into the Amiga 2000
Amiga 2000
The Amiga 2000, or A2000, is a personal computer released by Commodore in 1986. It is the successor to the Amiga 1000.-Features:Aimed at the high-end market, the original Europe-only model adds a Zorro II backplane, implemented in programmable logic, to the custom Amiga chipset used in the Amiga 1000...
's unique single video expansion slot rather than the standard bus slots, and therefore could not be used with the A500
Amiga 500
The Amiga 500 - also known as the A500 - was the first “low-end” Commodore Amiga 16/32-bit multimedia home/personal computer. It was announced at the winter Consumer Electronics Show in January 1987 - at the same time as the high-end Amiga 2000 - and competed directly against the Atari 520ST...
and A1000
Amiga 1000
The A1000, or Commodore Amiga 1000, was Commodore's initial Amiga personal computer, introduced on July 23, 1985 at the Lincoln Center in New York City....
models. The card had several BNC connector
BNC connector
The BNC connector ' is a common type of RF connector used for coaxial cable. It is used with radio, television, and other radio-frequency electronic equipment, test instruments, video signals, and was once a popular computer network connector. BNC connectors are made to match the characteristic...
s in the rear, which accepted four video input sources and provided two outputs (preview and program). This initial generation system was essentially a real-time four-channel video switcher
Vision mixer
A vision mixer is a device used to select between several different video sources and in some cases Compositing video sources together to create special effects...
.
One feature of the Video Toaster was the inclusion of LightWave 3D, a 3D modeling, rendering, and animation program. This program became so popular and useful in its own right that in 1994 it was made available as standalone product separate from the Toaster systems.
Aside from simple fades and cuts, it had a large variety of character generation, overlays, and complex animated switching effects. These effects were in large part performed with the help of the native Amiga graphics chipset
Original Amiga chipset
The Original Chip Set was a chipset used in the earliest Commodore Amiga computers and defined the Amiga's graphics and sound capabilities...
which were synchronized to the NTSC video signals; the result being that while the Toaster was rendering a switching animation the computer desktop display would not be visible. While these effects were unique and inventive, they could not be modified. Soon Toaster effects were seen everywhere, advertising the brand of switcher a particular production company was using.
The Toaster hardware required very stable input signals, and therefore was often used along with a separate video sync
Synchronization
Synchronization is timekeeping which requires the coordination of events to operate a system in unison. The familiar conductor of an orchestra serves to keep the orchestra in time....
time base corrector to stabilize the video sources. Third-party low-cost time base correctors (TBCs) specifically designed to work with the Toaster quickly came to market, most of which were designed as standard ISA bus cards, taking advantage of the typically unused Bridgeboard slots (although they only used the bus to draw power and nothing more).
Like all video switchers that use a frame buffer to create DVEs (Digital Video Effects), the video path through the Toaster hardware introduced delays in the signals when the signal was in 'digital' mode. Depending on the video setup of the user, this delay could be quite noticeable when viewed along with the corresponding audio, and so some users installed audio delay circuits which would match the Toaster's video delay lag, as is common practice in video switching studios.
A user still needed three VTR
Video tape recorder
A video tape recorder is a tape recorder that can record video material, usually on a magnetic tape. VTRs originated as individual tape reels, serving as a replacement for motion picture film stock and making recording for television applications cheaper and quicker. An improved form included the...
s and a controller to perform A/B roll linear video editing
Linear video editing
Linear video editing is a video editing post-production process of selecting, arranging and modifying images and sound in a predetermined, ordered sequence. Regardless whether captured by a video camera, tapeless camcorder, recorded in a television studio on a video tape recorder the content must...
(LE), as the Toaster would serve merely as a switcher (which could be triggered through General Purpose Input/Output (GPI) to switch on cue in such a configuration) but the Toaster itself had no edit controlling capabilities. The frame delays passing through the Toaster and other low cost video switchers would make precise editing a frustrating endeavor. Internal cards and software from other manufacturers were available to control VTRs, the most common systems went through the serial port to provide single frame control of a VTR as a capture device for Lightwave animations. A Non-linear editing system
Non-linear editing system
In video, a non-linear editing system is a video editing or audio editing digital audio workstation system which can perform random access non-destructive editing on the source material...
(NLE) product would be added later, with the invention of the Video Toaster Flyer, though the product never really worked to professional standards because it could not consistently play video without jitters. As a result, the Flyer never caught on as a viable product.
Although initially offered as just an add-on to an Amiga, it was soon available as a complete turn-key system which included the Toaster, Amiga, and sync generator. These Toaster systems became very popular, primarily because at a cost of around $5,000 US, they could do much of what a $100,000 professional video switcher (such as an Evans and Sutherland) could do at that time. The Toaster was also the first such video device designed around a general purpose personal computer that was capable of delivering NTSC broadcast quality signals.
As such, during the early 1990s the Toaster was used quite widely by many Amiga
Amiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
, desktop video
Desktop video
Desktop video refers to a phenomenon lasting from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s when the graphics capabilities of personal computers such as Commodore's Amiga, the Apple Macintosh II and specially-upgraded IBM PC compatibles had advanced to the point where individuals and local broadcasters...
enthusiasts and local television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
studios and was even used during The Tonight Show
The Tonight Show
The Tonight Show is an American late-night talk show that has aired on NBC since 1954. It is the longest currently running regularly scheduled entertainment program in the United States, and the third longest-running show on NBC, after Meet the Press and Today.The Tonight Show has been hosted by...
regularly to produce special effects for comedy skits
Sketch comedy
A sketch comedy consists of a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes, called "sketches," commonly between one and ten minutes long. Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors or comedians, either on stage or through an audio and/or visual medium such as broadcasting...
. It was often easy to detect a studio that used the Toaster by the unique and recognizable special switching effects. The NBC television network
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
also used the Video Toaster with Lightwave for its promotional campaigns, beginning with the 1990-1991 broadcast season ("NBC: The Place To Be!"). Also all of the external submarine shots in the TV series seaQuest DSV
SeaQuest DSV
seaQuest DSV is an American science fiction television series created by Rockne S. O'Bannon. It originally aired on NBC between 1993 and 1996. In its final season, it was renamed seaQuest 2032. Set in "the near future", seaQuest mixes high drama with realistic scientific fiction...
were created using Lightwave 3D, as were the outer space scenes in the TV series Babylon 5
Babylon 5
Babylon 5 is an American science fiction television series created, produced and largely written by J. Michael Straczynski. The show centers on a space station named Babylon 5: a focal point for politics, diplomacy, and conflict during the years 2257–2262...
(although Amiga hardware was only used for the first season). Interestingly, due to the heavy use of dark blues and greens (where the NTSC television standard is weak), the external submarine shots in seaQuest DSV could not have made it to air without the use of the ASDG Abekas driver (written by Aaron Avery at ASDG - later Elastic Reality, Inc.), written specifically to solve this problem.
An updated version called Video Toaster 4000 was later released, using the Amiga 4000
Amiga 4000
The Commodore Amiga 4000, or A4000, is the successor of the A2000 and A3000 computers. There are two models, the A4000/040 released in October 1992 with a Motorola 68040 CPU, and the A4000/030 released in April 1993 with a Motorola 68EC030....
's video slot. The 4000 was co-developed by actor Wil Wheaton
Wil Wheaton
Richard William "Wil" Wheaton III is an American actor and writer. As an actor, he is best known for his portrayals of Wesley Crusher on the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, Gordie Lachance in the film Stand by Me and Joey Trotta in Toy Soldiers...
, who worked on product testing and quality control. He later used his public profile to serve as a technology evangelist
Technology evangelist
A technical or technology evangelist is a person who attempts to build a critical mass of support for a given technology in order to establish it as a technical standard in a market that is subject to network effects...
for the product.
Video Toaster Flyer
For the second generation NewTek introduced the Video Toaster Flyer. The Flyer was a much more capable non-linear editing systemNon-linear editing system
In video, a non-linear editing system is a video editing or audio editing digital audio workstation system which can perform random access non-destructive editing on the source material...
. In addition to just processing live video signals, the Flyer made use of hard drives to store video clips as well as audio and allow complex scripted playback. The Flyer was capable of simultaneous dual-channel playback, which allowed the Toaster's Video switcher to perform transitions and other effects on Video clip
Video clip
Video clips are short clips of video, usually part of a longer recording. The term is also more loosely used to mean any short video less than the length of a traditional television program.- On the Internet :...
s without the need for rendering
Rendering (computer graphics)
Rendering is the process of generating an image from a model , by means of computer programs. A scene file contains objects in a strictly defined language or data structure; it would contain geometry, viewpoint, texture, lighting, and shading information as a description of the virtual scene...
.
The hardware component was again a card designed for the Amiga's Zorro II expansion slot, and was primarily designed by Charles Steinkuehler. The Flyer portion of the Video Toaster/Flyer combination was a complete computer of its own, having its own microprocessor
Microprocessor
A microprocessor incorporates the functions of a computer's central processing unit on a single integrated circuit, or at most a few integrated circuits. It is a multipurpose, programmable device that accepts digital data as input, processes it according to instructions stored in its memory, and...
and embedded software
Embedded software
Embedded software is computer software that plays an integral role in the electronics it is supplied with.Embedded software's principal role is not Information technology , but rather the interaction with the physical world. It's written for machines that are not, first and foremost, computers...
, which was written by Marty Flickinger. Its hardware included three embedded SCSI
SCSI
Small Computer System Interface is a set of standards for physically connecting and transferring data between computers and peripheral devices. The SCSI standards define commands, protocols, and electrical and optical interfaces. SCSI is most commonly used for hard disks and tape drives, but it...
controllers. Two of these SCSI buses were used to store video data, and the third to store audio. The hard drives were thus connected to the Flyer directly and used a proprietary filesystem layout, rather than being connected to the Amiga's buses and were available as regular devices using the included DOS
DOS
DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...
driver. The Flyer used a proprietary Wavelet compression algorithm known as VTASC, which was well regarded at the time for offering better visual quality than comparable Motion JPEG based non-linear editing systems.
One of the card's primary uses was for playing back Lightwave
LightWave
LightWave 3D is a high end computer graphics program developed by NewTek. The latest release of LightWave runs on Windows and Mac OS X.- Overview:...
animations created in the Toaster.
Video Toaster Screamer
In 1993, NewTek released the Video Toaster Screamer, a parallel extension to the Toaster, with four motherboards each with a MIPS R4400 CPU running at and of RAM. The Screamer accelerated the rendering of animations developed using the Toaster's bundled Lightwave 3D software. The Screamer could produce as many frames of animation a day as 16 of the fastest Amigas. Screamers were used to render CGI for many different science fiction shows.Later generations
Later generations of the product run on WindowsMicrosoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
PCs.
In 2004, the source code for the Amiga version was publicly released.
With the additions of packages such as DiscreetFX's Millennium and thousands of wipes and
backgrounds added over the years you can still find the Video Toaster
system in use today in professional systems. NewTek renamed the VideoToaster to "VideoToaster[2]", and later, "VT[3]" for the PC version and is now at version 5.3. Since VT[4] version 4.6, SDI
Serial Digital Interface
Serial digital interface is a family of video interfaces standardized by SMPTE. For example, ITU-R BT.656 and SMPTE 259M define digital video interfaces used for broadcast-grade video...
switching is supported through an add-on called SX-SDI.
A spin-off product was released by NewTek known as the TriCaster, a portable live production, live projection, live streaming and NLE system. The TriCaster packages the VT system as a turnkey solution in a custom-designed portable PC case with video, audio and remote computer inputs and outputs on the front and back of the case. As of April 2008, four versions are in production: the basic TriCaster 2.0, TriCaster PRO 2.0, TriCaster STUDIO 2.0 and the new TriCaster BROADCAST, the latter of which adds SDI and AES-EBU connectivity plus a preview output capability. The TriCasterPRO FX, a model that was situated in line between the original TriCaster PRO and TriCaster STUDIO was introduced in early 2008, and has now been discontinued. Its feature set has been added to the new TriCaster PRO 2.0. TriCaster STUDIO 2.0 and TriCaster BROADCAST use successively larger cases than the base model TriCaster 2.0. The units within the product line above the base-model TriCaster 2.0 enables use of LiveSet 3D Live Virtual Set technology developed by NewTek, that replaces tens of thousands of dollars worth of conventional 3D virtual set equipment alone, and is also found in NewTek's venerable VT[5] Integrated Production Suite, the modern-day successor to the original VideoToaster.
In late 2009, NewTek released its high definition version of the TriCaster called the TriCaster XD300. It has ability to accept 3 formats (NTSC, 720p or 1080i) which can be mixed, two downstream keys (one still and one motion), a positionable DVE and enhanced chroma keyer and 3 switchable inputs.
At NAB Show 2010 NewTek announced its TCXD850, a rack mountable 8 input switcher with 22 channels. It was released July 15, 2010.
Subprograms
- ToasterCG is the character generationCharacter generatorA character generator, often abbreviated as CG, is a device or software that produces static or animated text for keying into a video stream. Modern character generators are computer-based, and can generate graphics as well as text...
program inside Video Toaster. - ToasterEdit is a video editing subprogram inside of Video Toaster.
See also
- Quantel PaintboxQuantel PaintboxThe Quantel Paintbox was a dedicated computer graphics workstation for composition of broadcast television video and graphics. Its design emphasizes the studio workflow efficiency required for live news production...
, earlier (1981) system - Lightwave 3D, another high-end graphical system offered by Newtek