Howdy everyone. Welcome back to All Roads Lead to Archive. 12star series about everything media and data and broadcast. Generating tons of media and data every day. Makes sense to dig into what's awesome in the world of live production. I like things that just make sense. Today we're sitting down with Jeremy Orus, the product evangelist with Vizart. I've known Jeremy for quite a few years and he's well known in the systems design for live production space and has one of the best beards in the business. Jeremy, thanks for joining me today. Vizart Vizrt and the company you originated at with them new techch have been main stays in live production including introducing NDI which changed the way so many think about video and audio transport. So first let's get started with you. Uh how did you end up in this crazy awesome industry? uh going in the wayback machine. Uh I started in high school in uh Jay County, Indiana on a video toaster uh way back in the uh late 90s. Um and so my career has kind of come full circle. I spent 18 years in the dealer world. So doing integrations to system design, whatnot. Uh was one of the leading uh new tech dealers and uh in our past lives raveled each other. So, uh, then I had the opportunity to actually go and work for New Techch and I I kind of jumped the opportunity to, uh, just deal with my products that I loved on a daily basis. Uh, now I have them in my home. So, I've been here a little over six years now, uh, in the world of, uh, combining New Techch and Vizrt. And, uh, so we got the blue and the orange going on. That, that's a good thing. I mean, you
you mentioned blue and orange. Those were my high school colors. And I also started in high school. I was doing um live news. I started my junior year. So, >> it's always good when you find out what you want to do nice and early. >> Yes. >> So, let's jump in with Viz. Uh Tririccaster over the years has become a huge presence in the vision mixer. That means Switcher for those who don't know space. Uh I'd love to hear about what's new and exciting on the development front and future ads the line has gone through lately. >> Yeah, so the TriCastaster again this was the 20th birthday if you will of the TriCastaster product line. And we talked about that at NAB uh 2025 and showed off all the different variations. We had a nice sticker and a branding talk about the Tririccaster turns 20. Well, the the leverage that VizRT brought with the new tech merger far more developed on the software side, which is really cool because Viz having a strong software graphics design background and and us having a switching background allowed for a lot of cross collaboration, which took off like a rocket. So, we were able to come out with the Tricaster Vision as the latest flagship product and really push the boundaries of what the softwaredefined video storytelling appliances could be. And we're not limited to hardware anymore. We launched Tririccaster MiniS, which is our first software only version of the TriCastaster. And what was cool about both those products on both ends of the spectrum, is it broadened the use case and where we fit uh in just about every vertical market you can think of. and from the content creator side up to
corporate up to you know the the big call letter stations running our products in some variation some form or factor. So that allowed us to spread out quite effect effectively. And then we also announced the Zoom integration uh which is really key. Zoom has been a very good partner of ours uh to allow for the embedded SDK inside the software to allow platforms like this to become part of the larger broadcast ecosystem. And that's not just talking about call letter stations, but also in the corporate space and sports and really able to to branch out. So, it's been very cool watching that rapid development. >> Yeah, I'm I was a previous user of Live Call Connect quite a bit and uh it was a great addition. Made things nice and simple. Anytime you can smack the easy button, uh that's a great thing. And you know, the collaborations that are going on there, that sounds uh like the perfect thing. And it also sounds like you've kind of untethered yourselves from having to worry about hardware development life cycles. So someone else comes out with, you know, something brand new and really cool. It's a card that sits in a computer. It's just a matter of you guys figure out how to talk to it and then that unlocks a whole bunch of other cool stuff. >> Oh yes, it does. And we're constantly working on that in the background. Right now the the Mini S um is NDI only. Uh we have several partners out there qualifying different types of capture cards and things like that. So more will come on that. Uh just we're again we're crawling before we run on some of that because we want to make sure connectivity is going to work and it's going to be supported for end users.
We're not just going to drop something out in the public say here go have at it and then when it breaks what are you going to do? So we want to make sure that it's qualified and supported uh in that life cycle. So I know a lot of cool stuff is still to come. >> That that sounds perfect. Uh you know I just got back from the sports video group summit in New York. I mean literally earlier this morning. Uh, Viz has a whole slew of products that play well with sports production from good oldfashioned replay uh, to advanced graphics, AR production, sports analysis. How has the expanded products of Viz been able to help with production of all manner of sport production? >> That's been really cool because it's not just talking to the top tier like if you think about Euro League and and soccer and FIFA and all that stuff that Viz has done for forever all over Europe. We've transcended some of that to not just US markets but also different types of sporting events where it's either onfield branding or like you said it's the replay action. We even have Flowix which is our HTML 5 graphics platform that we've distributed now to some college uh conferences that are using it and in that sort of uh fashion where it's a conference purchase that spreads the love across all the schools and they all have enterprise access to that. The cool thing about Flowix being in the cloud, you're doing content creation anywhere on the planet and then you're using that URL as a downstream key into a tririccaster. So, it definitely spreads the love and allows more users to then be engaged with the products not only for production but also pre-production because if you think about especially in the college space,
you want to build curriculum. You want to have some value for your students that they're going to have when they graduate a marketable skill. Well, we're able to do that now and segment a lot of those different resources. So, we can have true content creation, we can have true uh from a production standpoint and then also on the production side being and be able to produce the various platforms across all different manners of sports whether or not it's traditional your basketball, football, uh soccer, baseball, but even like Olympic type sports. we can bring in that timing and scoring data in a way that allows them to produce content that they never had access before because usually those systems are very very expensive for the for the graphics side. We've made it very cost effective for a lot of schools especially in the mid- tier even lower levels are taking great advantage of that. We've done a lot of cool stuff in minor league hockey and a few other very where it gets them onto a streaming platform. So maybe you're not going to you know broadcast you know linear television but at least you're getting the content out and so that's been really sweet. So yeah, we've always had, you know, the tririccaster in three play to do a lot of that, but now with the graphics associated with it, it really takes it to another level. >> Perfect. And the one thing I, you know, I I did see at the at the show was a lot of the truck companies and production companies are beginning to to spin up their own training programs because they need more people who are skilled and able to do this. And shoot, I remember when I was in college, the thing about sports was just can can you follow the ball fast enough as it goes back?
>> Yeah. And now there's a whole bunch of other stuff there and, you know, maybe some of the tracking will get done by uh by other things. I don't have to, you know, worry about what what the heck is camera 2 doing? Why are they looking at at that part of the audience? Yep. >> So, it's uh it's it's a brave new world there. And and lots of good educational opportunities as well. >> Yes, very much so. uh AI player tracking on some of the graphic programs uh makes that thing very cool. I mean you go back to you know when Fox had the puck that lit up and everyone thought oh that was groundbreaking and then you couldn't find it because it was just the entire image was blurred by a graphic. Well now we've taken technology applied that to some graphic elements and see stuff done in real time and then also being able to do that as a sponsored package to be produced like highlight reels whatever. So you see a lot of monetary value in that now where it wasn't really looked at before. But the way content is consumed nowadays, you know, you're talking about everything's being seen on a phone, you know, you're not watching things, you know, in front of a television. So how do graphics fit that? And our adaptive graphic platform, we're able to do that. So you can have the same look going out multiple different types of platforms, either linear or streaming. So it's really cool. >> Yeah. What it's what they apparently are calling shoulder content. It's not just the main, but you get that extra on the sides. >> Yep. >> U so talking about all of uh that visualization and real-time stuff that kind of gets us into the virtual set world. Uh a lot of folks who watch many
different types of programs don't really know that their favorite personalities are not in that cool space that you see. It's a video wall and composite elements to make interactive spaces keeping those audiences engaged. Uh what has 2025 brought new to this space from Viz? Well, with further development, we've had a great partnership with the Unreal Engine platform for a long time and being able to take that on to the next step further, not just on our high-end virtual set uh workflow, but also with NDI uh transmit back and forth. So, we're able to take elements from an NDI system, get it into Unreal, and then back out again. So, then we have that cross collaboration between platforms. You know, we we play well with others at Vizrt. You know, we can talk to anybody's anything pretty much. And then being able to use that content or use those signals or use that command to control the API functions really makes things cool and expands that workflow quite a bit. So and when it comes to virtual I mean new tech did that forever in a day with the memes far before most people could even think about it and made it cost effective. Now, we run the gamut from small entry level. You know, you've got a city council member who is sitting on a director's chair in front of a green screen in a closet making it look like he's out next to a lake uh to do just announcement type stuff. And I use that an example because I did that once all the way to full motion capture type elements uh in Unreal. So, we run the spectrum of the capabilities in the virtual world. And yeah, to your point, what you're watching on TV, you know, it really is fake news. Sorry for the joke, but there's so many elements that are not real and you don't know it. That's
the real uh takeaway that we're able to then deliver that content in so many different ways to so many different people and yeah, we could have a conversation side by side and we're completely across the country or across the world uh in different elements, but it makes it look like we're in the same environment. So, it's been uh it's been very fun uh adding some of the Zoom feature sets. we're doing green screen in front of with the Zoom call, you know, even we can make it that simple. I I've done it with an iPhone out in a field uh and just key correctly uh and make sure the lighting's right and and we can bring that in uh in that virtual space. So, that that's also really cool about the technology that we use because we're software driven. It makes it far more nimble that we can be more creative with how the the participants of the production are being utilized and being seen uh in a way that really hasn't been done before. I mean, you know, but the the giant rigs with the tracking and the and all that stuff and you had to be in a set that was set correctly and the lighting and everything had to be exactly perfect. Not so much anymore. The the the world has changed quite a bit. And even on the LED wall background stuff, which was really cool, we saw some stuff at NAB this year that did it with projectors instead. So, you know, it it's it's ever changing. That's I I hate the term future proof because nothing ever is. It's what's next. It's how do you mitigate? How do you expand? How do you scale, you know, without having to rip everything out and start over each time? And so we allow for that, especially with the NDI technology, you can add parts and pieces. You can experiment. You can
develop uh and involve your ecosystem that doesn't break the bank. That's the other cool part. >> Yeah. Not breaking the bank is is the best part because people don't really have gigantic budgets. They they >> Oh, yeah. And that's changed quite a bit over the years. And you talk about who controls the budgets. I have far more conversations with uh IT administrators than actual senior broadcast engineers anymore. You know, it's who's controls the purse strings, who's driving uh the project, how does it end up, especially in the corporate space. You know, that that's all, you know, driven by it for the most part. And so then how do you play well on their network and in their environment in their ecosystem and then it's more in the output deliverables. Show them what you can do, then worry about all the bits and, you know, nuts and bolts. And you're not selling a box anymore. You're selling a solution. So, how does that solution fit and who you're talking to to make sure it makes sense to them? And so, that goes back to that evangelism part that I do. That's the idea. What do you want to do? How do you want to get there? Let's talk about that. What's your budget? Let's then form a solution that makes sense. And then, yes, you'll see the sheet. you'll see what you know prices are on it at that point cuz you know it's just click and ship only gets you so far. >> This is true. Um and you know as as we've merged with technology there is very few people who are >> IT and broadcast both at the same time. It's a matter of people have to learn about the other other side of things and and integrate that into their their skill sets as they move forward. >> Oh yeah. That's so uh it's a it's a
challenge. It's been challenging, but it also keeps my job interesting. I will say that >> that it does. >> So, um the utilities, uh similar to the NDI toolkits, there's a number of hardware and software devices that simply make things work. What's new and cool in this often unseen and unsung space? >> Yeah, so a lot of things have been on the development on the NDI side especially. Now we have kind of carved them off as their own separate entity. So that allows them to do a lot more of the communication between other manufacturers. And so we do have that certification program. So once you're NDI certified, that comes down to basically true plug-and-play. So that also helps the end users when they're developing their ecosystem and their workflow and even with, you know, our dealer partners and and whatnot, how they're structuring the overall package. they can start to pick and choose whatever makes the most sense for the end user budget-wise. You know, do a camera shootout, what PTZ looks the best in that environment, things like that. But then you're still leveraging the same type of connectivity. And you know that, hey, I'm dealing with certified NDI devices. Okay, great. We do have that almost true plugandplay now. So things will come up, they will talk to each other. and then utilizing the NDI toolkit like you've got discovery server, you've got NDI bridge, you've got so many other tools that then links all those different devices together. Now I can utilize that in pretty much any way I want to. You know, NDI being pretty much the the only true birectional AV overIP protocol means
devices can be both sources and destination simultaneously. Well, that allows for a lot of development, especially on the software side, but also on the hardware side. There's some cool stuff coming out for for some other uh manufacturers that have kind of taken run with that idea of what can I really do with that NDI signal in either direction as a send or a receive. So that then expands the capabilities and you've got a lot more Swiss Army knives out there. You know, I hate unitaskers. You know, even our VISC connect solos do more than one thing. So, you know, so we we want that to happen. And we want that in the hands of the end users to allow them to adapt to what they want to do. And it's been really cool seeing that development. Uh especially with the certification process. You know, you see that on displays now. You've got more cameras coming and more edge devices in that India ecosystem. So it's not all just software, but yeah, definitely hardware devices as well. >> And and that that also lets people do things that are kind of off the reservation because they don't need to worry about it's just going to work. I mean, I' I've been playing with NDI over Wi-Fi, which is never recommended. Um, you know, it'll it'll work in certain circumstances, but uh, you know, let's you try to stretch the envelope. >> Yep. >> Yeah. Obviously, wireless is 100% reliable 30% of the time. Doesn't matter what technology it is. If it's a microphone, if it's video, if you know, if it's internet, whatever, cell phone data. Uh, so it's mitigation what makes the most sense. We've done it. I mean, I've had a lot of of churches that'll use like an iPhone as a baptismal camera
just because it's not an everyday use. It's just for certain events that then they're bringing that NDI signal back into the TriCastaster for production. So, there's a lot of cool ways we can do it with that uh and and make it work in that environment. Now, again, it's it's not just always going to work no matter what. It's like, no, you got to make sure that you understand the signal flow and whatnot. So it is functional but yeah once you understand and get it to work like that the way you need to the end result is very cool >> and it also works out well because uh some cell phones are completely waterproof. So goes for a dunk it's not going to be a big cost for the production and especially in a a small budget place like a house of worship. >> Well we've done some stuff with some uh some naval vessels let's also say that uh with with some indi tools. Um, so there's a, again, there's a lot of ways we can make it work. It It's very hard for me to get to a no. And but when I say no, it's like, yeah, uh-uh, that either that, you know, that doesn't exist yet. You know, that technology, you know, it's not there. Uh, or you need a larger check with far more zeros on the end of it, you know, but, uh, yeah, for the most part, I'll I'll find a way. I'll make it work. >> Yep. That that's that I mean, that's what broadcast is all about. Make it work. Mhm. >> So, uh, big part of broadcast is news and, uh, you know, the overall workflow management. This is an evolving space for viz, isn't it? And how it distributes over other verticals. >> Yeah. Uh, cuz we've been in the tier one broadcast space for forever, not just on the graphics side, but then also on the
automation. You know, Moss Art's been a huge player for such a long time. We're able to tech take that technology into the corporate space as corporate video has exploded over the last several years. And it's not just, hey, I'm doing a a webinar, an all hands meeting, a Zoom call, or I'm talking to the press. There's a lot more development in that. There there's the VOD aspect of of the learning and the continue education inside of a company. There's more development of the internal uh you know, employees for for lack of a better term, uh to you know, enhance their skill sets and a lot of that's done through video. And we're able to do that with a lot of our tools. So then you get a lot of that, you know, what I call the proAV/broadcast merger of technology into a space that really hadn't been there before. You know, you would have that traditional AV is like, okay, I walk into a room, I plug into a laptop, it feeds a projector. Okay. Well, now we've added cameras, we've added distance learning, we've added VMRs, you know, the virtual meeting rooms, you know, we've added streaming, we've added, you know, you know, video on demand, we've got a YouTube. Now we're combining all these different types of media consumption technologies. How we're going to play with that? Well, okay, we have the tools. We can do that. So, we've got lecture capture, we've got traditional broadcast, we've got streaming, we've got graphics, we have automation. And so, you tie in the capabilities of our system and simplify that like you mentioned before, that big fat easy button. You know, we can take that and then simplify that. So, you don't have to be a seasoned veteran in a broadcast
production environment. you know, you can walk in as an intern or a trainee or an admin and know it's like, hey, I hit that button. It does what it the button says. We can make it that simple. And so that also leverages everything that we've done forever in tier one broadcast, all that learned experience and that knowledge and that capability and simplified that for just about any end user in any vertical market, not just corporate, the house of worship, education, uh local municipality government. We've done a lot there as well. Uh so it it does make a a very nice use case. We can just customize that solution for those end users. >> Democratization of the advanced tool sets for everyday users. >> I I like it. So the the thing about those tier one uh broadcast environments that also gets into that whole ecosystem that makes it all happen. And I think this ends up where things end up being stored and you know where things are stored. I always say this road to archive is kind of weird. No, it's true because you're you're doing you're producing all this content. It has to go somewhere. And a lot of times when I bring that up in the initial conversation, then you know it brains kind of lock up and I start seeing smoke or I hear crickets. You know, it's like, whoa, we didn't think about that. Like, yeah, you got to think about that. Thankfully, you know, we have that built into the tririccaster as, you know, you got the streaming, you got the switching and recording all in one device. But in a case of like a tririccaster vision that has 44 inputs, I can't I iso record all 44 inputs directly to the tririccaster, you know. So we have the NRS, we have
other types of devices that we can then send that content to. So that also makes it nice for the end users like, okay, I feel comfortable storing this. I'm recording this. It's high-end video for video production use. That's also key because you'll get a lot of those, especially on the IT size like, oh, we got storage. No, you got a USB drive sitting on a shelf. That's not No, we're not. We're not going there. Even though it happens. I've had a client that said, "Yes, I had 300 jump drives uh in in my back closet. That's my archive." And I just Yeah, that was sad. But we're getting them into a a new workflow. That makes sense. And so from an archive perspective, you have a lot of institutions that require that meeting recording to be around for many, many years. How are you going to protect it? How are you going to make sure it's available when needed when called upon? You know, you have that in government. You have that, you know, you know, Library of Congress. Uh you've got that in the medical field. You've got that in a lot of other areas where content is being produced. We have to store it. Okay. Where do we store it? How does it get there? How are we going to manage that? And so, thankfully, you know, we got a lot of different partners in that space uh that we can talk to. How do we migrate all that data and all that content? And if it's usable, if it's needed, I if it's ISO recordings of a meeting space and you've got a talking head, I don't need 4 hours of a councilman falling asleep. You know, I might want to clip a little bit of it, post on social media, and have a little fun with it. >> Yeah. Clean that up and then save the stuff that is necessary.
And and the thing is the you know the NRS has some of those asset management tools that come inherently with it which talk to other other ways of of keeping that as a longer term archive and and that's that's the wonderful thing about having that kind of diverse ecosystem plugged all in. >> Yeah. And we can talk to just about anybody's storage on that side as well. So we can index other devices if it's something that's already existing in the plant. How do we connect to it? Index it. Now we have all of our tool sets to manage that and then yes store it long term. somewhere else when necessary. >> Yep. Robust tool sets for all all parts of your media life cycle are always good thing to have along for the ride. >> Very much so. >> Well, to our audience, thanks for diving in with us today here on All Roads Lead to Archive. Hope you've gotten as much out of this as this deep dive as I have. Please smash those like and subscribe buttons. Special thanks to Abbid Technology for providing the editorial platform. Jeremy, it's always great to to sit down and catch up and and talk uh talk bits and bobs in technology and workflows. Um, thanks for joining us here today. >> Of course, I can go on from for more hours, so if you want to do another segment, we can do a deep dive on anything. So, that's what I'm here for. >> That sounds great. Awesome.