| One Touch Does It All and Much More... | Master Control |
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"It has been a vital piece of equipment in our productions. It's an invaluable device that cuts down our production time and makes our workflow more efficient." - Mark Cottington, New Media Video Producer, Pittsburgh Penguins |
Simplicity
Gone are the days of fumbling around mouse or clumsy keypad driven device interfaces and accidentally triggering actions you didn't intend. No more missed cues - the result of insufficient time to access functions. No longer is it necessary to memorize multi-step actions needed for creating your favorite production effects. No more unreliable or cryptic ctrl/alt/shift keyboard shortcuts. And no more stressful training sessions when you need to call in extra help at the last minute. What you see is what you get.
Imagine being able to synchronize complex, time-sensitive procedures involving input switching, transitioning, audio mixing, overlay selection, camera positioning, and more... all simultaneously... and all triggered by a single button press. It's no longer just a dream... it's Master Control!
Whether you're a one man show or are part of a full production team, you never seem to have enough hands to do all that needs to be done - particularly when live broadcasting. Master Control can be used as a standalone control interface, or operated simultaneously with other device accessories (mouse, keyboard, other controllers). It can control most functions of supported devices including some extras that can't be achieved any other way. So, whether you need more hands to assist, or have more hands than places to put them, your productions are now able to become a lot less nerve-racking, and a lot more productive.
Master Control is designed to simplify your life; and with this in mind, we endeavor to make it as simple to use as possible. We take a what-you-see-is-what-you-get approach, and the enhanced capabilities we provide require no programming or special technical skills.
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"Unbelievable product. Flexible, gave us more options and brought our production to the next level." - Trevor Parks, Sports Information Director, Youngstown State University |
How it works
Master Control is a modular system - you buy only what you need. The base system can control itself, as well as other Master Control units. Output modules can be added to control other manufacture's devices and software, and each module allows control of one of that particular device/software. You can also add additional hosts of particular modules, so that you can control more than one of the same device independently (even in the same macro). Or, you can also configure hosts to automatically act redundantly. Complex setups are also supported. For example, you could have two Device A and one Device B all operating independently, with additional of those same three devices providing redundancy of the first three.
'Getting Started' tutorials are provided for Master Control as well as individual modules. These get you going from the moment you open the box, explaining set-up, user interface, macro creation, button layouts, providing ideas for macros to implement, and module use. But, the real power is in the ability to customize macros to meet your specific needs. The built-in Macro Editor provides the ability to create your own sequences of controls, not for just one device, but for any combination of supported devices - all in the same macro. Quick Test makes it easy to test out individual controls, while Test allows you try out your in-progress macros without having to build full layouts first. After you've built one or more custom macros, the Design Mode lets you assign them to buttons with various style and labelling options.
But it doesn't stop there. In addition to Output Modules, other modules are offered to connect external devices as Input Controllers or as Tools that enhance device functionalities through special user interfaces. Modules and additional hosts can be purchased through the built-in Add-Ons Store.
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"Amazing! WOW! - We'll never use a TriCaster without one now!" - John Powell, Technical Director, Studio Hudson |
Enhancement Tools
Tools make use of capabilities of output modules to create new functionalities and workflows. For example:
- provide specialized user interfaces to control devices in a new way
- integrate data source capabilities into devices and software that don't support them internally
- provide date/time capabilities for triggering device functions on a defined schedule
- use a digital file recorder/player (such as TriCaster) to create a multi-camera instant replay system
- implement scoreboard overlays using a character generator
- create simplified workflows
The Ins and Outs
Input Controllers add yet another level of power and flexibility. It's often the case that hardware controllers designed for particular equipment may not meet your exact needs. Or when upgrading to new equipment, old gear often finds itself collecting dust in a storage room somewhere. Now, with Master Control input control modules, these devices can find new life in your productions. Whether you just want to alter basic functionality of a controller; completely remap a controller for use with different devices; or for when you would prefer to use an alternate input device, such as a MIDI controller (audio mixer, foot pedal, etc), to trigger macros... the possibilities are endless.
Value Setters enhance this capability further, by allowing input controllers and tool modules to feed data to macros, and thus out to any ouput module(s). For example, the Score Keeper tool can additionally feed score data to an ouput module such as Twitter or to a webpage using the File: Text module. Input Controllers support translation of input values through the use of Value Setters (Index, Scale, and Value), such that, for example, a MIDI slider with a value range of 0 to 127, can be easily auto-remapped to control an output module with a particular control value ranging from -100 to 200.
This capability allows complex multi-step tasks to be reduced to a single button press, slider fade, foot pedal push, or any other kind of input action. For example, pressing a score increase button on a scoreboard controller could trigger a macro including scoreboard overlay updates, switcher transitioning, instant slow-motion replay, score tweeting, and more.
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"Breathed new life into my broadcast!" - Patrick Spohrer, Filmmaker, Monkey With A Gun |
What else can it do?
Anything you can imagine? Just about everything you can do manually on supported devices with one or more mouse clicks, or by navigating through numerous tabs and settings, panel interfaces, etc... all of this can be defined as a macro and triggered with a single keypress. It can even accomplish time-sensitive and precision setting procedures that can not be done manually because you can't move your hands fast enough or don't have accurate control of the parameter values. Whatever your needs are... Master Control can be customized to suit your specific requirements. And you're not limited to the number of defined control buttons on the macro interface, although there are plenty of them, as the entire panel or specific sections of it can be remapped at the press of a button, too. Smart buttons can even alter other buttons, or themselves, to provide related additional controls. So, buttons can easily be used for multiple purposes but still remain obvious in functions with the ability to relabel themselves.
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dhomas trenn, youngmonkey