Boinx Software has updated BoinxTV, a live production software for
video podcasters that turns any recent Mac into a TV studio, to
version 1.4. The upgrade is revved for Mac OS X 10.6 (“Snow Leopard”)
and also includes support for Axis network cameras and streamlines
the production workflow.
Its interface allows a single person to operate BoinxTV during the
recording session, says Boinx CEO Oliver Breidenbach. After the
starting of BoinxTV, the user can choose from the many predefined
templates, or one he previously created, making it easy to produce,
for example, a news show. In education, BoinxTV opens new horizons
for school TV whether students are recording a sport event or setting
up an interview with two cameras, Breidenbach says. In enterprise,
BoinxTV can be used by sales managers who want to address their staff
in a weekly podcast, he adds. And because it runs on a MacBook Pro it
can be used in the field as well as in a studio.
BoinxTV uses various inputs like video cameras, microphones, and
pre?recorded material like movies and sound clips. Those inputs can
be used in any number of “layers” that can be stacked on top of each
other, toggled on and off and dynamically controlled. Multiple layers
— for example a ticker tape, a station logo, lower thirds and others
— can be placed on top of a video source.
Live recording Interactive controls allow one to change aspects of
every layer — for example a movie, a title, the caption of a lower
third — on the fly while the show is being recorded. The movie can
either be encoded directly to a QuickTime movie for later
post?processing (e.g. with Apple Podcast Producer) or be played
fullscreen on a dedicated monitor.
BoinxTV ships with more than 30 layers (video switcher, RSS crawler,
lower third, interview setup, and others), and can be extended by
custom layers designed with Apple’s Quartz Composer software, which
comes free with Mac OS X. Advanced chroma keying makes BoinxTV a
valuable production solution in podcast studios with green screens
and lighting rigs, says Breidenbach.
BoinxTV is available immediately for download
(http://boinx.com/download). In demo mode, BoinxTV can be used for
five days. The single license of BoinxTV is available for US$499 at
the Boinx Kagi Store (boinx.com/kagi). The BoinxTV Sponsored Edition
for US$199 (single license) requires a credit for BoinxTV in every
video created with BoinxTV.
Version 1.4 is a free update for registered users. For education and
volume licensing (multi?seat) of BoinxTV, contact sales@boinx.com .
BoinxTV requires a Power Mac G5 or Intel based Mac with discrete
graphics running Mac OS X 10.5 (“Leopard”).