Worship Musician August 2020 | Page 129

CAMERA SWITCHER + MORE In addition to a virtual camera switcher, you can also color correct the camera sources and import LUTs if you want to. I cannot stress how valuable this feature is for matching disparate video sources. SCENES The ability to create, lock, and transition between scenes is another great feature. It’s super easy to create a countdown scene that informs your online congregation that you’re getting ready to go online, while buying you a little time to check how your streams are doing online before your service actually starts. Since Ecamm Live enables you to set scenes to automatically transition, once your countdown is done, it can load the next scene for you. You can also copy scenes with a single click, which is particularly convenient if you use multiple cameras. If for example your second scene features your ‘A camera’, simply copy that scene, swap the camera with using the virtual switcher, lock the scene, and boom, you can use hot keys to toggle between your two camera scenes. Just remember to lock your scenes! RECORD MODE In addition to being able to create great video content for social media, you can also use Ecamm Live’s Record Mode to shoot announcements that you incorporate into scenes. The video quality is so high, I’ve started using it to shoot gear demos like the one below. After shooting the individual pieces in Ecamm Live I brought them into Adobe Premiere and married them with the audio I recorded in Pro Tools for a presentation that is as good as anything I’ve produced, and was way easier to put together since I wasn’t continuously having to grab video off of cards after I had a desired take. If you love a great workflow, you’re gonna love this application! USB + VIRTUAL CAMERA A decade or so ago, I bought a Canon 7D Mark I, and it has served me well over the years. On a whim, one day I connected it my computer via USB and to my very pleasant surprise Ecamm Live immediately recognized my camera. For the moment this is both my primary camera for streaming and shooting gear demos. Even better, I can leverage Ecamm Live’s Virtual Camera function to also use this camera for Zoom meetings. CAMERA SWITCHER While we’re on the subject of cameras, if you have enough inputs and/or capture cards, the built-in camera switcher arguably eliminates the need for an external switcher. While I am using my ATEM Mini Pro as well, most people do not need more than two or three camera sources, which Ecamm Live easily manages. CAMERA EFFECTS Even if they’re the same make and model, using two cameras in the same production can prove challenging in post when it comes to color matching. In addition to a great green screen function with the ability to load your own backgrounds, the Picture Settings menu in the Camera Effects panel is shockingly good at matching disparate cameras. The Zoom & Pan functions add another layer of awesome to your productions since you can map different zoom settings to scenes. This is particularly helpful if you’re shooting with a single camera. AUDIO The Mic menu gives you access to any connected audio sources, which like cameras can be mapped to specific scenes. The Sound Levels panel enables you to mute audio sources, which is particularly helpful for not having vocal ‘chatter’ bleed into your countdown. THE PEOPLE Like a great church, a successful company is frequently a reflection of the quality people working tirelessly behind the scenes to make things happen. This is certainly the case with the entire Ecamm Live team. If you get a chance to watch Ken and Glen’s Q&A livestreams you’ll see how committed they are to making this application the best it can be. Digital Marketing Manager Katy Fawkes does a great job of positioning the brand and is almost guaranteed to be in the chat answering questions on company streams. Another special thing about this company is the quality of the support they provide to new and existing users. The support page on the Ecamm web site features links to a ton of outstanding content, much of which was created by Adrian Salisbury, a key member of the Ecamm extended community. I have Adrian to thank for most of what I know about this application. REAL WORLD EXPERIENCE In addition to hosting the Worship Guitar Show each week, I also host Doppler’s Gear Garage, both of which multi-stream to Facebook and YouTube at 6pm Pacific on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively. This past week it was my pleasure to have Ken and Glen on ‘The Garage’ and you can watch that episode below if you want to hear more about this amazing application. In the meantime, I can’t say enough great things about this application or the people behind it! Doppler’s Gear Garage #15 For pricing and more information, please visit www.Ecamm.com Doug Doppler Doug Doppler has an instrumental disc out on Steve Vai’s Favored Nations label, was a session player on Guitar Hero, teaches at guitar camps for Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, John Petrucci, and Tom Morello, is a streaming and video content creator, and also serves as the Editorial Director for Worship Musician magazine. WorshipMusician.com August 2020 Subscribe for Free... 129