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TriCaster’s support for the AVID® Artist Mix hardware surface brings a highly desirable level of convenience and creative control to a critical aspect of almost every video production – audio. This section explains how to connect and use this powerful third party device.
The AVID(R) Artist Mix hardware surface provides great convenience, delivering hands-on external audio control to TriCaster operators. Adjust audio levels, channel panning, equalization, select mixer presets, and more.
The compact Artist Mix console provides excellent visual feedback, and delivers control beyond what can possibly be provided with the mouse and keyboard alone. Almost all adjustments are bi-directional – adjusting the control surface updates the user interface controls, and vice versa. Artist Mix communicates with TriCaster using a popular open control communication protocol named EUCON™ (Extended User Control); the control surface acts and feels like a physical extension of your software. Let’s begin by discussing installation and setup.
22.7.1 INSTALLING AVID® ARTIST MIX SOFTWARE
AVID(R) provides a utility called EuControl for use with the Artist Mix control surface. This software runs in the background, and is required for TriCaster to recognize and respond to the control surface.
1. From the TriCaster Startup screen, click the Shutdown icon, and choose
Administrator Mode.
2. Select Exit to Windows to leave the TriCaster environment.
3. Obtain the EuControl installer by using one of the following two methods:
a. With TriCaster connected to the Internet, download the most recent installer for the Windows(R) 64bit operating system from the webpage below:
www.avid.com/artistsupport (Requires Avid website account.)
b. Otherwise, download the installer as above to a different computer, and transfer it to TriCaster’s hard drive across a network or by USB flash drive (etc.)
4. Double-click the icon for the installer application (Install_EuControl.exe).
5. Follow the instructions displayed to complete the installation.
After the software installation is complete, shut down TriCaster, and connect the AVID(R) Artist Mix panel to TriCaster as follows:
1. Plug one end of the AC power cord into the power adapter and the other into an electrical outlet (push the AC power connector firmly into the adapter).
2. Connect the DC output cable from the power adapter to the DC input on the left rear side of the control surface.
3. Connect the control surface to TriCaster using the crossover cable supplied with the Artist Mix, or – as will often be true, in cases where TriCaster network connectivity is a requirement – to the same network subnet your TriCaster is connected to using a suitable Ethernet cable. In most cases you
will wish to use a switch or router rather than a direct connection between the two devices, so TriCaster can also connect to the Internet, etc.
4. Power up TriCaster, and wait for the Start screen to appear; then press the POWER button on the control surface.
AVID symbols briefly appear on the OLED display above each fader at this point. When EuControl recognizes the control surface, the display shows rectangles in place of the logo icons to tell you the control surface is in a ‘ready’ state.
Connectivity Notes: If the control surface OLED display continues to show the AVID symbols, it has not been detected by EuControl. Try cycling the Artist Control power off and then on again. If this does not help, power Artist Mix off, restart TriCaster, and turn the surface on again. If Artist Mix is still not recognized, double-check your connections. If more than one TriCaster is connected to the network, give each unit a unique system name. If this fails (or when multiple TriCasters or Artist Mix devices are on the same network) you may need to Exit to Windows, right-click the EuControl icon (E) shown in the Notification Area of the Windows taskbar, select EuControl Settings and and use the configuration tools provided therein. Refer to the AVID® documentation for further details.
5. Launch a TriCaster session. The OLED rectangle icons are replaced by custom TriCaster audio control labels and displays.
When you first connect it to your TriCaster and open a TriCaster session, Artist Mix is automatically configured to TriCaster’s default Audio Mixer setup. The OLED information display will look like Figure 373. Let’s note in passing that this initial layout may or may not match the Audio Mixer setup in your current TriCaster session. We’ll discuss how to customize this default configuration a bit later, but for now let’s consider basic navigation.
