Streaming audio from Character Animator to Wirecast/NDI

[motionsickfx]

Hello,

Is there a way to send audio from character animator to Wirecast? We are able to get Character Animator to connect to Wirecast via NDI, but can't get any audio through. This is for having multiple characters in the scene at the same time - wondering if it's possible to get the audio from Character Animator without needing to access each individual microphone separately.

Thanks!

Jen

[CoSA_DaveS]

Ch's NDI support is currently video-only. For now, you have to route the audio using a separate scheme, sorry. We haven't tried it yet, but it should be possible to use other NDI tools to grab the mic signal and send it as audio-only.

[ppowell1212]

Can you specify the tool NDI tool that we would use to route audio?  I've looked and can't seem to find one.  It's weird because the NDI bars and tone generator works just fine. 

[oksamurai]

For a livestream we did, Dan R used ScanConverter (at least on the Mac system we were using).

[ppowell1212]

Thanks.  Maybe I'm missing a step in setup.  When I launch NDI scan converter, there is no, interface or options that I can see, no way to route audio.  Is this in another NDI tool, or a preference somewhere?  BTW, great tool, loving the software.  Streaming CAis the best thing about CA!

[ppowell1212]

I should clarify, by NDI scan converter, I mean the newtek NDI scan converter.

[oksamurai]

If I remember correctly, if you run ScanConverter then audio should just show up in Wirecast or wherever you're routing. For our livestream I remember with every computer I brought in two NDI sources - the computer display and the audio. If ScanConverter is running, do you see that show up as an available audio source on your streaming software?

[Dan Ramirez]

I've had luck on the Mac with Sienna's NDI Scan Converter. It's $44 in the app store.

I send the CH video feed, then run NDI Scan Converter separately to send audio. In Wirecast you need to select both inputs to get audio and video. I'll also scale the image down to 0% so it's effectively audio only.

I'll be testing a Windows solution soon.

[JolyonDutton]

Another option may be Sienna's WebCam for NDI which uses AVFoundation compatible sources and converts to NDI, which is slightly cheaper than NDI ScanConverter. In NDI ScanConverter you can select a very small video section (to limit bandwidth and processing), and in WebCam for NDI you can select a small camera image and low frame rate for the same sort of efficiency. WebCam for NDI may have other benefits for this workflow, including the option to select audio modes.  Both approaches seem to work, giving you a parallel (unused)video + (useful)audio stream to accompany your alpha keyed Character Animator NDI stream.

We are interested to see if this workflow can be improved, so if you have ideas or feedback on this method, please contact us using the details at the bottom of the support page at (Web Links removed by Moderator)