General Information

What is Touchcast Director

Touchcast Director is a macOS application for conducting virtual events in combination with Touchcast Fabric Showtime. It gets video and audio from communication applications, arrange this content on virtual scenes and stream them to Fabric Showtime or to Touchcast Virtual Camera and record this content locally.

Terms

We use following terms:

• “speakers” (participants of a show, currently Zoom meeting participants only)

• “cameras of speakers”

• “shared screens of speakers”

• “scenes” - their arrangement is prepared (see Prepare mode) and saved in a project

• “placeholders on scenes” - areas on scenes to show either cameras of speakers or shared screens of speakers.

System Requirements

Devices with Intel Processor

MacBook Pro 2020 or later
CPU: Intel Core i9
RAM: 32 GB
OS: macOS Big Sur (11.0)
Discrete graphics card

Devices with Apple Silicon

MacBook Pro (13-inch, M1, 2020) or later, 16GB preferred

Other requirements

• Stable internet connection with 10+ Mbps uplink

• Storage: 20GB and more. Local storage is used for the project files (.tcp), their size depends on assets quality and quantity, and for local recordings, size depends on resolution and duration.

• Installation of third party virtual audio driver Blackhole, see below

• Permissions to record screen, access to microphone and camera

First Time Preparations

This section lists actions that should be performed only once to prepare a dedicated streaming device for virtual events.

Installing Touchcast Director application

Touchcast Director can be obtained from https://appcenter.ms/orgs/touchcast/apps/Director-macOS
Always use the latest stable build.

Installing BlackHole

Touchcast Director requires installation of BlackHole Virtual Audio Driver (available here) to capture audio from Zoom calls and also to capture native audio from videos like “Coming soon…“ or “Onto“ on scenes.

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Uninstalling BlackHole
It’s easier to just update BlackHole driver by installing an updated version but if needed download the uninstaller from here or follow this guide.

Checking permissions

Screen Recording

Touchcast Director requires permission to record screen in order to capture and stream video from Zoom calls. Touchcast Director will check if recording permissions are granted every time when an attempt to connect to Zoom call is performed. The first time user clicks “Zoom” button Touchcast Director will display a dialog similar to this:

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To avoid confusion and delays during actual events please run Touchcast Director with some test project and connect to any Zoom meeting at least once before real events. This will help getting the required permissions in advance and save time later.

Camera Access

Touchcast Director requires to access the camera. The first time when Touchcast Director opens a project it asks user for permissions to access the camera, please make sure to grant the access.

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Microphone Access

Touchcast Director requires to access the microphone. The first time when Touchcast Director opens a project it asks user for permissions to access the microphone, please make sure to grant the access.

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Entering Fabric Streaming Pipeline

The first time user presses Stream button Touchcast Director will ask to enter the URL and the key of the service’s pipeline to stream to. Another way to invoke this dialog is to press the gear button in the bottom right corner and add + in the list of pipelines in ‘Outputs' section of the app’s preferences.

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Service name is a convenient way to refer to the service, for example “Fabric Downhill” or “Fabric Pipeline Track 3” etc.
Stream URL and a key are RTMP parameters, currently they can be obtained from technical staff.

Check streaming parameters

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It is recommended to use 1080p resolution when show assumes presenting shared screens.

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Make sure max bitrate is below your uplink!

Conducting Events

General description

Touchcast Director uses .TCP project files that contain virtual scenes for events, it connects to calls in communication software (Zoom), captures audio and video and arranges speakers from those calls according to the project file.
A director switches between scenes if necessary according to event scenario and current speakers and shared content, also they start and stop streaming, local recording or do other additional actions when required.

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Note about audio devices

In general, wireless or USB headphones are supported but as with other hot-plug devices, be extra careful with them. When using Director in Show mode you should not connect or disconnect devices, and “smart” bluetooth devices may disconnect because of their “smart” logic, to handle an incoming phone call and so on.

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• When Touchcast Director enters Show mode it remembers what audio device is currently set as an output (your headphones? your external gear?).

• It creates “Touchcast Audio” virtual audio device, configures it in such way that your previous audio device remains selected. In other words if you were using your AirPods in Prepare mode you will continue using it in Edit

• It sets “Touchcast Audio” as your system sound output. Don’t change it, don’t allow your system to update this device. For example if you disconnect and connect your headphones the macOS will override Touchcast Audio and your recording/streaming session will become broken.

• Because of system specifics you can’t adjust audio level when this virtual device is selected. It means that if you were using Built In Speakers set to loud volume and you switch to Show and start streaming you won’t be able to make it less loud.

• “Touchcast Audio” device is deleted by Touchcast Director after exiting Show mode. Next time it will be created again.

• If for some reason “Touchcast Audio” was not removed either ignore it or delete it by following the guide above

Concept of placeholders

Touchcast Director captures users and shared screen from Zoom calls, but speakers speak and share their screens in turns. To simplify handling this a concept of placeholders was implemented. A placeholder is a template element that, when connected to Zoom call, will display a speaker or a shared content, based on simple rules. The rules for placeholders can be described as follows

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This approach greatly simplifies the control of the events. In the simplest scenario it is enough to have just one scene with desired number of placeholders and users will be displayed according to their activity. Switching scenes just allows to add more professional look and feel, to simulate a control room and cameras during TV shows.

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Steps for streaming

Open a project

Open a .TCP project, prepared for current event by opening Touchcast Director and clicking Open Project on the home screen.
If the app crashed during previous run it may start with previous project restored. Close it without saving changes, if asked and open your actual project.

Check that microphone is set to BlackHole

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Selection of BlackHole mic in Prepare mode is necessary to capture, record or stream audio from Zoom.

Join a Zoom call

Open Show mode and click Zoom button in the top toolbar and in the popup window that appears enter the invite URL for your Zoom call. This URL looks like:
https://touchcast.zoom.us/j/XXXXXXXXXXX?pwd=YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

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Username field represents how Touchcast Director will appear in Zoom call, so it is recommended to don’t change this name to avoid confusing Zoom guests.

Start streaming

Before starting a stream, make sure your current uplink exceeds max bitrate specified in the app’s Preferences.

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Streaming can be paused and continued during the event if needed.

Controlling an event

During an event director can track the conversation happening in Zoom and switch the scenes according to the situation.

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For example, when there is only one speaker talking during the intro section of an event it may make sense to switch to a scene with only one Speaker Placeholder, but when there is a group of people talking to each other it may make sense to switch to a different scene with a group shot.

Director’s actions

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During an event director also can perform following actions.

Use “On Air“

There is a “On Air“ button on toolbar in Show mode.

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Switch “On Air“ ON only when this is necessary.

Talk to speakers

There is a “Talk“ button on toolbar in Show mode.

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Of course, viewers will not hear you.

Chat with speakers

There is a ‘Chat' tab on 'Speakers’ panel in Show mode.

Director can post messages to everyone or to certain Zoom participant, and also see replies.

Keep a speaker on backstage

Every speaker of Monitor can be thrown to backstage.

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To return from backstage, unset ‘keyhole' (to get ‘Auto’ mode of appearance) or click 'star’ button (see below).

Keep a speaker on scenes

Every speaker of Monitor can became “a star“ of the show.

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To return from scenes, unset ‘star' (to get ‘Auto’ mode of appearance) or click 'keyhole’ button (see above).

Mute a speaker or ask to unmute

When director is host or co-host, it is possible to mute certain speaker or ask a speaker to unmute.

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When director is not host or co-host, messages “Please mute yourself“ or “Please unmute yourself“ will be sent to that user.

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Adjust auto green screen for a speaker

Defaults for auto green screen are in the app preferences.

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All your adjustments are applied immediately.

Hide non-presentable speakers

Non-presentable speakers are participants having their cameras OFF.

You can prevent their appearance on scenes, switching related option in the app preferences, on 'Shows' tab.

Control appearance of titles for speakers

Each placeholder of speaker’s camera can represent a title & subtitle.

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• “Show when allowed“ - when OFF, all the titles will not appear.

• “Hide after 5, 10, 20, 30 secs or 1 min“ - when ON, all the titles of the current scene will disappear after time specified.

• “Show only once“ - when ON, titles will not be shown again and again when switching between scenes during recording or streaming. So they’ll gone after their 1st hiding.

Adjust title & subtitle for a speaker

After joining to the Zoom meeting, speaker’s title is automatically set to the Zoom name of speaker and speaker’s subtitle is empty.

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Notice that very long title / subtitle will not be shown, to avoid appearance of truncated text at the show.

Reorder speakers manually

By default, queue of speakers in Monitor is automatically ordered in following way: current active Zoom speaker is at the top of queue, former active Zoom speaker is below, and so on.

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Use this mode e.g. to set speaker at the podium and speakers at the table on scenes like “Accenture Speakers“.

Enter Zoom breakout room

TC Director bot can be invited to any Zoom breakout room by host (producer of event) and then assigned from one room to another, if necessary.

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Only participants of the same room appear in Director's speakers monitor and take part in event.

Zoom scenes in / out near point of interest and simulate camera movements on a scene

By default, each scene is shown to viewers (via local recording | streaming | virtual camera) entirely.

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All changes of output areas aren’t saved in TCP so you’ll always have zoom x1.0 by default for all the scenes after reopening a project.

Completing an event

When event is complete or when told by people conducting the event, disconnect from Zoom by clicking Zoom button and confirming in the dialog that appears. In some cases if Zoom call organisers stop the Zoom call you will be disconnected automatically.

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Actions above can be done in different order, i.e. it is allowed to stop streaming first and then disconnect from a Zoom call.

Optional steps

Recording and exporting

Touchcast Director allows recoding of the content locally, simultaneously with streaming or independently. To start or stop recording click the “Record” button in the top panel. The recording timer displays the current duration of the recording and whether the content is being recorded.

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To export either original MP4 recording or a composition, just click “Export“ in Edit mode.

Virtual Camera

Pressing Virtual Camera starts streaming the content to Touchcast (former Pitch) Virtual Camera. It is a separate installer and has to be set up separately, this guide does not cover using this feature.

Background SFX

If event requires playing a background audio track play it in any available audio player and its audio will be captured automatically.
For example, open the audio in Quick Time Player, adjust the volume, loop it if needed (Quick Time Player > View > Loop)

Important recommendations

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