ShowStarter is a small remote control application for vMix, explicitly designed to help self-op presenters of one-man web shows, or anyone wanting some extra automation to make life easier. It can run on the same PC as vMix, or any other on the network, and controls the cueing up and running of the "opening video" title sequence, during which the presenter's audio will be muted, and then the transition into the "main camera" shot and optional overlay of a (lower third) caption.

There's a short video showing it in action which can be downloaded from Dropbox and the software itself is at my zenvideo.co.uk site. Note that the example video uses a pre-recorded clip to simulate the live camera and the audio input that gets muted, but hopefully you'll get the idea of how it works. Please see the ReadMe file in the download package for more information.

If the "title video" duration extends past the point where the transition is set to take place, then it will carry on playing as long as all the "automatic" options are off. (eg. Automatically mix audio, Automatically Pause after Transition). Then, assuming you have control over creation of the title video, create it to include a slow audio fade after the transition point, and then you'll get the effect you're looking for.

It could be done in a similar way, by a series of progressive volume changes, given that I'm using the vMix API and so only have the same commands available that can also be used in Shortcuts, Macros, etc. Broadly speaking, the idea behind ShowStarter is to automate the control functions that have to be performed "live", in real-time, rather than things that can be done in pre-production like including an audio fade at the end of the title sequence.

Martin,

You are the ZEN MASTER!

Thank you, Chuck. Yes, there were a few "cosmetic" bugs introduced when I added the Overlay feature but forgot to initialise any values for settings that should be non-zero. Once you've entered your settings and they're saved as the defaults then you shouldn't get those spurious warnings and, as you found, it didn't prevent the program from working as expected. I've corrected it for the next release, although since it's non-fatal I'll wait a little longer before uploading it in case there's anything else that gets reported.

As it stands, there's no charge for this particular software, and I don't foresee that much further development given that it only has one primary task to perform.

Eastern guy Tom Sinclair would simply love this! haha!

@ zenvideo

Awesome stuff Martin, I look forward to trying it out!


Ice

@ zenvideo

Nicely done Martin!
I've had a chance to play around with the latest version for a few minutes and the BG audio fade out works well (once I figured out how to set-it up properly) and is much nicer than a hard cut.
If anything, I think it would benefit from a few more options, like the ability to extend and/or delay the fade out. My optimal opening would have a 2 or 3 second delay and then a 7 to 15 second slow fade out after the presenter begins to speak,
Never-the-less, I am very impressed with what you have developed Mr. Kay, it will undoubtedly be very beneficial to the "One Man" operations or those looking to 'Automate' various aspects of their Shows.


Ice