Need help with Wirecast?

You've come to the right place

Need help with Wirecast?

You've come to the right place

Need help with Wirecast?

You've come to the right place

Wirecast Virtual AssistantKnowledge Base

Install & Activate

Common questions related to activating your product

  License Reset Tool

Knowledge Base

See FAQs and in-depth product information

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Wirecast FAQs

Unfortunately, we are no longer selling support renewals (Insider Access ($119)/Premium Support ($299)) for perpetual/lifetime licenses.

Your options are to:

  1. Stay on your last supported version and no longer receive Wirecast updates or access to the Support Team. See previous downloads
  2. To get updates (16.0), purchase a new Subscription to regain access to all our updates and to email support with our Wirecast experts. For more information about Wirecast Subscriptions, please check out our Wirecast Subscription FAQs page: https://support.telestream.net/s/article/Wirecast-FAQs-on-Wirecast-Studio-Pro-Subscriptions-16-0
  3. Use our self-help resources:
    NEW! Wirecast Virtual Assistant
    Demos & Tutorials
    Knowledge Base
    Ask the community via the Facebook Public User Groups (Non-Telestream moderated)

Check out our version history to see if you might be missing out on important fixes, enhancements, and new features in the latest release.

System CPU usage should remain below 70% while streaming.

  • Disable "Live GPU Accelerated Icons" under the Shot Display tab of the Wirecast Preferences.
  • Set your Wirecast document canvas size to 1280x720. This setting is found under "Output->Canvas Setting" of your Wirecast document.
  • Select a lower resolution encoding preset (i.e. 1280x720) in your Wirecast output destinations.

For more information how to lower your CPU please click here.

If you are experiencing a crash in Wirecast, we recommend submitting your support logs to support through Support Assistant (Wirecast > Help menu > Send Support information > Send report).

This will help gather information that the engineers can use to diagnose problems that may arise.

For more information on how to use the support assistant, click here.

We recommend checking your bandwidth:

  • Test your upload speed at speedtest.net
  • Check your IT/CDN to make sure it's not exceeding capacity
  • Have the viewer test their download speed Bandwidth Requirements
  • View the stream in a controlled environment at your location
  • If all the above seems within data rate and capacity there may be an issue with the viewer's ability to decode the video. This can happen with a slower CPU or graphics card.
  • If you are exceeding your upload speed capacity, IT/CDN's bandwidth capacity, viewer's download speed then you must lower the data rate and possibly the frame rate and frame size as well.
  • If you are using H.264, try switching to MPEG4.

See Bandwidth Requirements

Secondly, system CPU usage should remain below 60% while streaming. High CPU Usage may result in dropped frames, stream termination, and various unhandled exceptions. Wirecast displays System CPU Usage at the top of the interface while streaming. Please try these tips to lower the CPU.

Use our new "License Reset Tool" where you have 24/7 access to reset your own license key.

To look up your order history, the status of your order, and transaction details, please see the following ecommerce partners depending on your date of purchase.

You can view transaction details, order history, and receipts for your license, subscription, or Access Plans by going to our ecommerce provider's (2Checkout) Account Management site.

2Checkout – Manage My Account

Please contact our ecommerce partner, Avangate, for an order lookup or via email: support@avangate.com

Please contact our ecommerce partner, eSellerate, for an order lookup or via email: support@esellerate.net

If you purchased through a reseller, you will need to contact the reseller to recover your license.

Our software End User Licensing Agreement (EULA) states that you may only have your license activated on one (1) computer at a time.

You can reset your license by:

  • Deactivating the license on the original machine and install and activate the license on your second system.
  • Use our new "License Reset Tool" where you have 24/7 access to reset your own license key.

Here is some helpful information on how to deactivate and activate your license.

You can run your desktop product on one (1) computer at a time, per our software End User Licensing Agreement (EULA). If you have purchased multiple quantities of the product, you are authorized to install the software on that number of computers.

To activate your single license on a second computer you must first deactivate the license on the original machine and install and activate the license on your second system. How to deactivate and activate your license.

Wirecast v4 and higher licenses are cross platform. You can activate your license on both Mac and Windows.

Having trouble getting a Blackmagic capture device to display video in Wirecast? Click here for a tutorial on how to get Blackmagic devices to be recognized in Wirecast.

If a lecturer installs Remote Desktop Presenter on a laptop, you can broadcast their Keynote or Powerpoint presentation directly from that laptop. If the lecturer is demonstrating something using the laptop (like a 3D graphical animation), Wirecast can also broadcast this to viewers. Other programs including Excel also work perfectly with Desktop Presenter, allowing the speaker to spontaneously refer to data without having to create new slides. For more information, please see our knowledge base article.

First you need a Green Screen. There are many variations of this to select from. Wirecast Chroma Key also supports Blue Screen. To get the optimal Chroma Key you want to have the best lighting setup. Here is one way to light a Chroma Key scene:

  • The main light (place just to the side of the camera - brightest light). This is what you generally think of as "lighting".
  • The fill light - so talent has no dark areas/shadows (place on other side of camera - dimmer). This is what keeps your talent from having drop-out areas on them.
  • The back light - to light the edges of the talent (place behind talent). This is what cleanly separates the talent from the background.

Currently Wirecast does not support the creation of custom title templates. We recommend using your preferred graphic creation tool for making your titles, and then simply importing them as regular image files. Wirecast will automatically recognize and use any alpha channel in the image.

  • Click the Source Input icon and click Scoreboards—this will open the Scoreboard Configure window.
    • You can customize the look of your scoreboard in this window. Click "OK" to place the scoreboard on the layer.
  • Open the Scoreboard Properties in the Shot Editor. There are 4 hotkeys associated with the scoreboard:
    • = Increases home score
    • - Decreases home score
    • ] Increases visitor score
    • [ decreases visitor score
    • In order for these hotkeys to be active, the Scoreboard must be in the Live window and the Wirecast window must be the active window.

For more information on how to use the scoreboard feature, please use our knowledge base article.

For a current list of our supported capture devices, please click here.

Most USB webcams should work with Wirecast as long as they are supported by AVFoundation on Mac OS X and DirectShow on Windows. See our list of typical USB/Webcams.

If you run into problems, please check that you have the most recent versions of the drivers installed on your system. Your webcam maker's website should have details.

You will need to check that there is a "DirectShow" driver when using the camera on Windows, and a "VDIG" driver when using on Mac OS X. Very few webcam makers actually create a Mac OS X driver, so please check carefully before purchasing.

Wirecast Pro is also compatible with web/IP/security cameras and network devices via the ONVIF (Open Network Video Interface Forum) protocol.

The Webstream plugin allow access to network and IP cameras through the camera's URI. For more information, click here.

Remotely control cameras with built-in pan, tilt and zoom (PTZ) features directly within Wirecast Pro using the new PTZ Controller window. Works with cameras that support VISCA over IP control, like PTZOptics cameras. For the latest information on supported PTZ cameras, visit our devices page.

Check out our helpful resources for setting up your PTZOptics camera with Wirecast:

Video Tutorials:

Contact PTZOptics Support
If you experience any trouble with the camera, setting up an IP Address, or it's not being recognized in Wirecast, please contact PTZOptics support:

Wirecast Demos & Tutorials

Wirecast Webinars

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