The NewTek Video Toaster is a combination of hardware and software for the editing and production of standard-definition and high-definition video in NTSC, PAL, and resolution independent formats on Commodore Amiga computers and subsequently on computers running the Windows operating system. It comprises various tools for video switching, chroma keying, character generation, animation, and image manipulation. The Video Toaster won the Emmy Award for Technical Achievement in 1993.[1]
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The Video Toaster was designed by NewTek founder Tim Jenison in Topeka, Kansas. Engineer Brad Carvey (brother of American actor/comedian Dana Carvey)[2] built the first wire wrap prototype, and Steve Kell wrote the software for the prototype. Many other people worked on the Toaster as it developed.The first Toaster training tape was produced and copyrighted by George Lee. It was called The Toaster Microwave. His tape and the Toaster made it as far as Japan. George now resides in Pasadena, CA working in the television industry.
The Toaster was released as a commercial product in December 1990[2] for the Commodore Amiga 2000 computer system, taking advantage of the video-friendly aspects of that system's hardware to deliver the product at an unusually low cost 2399 USD.[2] The Amiga was unique among personal computers in that its system clock at 7.16 MHz was precisely double that of the NTSC color carrier frequency, 3.579 MHz, allowing for simple synchronization of the video signal. The hardware component was a full-sized card which went into the Amiga 2000's unique single video expansion slot rather than the standard bus slots, and therefore could not be used with the A500 and A1000 models. The card had several BNC connectors in the rear, which accepted four video input sources and provided two outputs (preview and program). This initial generation system was essentially a real-time four-channel video switcher.
One feature of the Video Toaster was the inclusion of LightWave 3D, a 3D modeling, rendering, and animation program. This program became so popular and useful in its own right that in 1994 it was made available as standalone product separate from the Toaster systems.[3]
Aside from simple fades and cuts, it had a large variety of character generation, overlays, and complex animated switching effects. These effects were in large part performed with the help of the native Amiga graphics chipset which were synchronized to the NTSC video signals; the result being that while the Toaster was rendering a switching animation the computer desktop display would not be visible. While these effects were unique and inventive, they could not be modified. Soon Toaster effects were seen everywhere, advertising the brand of switcher a particular production company was using.
The Toaster hardware required very stable input signals, and therefore was often used along with a separate video sync time base corrector to stabilize the video sources. Third-party low-cost time base correctors (TBCs) specifically designed to work with the Toaster quickly came to market, most of which were designed as standard ISA bus cards, taking advantage of the typically unused Bridgeboard slots (although they only used the bus to draw power and nothing more).
Like all video switchers that use a frame buffer to create DVEs (Digital Video Effects), the video path through the Toaster hardware introduced delays in the signals when the signal was in 'digital' mode. Depending on the video setup of the user, this delay could be quite noticeable when viewed along with the corresponding audio, and so some users installed audio delay circuits which would match the Toaster's video delay lag, as is common practice in video switching studios.
A user still needed three VTRs and a controller to perform A/B roll linear video editing (LE), as the Toaster would serve merely as a switcher (which could be triggered through General Purpose Input/Output (GPI) to switch on cue in such a configuration) but the Toaster itself had no edit controlling capabilities. The frame delays passing through the Toaster and other low cost video switchers would make precise editing a frustrating endeavor. Internal cards and software from other manufacturers were available to control VTRs, the most common systems went through the serial port to provide single frame control of a VTR as a capture device for Lightwave animations. A Non-linear editing system (NLE) product would be added later, with the invention of the Video Toaster Flyer, though the product never really worked to professional standards because it could not consistently play video without jitters. As a result, the Flyer never caught on as a viable product.
Although initially offered as just an add-on to an Amiga, it was soon available as a complete turn-key system which included the Toaster, Amiga, and sync generator. These Toaster systems became very popular, primarily because at a cost of around $5,000 US, they could do much of what a $100,000 professional video switcher (such as an Evans and Sutherland) could do at that time. The Toaster was also the first such video device designed around a general purpose personal computer that was capable of delivering NTSC broadcast quality signals.
As such, during the early 1990s the Toaster was used quite widely by many Amiga, desktop video enthusiasts and local television studios and was even used during The Tonight Show regularly to produce special effects for comedy skits. It was often easy to detect a studio that used the Toaster by the unique and recognizable special switching effects.[4] The NBC television network also used the Video Toaster with Lightwave for its promotional campaigns, beginning with the 1990-1991 broadcast season ("NBC: The Place To Be!").[5] Also all of the external submarine shots in the TV series seaQuest DSV were created using Lightwave 3D, as were the outer space scenes in the TV series Babylon 5 (although Amiga hardware was only used for the first season). Interestingly, due to the heavy use of dark blues and greens (where the NTSC television standard is weak), the external submarine shots in seaQuest DSV could not have made it to air without the use of the ASDG Abekas driver (written by Aaron Avery at ASDG - later Elastic Reality, Inc.), written specifically to solve this problem.
An updated version called Video Toaster 4000 was later released, using the Amiga 4000's video slot. The 4000 was co-developed by actor Wil Wheaton, who worked on product testing and quality control.[6][7] He later used his public profile to serve as a technology evangelist for the product.[8]
For the second generation NewTek introduced the Video Toaster Flyer. The Flyer was a much more capable non-linear editing system. In addition to just processing live video signals, the Flyer made use of hard drives to store video clips as well as audio and allow complex scripted playback. The Flyer was capable of simultaneous dual-channel playback, which allowed the Toaster's Video switcher to perform transitions and other effects on Video clips without the need for rendering.
The hardware component was again a card designed for the Amiga's Zorro II expansion slot, and was primarily designed by Charles Steinkuehler. The Flyer portion of the Video Toaster/Flyer combination was a complete computer of its own, having its own microprocessor and embedded software, which was written by Marty Flickinger. Its hardware included three embedded SCSI controllers. Two of these SCSI buses were used to store video data, and the third to store audio. The hard drives were thus connected to the Flyer directly and used a proprietary filesystem layout, rather than being connected to the Amiga's buses and were available as regular devices using the included DOS driver. The Flyer used a proprietary Wavelet compression algorithm known as VTASC, which was well regarded at the time for offering better visual quality than comparable Motion JPEG based non-linear editing systems.
One of the card's primary uses was for playing back Lightwave animations created in the Toaster.
In 1993, NewTek released the Video Toaster Screamer, a parallel extension to the Toaster, with four motherboards each with a MIPS R4400 CPU running at 150 MHz and 64 MB of RAM. The Screamer accelerated the rendering of animations developed using the Toaster's bundled Lightwave 3D software. The Screamer could produce as many frames of animation a day as 16 of the fastest Amigas. Screamers were used to render CGI for many different science fiction shows.
Later generations of the product run on Windows PCs. In 2004, the source code for the Amiga version was publicly released. With the additions of packages such as DiscreetFX's Millennium and thousands of wipes and backgrounds added over the years you can still find the Video Toaster system in use today in professional systems. NewTek renamed the VideoToaster to "VideoToaster[2]", and later, "VT[3]" for the PC version and is now at version 5.3. Since VT[4] version 4.6, SDI switching is supported through an add-on called SX-SDI.
A spin-off product was released by NewTek known as the TriCaster, a portable live production, live projection, live streaming and NLE system. The TriCaster packages the VT system as a turnkey solution in a custom-designed portable PC case with video, audio and remote computer inputs and outputs on the front and back of the case. As of April 2008, four versions are in production: the basic TriCaster 2.0, TriCaster PRO 2.0, TriCaster STUDIO 2.0 and the new TriCaster BROADCAST, the latter of which adds SDI and AES-EBU connectivity plus a preview output capability. The TriCasterPRO FX, a model that was situated in line between the original TriCaster PRO and TriCaster STUDIO was introduced in early 2008, and has now been discontinued. Its feature set has been added to the new TriCaster PRO 2.0. TriCaster STUDIO 2.0 and TriCaster BROADCAST use successively larger cases than the base model TriCaster 2.0. The units within the product line above the base-model TriCaster 2.0 enables use of LiveSet 3D Live Virtual Set technology developed by NewTek, that replaces tens of thousands of dollars worth of conventional 3D virtual set equipment alone, and is also found in NewTek's venerable VT[5] Integrated Production Suite, the modern-day successor to the original VideoToaster.
In late 2009, NewTek released its high definition version of the TriCaster called the TriCaster XD300. It has ability to accept 3 formats (NTSC, 720p or 1080i) which can be mixed, two downstream keys (one still and one motion), a positionable DVE and enhanced chroma keyer and 3 switchable inputs.
At NAB Show 2010 NewTek announced its TCXD850, a rack mountable 8 input switcher with 22 channels. It was released July 15, 2010.[9]