BoinxTV is a TV show recording application, or a virtual television studio if you want. It is aimed at podcasters and publishers who want to broadcast online without having to use Final Cut Studio or one of the specialised (and expensive) Avid products. But is BoinxTV up to the job?
Boinx is the developer team behind products such as iStopMotion, Mousepose and FotoMagico. Their iStopMotion to me was a good harbinger of what I could expect of BoinxTV. And my hunch was right: BoinxTV is a clever application that works with what they call “Layers” and “Sources”. Sources are what you expect them to be: a microphone, a video camera (up to three of them), a test card and placeholders. Layers are what will make the show to what it is. Here you will find a “single video” layer, for example. Such a layer will show the input of one camera. The “interview” layer will show the input of two cameras, one on the left and one on the right, a “crawler” layer shows a ticker coming in along the bottom of the screen, etc.
There are about two dozen layers available out-of-the-box (so to speak, because BoinxTV is an Electronic Download only). You create your TV show by dragging layers in the main window with each layer adding its element(s) to the show. Layers have settings and a button that you can turn on (“Live”) when the layer should become active. However, you can automate a layer’s coming into action by assigning a keystroke, or by having the layer “play” at the start or the end of a show. A scrolling “Credits” text, for example, can be set to automatically become “Live” when you click the Stop Recording button.
The Layers themselves are Quartz Composer made contraptions. If you want and you know how, you can create your own layers. But if you want a custom layer and can’t program in Quartz Composer, Boinx will help you out for a fee.
Layers behave differently depending on type
The Layer idea is an appealing one, but in my opinion it should be explained in a reasonably in-depth manual. The fact that Layers have different results depending on a number of factors should be explained, as well as what each layer does and how you interact with the program. It all merits better explanation than the Overview video Boinx created. Especially as layers can have multiple sets of settings makes working with them not as idiot-proof as it looks.
A good example of why the application really needs an explanation is when you don’t want camera input but only audio—like in a podcast or online radio show. I tested this with an Apogee Duet and the sE Electronics USB2200A microphone I reviewed earlier.
I was expecting the Duet to show up in the Sources under the Audio category. It didn’t. The only thing that did show up was the iSight camera I had briefly connected in an earlier test session. The Sony HVR-A1E broadcast video camera that I also reviewed earlier and which I had also briefly connected did not show up as a potential device.
I couldn’t get the program to recognise the Duet unless I first dragged a layer into the working window, called “Audio Only”. When I switched to the Sources after having dragged that layer in, the Duet became known as an audio source. Perhaps this behaviour is due to a bug, but I doubt it. I think it’s just a matter of not having a manual that explains what your workflow should be. Luckily, Boinx hasn’t been sitting still. Since the time of my tests, they have posted a good number of video-based tutorials on their web site!
Other layer capabilities include applying a Filter such as Chroma Keying or Kaleidoscope.
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CPU and memory consumption
Once you grasp the layers concept and how it interacts with your show, you will still need some preparatory exercise in running the show, because layers will have to be turned on and off (“Live”) to perform their specific action. For example, if you want to conduct an interview you will have to activate the Interview layer which has two cameras connected to it, in order for the video signals to be input in the system. If you want to show a clock, the appropriate layer should be Live, etc.
Layers can be very power consuming. One layer has a colourful set of lines that move across the screen. Turning that layer on immediately sky-rocketed the CPU load on my machine to over one thousand percent, making the computer system totally unresponsive. I thereforeconclude that BoinxTV takes away a considerable amount of system resources. When a video layer is dragged into the working window, the CPU load on my dual processor Power Mac G5 1.8GHz was cranked up to 145%, leaving almost no headroom for other applications (which showed when scrolling in the Finder). Without a video layer, the CPU still sits at 45%. Some effects layers went to 999% on my machine.
Luckily, the memory footprint is not really enormous at 1.5GB. The conclusion: use BoinxTV with a powerful machine and nothing less than the top-of-the-line iMac, in my opinion. This is still all very affordable, but considering that the latest version of Final Cut Studio I have running here doesn’t ever lock up the Mac because of the resources it eats up, I would at least advise to be careful with the number and type of layers you drag into the working window and turn on to run simultaneously.
As for the interface I must say I don’t think you can make a better or simpler workflow than the one BoixTV uses. The lack of a timeline does take some getting used to, but if you think of BoinxTV as a live TV show manager, you’ll quickly realise you don’t need a timeline at all.
Does BoinxTV replace post-production?
At over 400.00 Euros for a license, BoinxTV is Boinx Software’s most expensive product but given the functionality and feature-richness, the novelty of the concept and the care with which it has been developed, I don’t think it’s too expensive. After all, the general idea is to replace post-production. The obvious question then is: does it succeed at replacing Final Cut Studio or other post-production editing?
The answer to that question will be determined by the required quality level. If you’re happy with a show that may contain imperfections due to the “live” nature of the recordings, then you can export your show right from within BoinxTV and run it as is.
However, if you want to edit out errors and “euhs and aahs” from the actors in the show, you’ll still need a post-production application. You won’t need to spend as much time with it as you would need without BoinxTV, though.
