Whether it's an app that controls specialized hardware like the Mevo, an app that connects the cameras from multiple smarphones and tablets like Switcher Studio, a hybrid that uses specialized video hardware connected to a computer like the Tricaster, or just software like vMix, Wirecast, or even open broadcaster software (OBS), at the core of each of these is software running on a computer (or mobile device).
So, if a video switcher is always a switcher and a computer is a set of possibilities, shouldn't your church use a software switcher instead of a hardware switcher? It's more flexible, after all, right?
Historically, computers are called 'possibility boxes.' The more you think about that description, it seems increasingly true. A computer doesn't come off the assembly line as a non-linear video editor, a presentation machine, a sound mixing desk, a light board, or even as a word-processor, but software makes any and all of these things possible.Ī hardware-based video switcher, by contrast, comes off the assembly line as a video switcher. It will eventually end its useful life as a video switcher.
