Review: Magewell Director Mini 3.0
There are so many tools for live streaming that it’s hard to choose one (or a half-dozen) to get the job done. Do you use a software-based solution on a computer and rely on video cards, audio interfaces, external control surfaces, all from different manufacturers? Do you build the show and manage all the software updates yourself? Or do you choose a hardware-based solution like a Blackmagic Design ATEM video mixer and separate devices for titles, video playback, recording and more? Do you use a lightweight tablet solution with multiple iPhones where you can do everything wirelessly on an iPad? Or do you use the latest of the All-In-One solutions that combine hardware inputs with a touch-screen tablet solution?
These AIO live production devices leverage the latest mobile CPU and GPU power and integrated capability, with real hardware connections for multiple HDMI ports, ethernet, headphones, audio input, and more—all from one manufacturer so there’s just one update cycle to track. Magewell recently came out with the 3.0 update to their Director Mini AIO production tablet (Figure 1), and they are pushing the envelope with what these little powerhouses can do.
Figure 1. The Magewell Director Mini
What’s in an All-in-One Production Tool
When I call these devices All-In-One production tools, that means they can handle everything from the HDMI in, to pushing the stream to the CDN. Switching cameras, mixing audio, playing back stills or video, creating picture-in-picture “scenes” and “multiviews” with backgrounds and titles over top. It also features dual encoding so your locally recorded file can be a higher resolution and bitrate than the encode you streamed to multiple destinations.
Even though the Director Mini is Magewell’s first AIO, the company has been making video production gear for many years: I/O cards and devices, streaming devices, and encoder/decoders, as well as a software Control Hub to manage them (Figure 2). They also make the USB Fusion multi-source streaming appliance found in corporate and educational markets.
Figure 2. The Magewell software Control Hub
If you combined all of that, you’d come up with the Director Mini: a 5" touchscreen with two HDMI inputs, two USB inputs, Ethernet, audio input and output jacks, SD card for recording, and media playback (Figure 3). It has dual battery slots on the back to enable endless battery power, or battery backup, and a fan for active cooling.
Figure 3. Magewell Director Mini I/O
The software enables you to take in up to 10 different cameras, plus video playback, web page capture, and more. You can create graphics on the Director Mini itself—sports scoreboards, timers, clocks, lower-thirds, full screen graphics, social media, and more. It has an audio mixer to control and solo any input while adjusting levels with accurate metering. It features two channels of instant replay for sports, and an on-screen Telestrator for marking up the screen. It will control PTZ cameras with presets. It will bring in live comments via YouTube and Facebook APIs and let you manage which comment gets put on the screen.
Controlling it All
To help you control the Director Mini, you can access it via the Remote Assistant using the Android and iOS Director Utility app (Figure 4). This app can run on a phone or tablet and replicates almost all of the Mini’s functions, but on a separate device. This means you can dedicate a device to titles, while switching cameras on the Director Mini screen, or you can delegate that task to someone else. Replays, audio mixing, camera control—you can delegate them all if you have a very complex show with a lot going on.
Figure 4. The Director Mini’s Remote Assistant and Utility app
There are four other ways you can delegate control of the Director Mini. You can also log into it over the local area network using a web browser to the device’s IP address. You can use a control surface like a Streamdeck and Companion software to assign the most common functions to dedicated buttons. You can do the same with a bluetooth keypad using the Director Mini’s Shortcuts feature. You can even set up the Director Mini for remote control via Magewell’s Control Hub cloud software.
It may sound like I’ve made this simple device more complex than the other solutions. In reality, the few people that utilize external control only add one remote and dedicate it to specific things. This is because the Director Mini’s 5" screen can only show one feature at a time. Either you are switching scenes or you’re switching graphics or mixing audio. There’s only so much you can do on a 5" screen. So having a second screen or a control surface actually makes it easier to use.
What Magewell’s 3.0 Update Adds
The new Director Mini 3.0 firmware update is not a complete revamp of the interface, like a Mac or Windows version change. Instead, v. 3.0 homes in specifically on user requests for specific features and capabilities. While the update includes more than 50 features, enhancements, and fixes, I wanted to highlight several that can dramatically enhance the way people use the Director Mini.
This update shows that Magewell has been listening to user feedback and requests. For instance, users asked for the Mini to support RTSP as an input source so a small action camera can “stream” into the Director Mini as a source. It’s not really a headline feature, but a lot of people doing sports can really make use of something specific like this.
Magewell has implemented many graphics updates as well. Web pages can now be brought in as sources without having to use an external computer and capturing the screen, which would use up one of the video inputs. Moreover, when those web pages are brought into Program, the producer can use the Mini to scroll those pages as if they were using a computer, even zoom in.
Those bringing in NDI graphics asked for alpha channel support. That arrived with the 3.0 update as well. While you can build graphics in the Director Mini, and new animated lower thirds were added in the 3.0 update, using a dedicated graphics package for sports, and other cases, elevates the produced video to a whole other level. This is why dedicated graphics software exists, often requiring powerful computers to render complex graphics with lighting, shading and more.
Another interesting user request was that they add the option to choose the multiview preview as an NDI output, and choose the audio as well. This is especially handy where multiple people might want to see sources as well as Preview and Program. Now, without having to run a cable and split the signal, NDI makes it available to anything on the local network.
In addition to animated lower-thirds—the first for an All-In-One—the Director Mini now has other animated titles, and it expanded the number of sports scoreboards available to end users. Being able to hand control of the sports scoreboard off to an assistant using a phone or tablet running the Remote Assistant makes this handier than ever. Assistants using the web interface now also have access to a Replay tab for easy replay control separate from the Director Mini.
While the new baseball and soccer scoreboards are welcome (Figure 5), one only needs to look at the popularity of sports to see that football, cricket, hockey, basketball and other sports still need some consideration.
Figure 5. Director Mini’s new baseball scoreboard
One of the most asked-for features is the ability to control these Android-based tablets with the near-ubiquitous Elgato Streamdeck control surfaces with physical buttons where each button has a screen behind it for custom icons and feedback. Magewell made that happen by leveraging a connection to the open-source Companion software so that one or more Streamdecks can be used and dedicated to specific features, like sports scoreboard adjustments.
One of the more interesting end user-focused requests was to enable the internal encode to select a PIP “scene” as an ISO video source option, as opposed to just source camera inputs. But when you think of corporate training or educational work, this makes sense. While in the room, you might want to switch to full screen with the graphic because the people in the room can see the presenter, but those watching it online, or from a recording, don’t have that ability. So being able to ISO record the PIP that always includes the presenter really makes a lot of sense.
Shortcuts themselves—essentially programmable macros from action lists—have been enhanced so each shortcut can have more actions. You can now drag and reorder those actions. And there’s also the addition of a Wait command with a time variable, so a shortcut that brings a source onto the screen can also bring on a title after a few seconds, making it easier to have a consistent look and feel to your show.
Other small tweaks include some presets for the PIP scenes, making it easier for new users to get started. It also features framing guides to make it easy to line up elements across the top and center, as well as adding Undo and Redo buttons.
Other under-the-hood improvements include being able to authenticate “captive portal” Wi-Fi like at a conference, as well as tether a cellular data connection, and improve driver compatibility with 4G USB modems.
I can see many of these updates being the first steps of continued evolution: more sports scoreboards, more control over the color and fonts of the internal titles—including viewer comment titles—and maybe being able to “nest” shortcuts, essentially making them into macros. We can also expect to see continued big-fixes and refinement of existing features, like accessing PTZ presets.
It's refreshing to see updates responding to end-user needs and requests and I hope other manufacturers will take note. It’s not all about flashy features that sometimes don’t fully work. As any event producer will tell you, a bulletproof device that you can reliably count on for every production is the one you want to have.
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