Streamwell for Avid Media Composer
The fastest, easiest way to stream your timeline - now with exclusive collaborative features like live timecode display and automatic insertion of chat comments as markers direct to your timeline!
Overview
Streamwell for AVID Media Composer is a panel plugin that runs inside of Media Composer and gives you a streamlined interface to broadcast to any available live channel. It leverages the built-in SRT streaming in Media Composer and makes it easier to manage connections / prevent overlap of sessions compared to manually entering the SRT details each time you want to stream.
Getting Started
Streamwell for AVID Media Composer works with MC Ultimate or Enterprise editions, version 2024.2 and later. Some features like remote control require MC 2025.6 or later. If you are running a prior version (back to 2022.10) you can still use SRT streaming without the Avid panel by following this guide.
The panel plugin can be installed either by running the macOS installer, or on Windows you can manually install the .AVPI plugin by moving it to the appropriate directory on your system:
Windows - %ProgramData%\Avid\PanelSDKPlugins macOS - /Library/Application Support/Avid/PanelSDKPlugins
Click here for the latest plugin Downloads
Using the Panel
Once installed, launch Media Composer and Streamwell will appear in the 'Tools' menu. The first time you open the plugin, enter the address of the Streamwell server you want to connect to. Once logged in, you will see a list of the channels available to you:
Click to connect to the channel of your choosing, making sure SRT output has been installed/activated in Media Composer.
And you're live! Viewers on your channel will see a near-realtime playout from whichever viewer is active in Media Composer.
Remote viewers can see a live readout of your current timecode - this gives them a reliable reference point they can use in their own notes or comments.
Logged in remote viewers can make comments using the chat panel, and they will automatically drop onto the current viewer or a track of your choosing!
Additionally, Logged in remote viewers can be given the option to remote control your instance of Media Composer, to drive their own playback session. When allowed, the controls will appear beneath the player (otherwise they will just see the timecode). Preliminary controls include start/stop, jump 15s forward or back, go to beginning, and go to a particular timecode stamp. We look forward to expanding this feature in the near future!
The menu at the top of the Streamwell interface allows you to customize how your AVID panel functions:
Allow Remote Control - lets logged in users on this channel control playback in Media Composer
Show Timecode - toggles display of your current timecode to remote viewers. Remote control requires timecode, so turning this off would also turn off remote control.
Create Markers from Comments - toggles whether or not chat messages are imported as markers
Marker Track - specify any existing track (TC1, V2, A5, etc...) and incoming markers will go there
Marker Color - express yourself! 🌈
Show marker time of day - adds a datetime stamp to the marker comment (helpful if many people are commenting on the same point in the timeline)
Stream Quality - by default, this should be set to Good to maximize compatibility with remote viewers. However you can raise it to Better for ultra-high quality remote sessions, or Best when streaming within your facility, for example to a playout device in a client suite.
SRT Passphrase - If SRT Encryption is enabled on your server, enter the passphrase here. If you use a passphrase but SRT encryption is not enabled, the stream may fail to connect.
Stream Buffer - how much of a delay do we introduce to account for the stream reaching the server? If you are on a locally hosted server, this value could be set as low as 10 or 20ms. If you are geographically far away from your server (e.g. coast to coast) you could increase it to 500 or 1000ms to ensure smooth streaming.
Show Live Player - By default, Streamwell shows a thumbnail preview in the Avid panel that uses less bandwidth and system resources versus viewing the full live stream. Use this option in MC 2024.12 or later to force use of the live player in the Avid panel. This will consume more CPU!
On Disconnect - When disconnecting AVID Media Composer with these options enabled, the public web link can be automatically reset and the chat can be automatically cleared. These options can also be set at the administrator level to force a certain behaviour for all users.
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