The Ultimate Zoom + Wirecast Setup for Webinars

A client was moving from audio-plus-slides webinars to full video webinars. Three requirements: cheap, consistent, high quality. This build has run their weekly webinars for three years.

Plan the shots before you touch the software

• Full screen: A, B, C, and screen share full screen
• Split screen: A+B, A+C, B+C
• Screen share layouts: presenter left and share right for each presenter, plus all presenters with the share

Wirecast layer structure, top to bottom

• Layer 1: logo bugs and countdown clocks
• Layer 2: lower thirds
• Layer 3: all shots and Zoom placeholders
• Layer 4: background image
• Bottom layer: audio capture

The crop numbers

Roughly 25% off the left and 25% off the right for a 50/50 two-up. About 30% each side plus scaling down for the three-up rule-of-thirds layout. Build new shots by duplicating an existing one and right-clicking to Replace Layer with a different template.

Joining Zoom

Social > Zoom > Join Zoom Meeting, then log in or paste the meeting ID. Right-click a placeholder > Assign Placeholder > Network > the named Zoom participant. Screen shares get assigned the same way.

Two honest caveats

• The three-dot Preferred Resolution setting defaults to 360 and can be set to 720 or 1080, but I've seen no solid proof it changes anything. I suspect a Wirecast bug.
• Heavily cropped three-up boxes fall apart when speakers drift side to side. My workaround is keeping full 16:9 windows and shrinking them onto a colored background.

I rejected two alternatives for this client: a laptop per Zoom participant with pinned windows, which is too big a setup, and Zoom ISO into a DeckLink, which does get you 1080p but is too much gear and money here.