CastAway: PC Requirements

CastAway runs on a standard Windows PC, but can also be run on a suitably powerful virtual machine or a cloud instance.

Due to the flexibility of the system and the wide range of factors involved, it’s difficult provide definitive PC specifications for all use cases. Instead, here is a typical system configuration,  and a recommended PC specification.

System Configuration

  • Video Resolution: 1080p25/30 in, 1080p25/30 program out, 720p25/30 preview out
  • NDI 4/5 or HX
  • Program and Preset mixing (no Aux busses)
  • 2-layer full-screen GFX overlays
  • 4-channel 48KHz Audio

Recommended PC Requirements

To run both CastAway processing engine and panel, we recommend    the following minimum specification.

Component Recommended Spec
CPU Intel i7 Generation 11 or 12, 3.6GHz
Memory 16GB
GPU NVidia GeForce RTX 3060ti or AMD Radeon RX 6700
Network Gigabit Ethernet
Storage 128GB SSD
Operating System Windows 10,11 , Server 2019 or 2022

Panel Only

To run just the CastAway panel, a lower specification can be used. The processing engine must run separately on a machine as specified above.

Component Recommended Spec
CPU Intel i5 Generation 11 or 12
Memory 16GB
GPU NVidia GeForce GTX 1660 or AMD equivalent
Network Gigabit Ethernet
Storage 128GB SSD
Operating System Windows 10,11 , Server 2019 or 2022

Factors affecting performance

The following factors affect the hardware requirements of the system.

Setting Effect
NDI Input resolution and frame rate Higher resolution (e.g. 4K)  NDI inputs require more CPU and GPU power to decode, and additional network bandwidth
NDI Program Output resolution and frame rate Higher resolution (e.g. 4K)  NDI outputs require more CPU and GPU power
NDI Preview Output resolution and frame rate Preview output resolution can be set independently of program resolution. If you only need low-resolution preview, this will save resources
NDI Audio output sample rate and channels CastAway can handle up to 16-channel audio, but this uses additional CPU and nwetwork resources
Number of NDI receivers Unless multicast is used, each NDI receiver connecting to CastAway adds additional CPU load to the system
Size and resolution of graphics Large animated graphics may require additional memory in GPU or CPU
Local vs Remote CastAway panel Using a remote CastAway panel reduces the load on the main PC
Aux busses (coming soon!) Using aux busses for additional video effects requires additional CPU, GPU and network