looking for a good reasonably priced switcher and HD archive solution

Broadcasting

looking for a good reasonably priced switcher and HD archive solution

Posted by Carly Smith on April 2, 2011 at 2:38 pm

Hi all –

Over the years that our company has been doing live events, we have gradually upgraded our equipment…

SD to HD cameras

and now its time to go to a 3rd upgrade of switchers.

First we used Videonics MX-Pro, now we are using Edirol 400s..
We want to add more cameras to our mix, and we also want to get away from analog signal.

The Edirol does a great job of letting us add in Power Points as overlays, so that capability would help.

We would like to start encoding worship services directly onto a HD, and we are currently webcasting live on justin.tv.

Price is a huge issue – all our equipment is purchased used to keep costs down.

Any suggestions?

Richard Cardonna replied 15 years, 1 month ago 3 Members · 9 Replies
9 Replies

Richard Cardonna
April 2, 2011 at 2:54 pm

Yes check

avtake.com

vidblaster.com (broadcast version)

ric
Carly Smith
April 2, 2011 at 6:06 pm

Hi Ric –

Bought VidBlaster and am not impressed. It is such a resource hog that it bogged down workflow drastically.

Looking for a hardware based switcher, not software.

thanks, CS
Richard Cardonna
April 3, 2011 at 2:22 am

What exactly do you what to do?

I use avtake for broadcast and it works great. I use it with four z1 cameras never any problem.

For HD in cutfour you need to use either blackmagic or decklink cards and at least an I7 800 or 900 series mobo.

All in all it will come out at half of what a low end
HD switcher might cost plus you get added features only available in higher end hard swicthers.

You can download a demo for the hd mixer but you need to have at least a decklink card in your system.

You can also check tricaster they got a 3 camera hd/sd switcher system for about 14k.

Good luck, Let us know what you found.

RC
Chuck Pullen
April 4, 2011 at 12:50 pm

I would watch E-bay for a used Panasonic 400 switcher. The beauty is it comes with 4 HD-SDI inputs stock, but if you have some legacy analog gear, you can add extra input cards of your choosing to fit your needs. I use the 400 at my church, and it’s a great switcher, and easily the best value for it’s class.

If you’re looking for a b-stock switcher, give the guys at Texas Media Systems a call, they always have good deals and are very helpful.

Chuck
Carly Smith
April 8, 2011 at 1:44 pm

Hi Richard –

Thanks for the input – we have a Decklink card for one setup, so that might be an option.
Carly Smith
April 8, 2011 at 1:45 pm

Chuck –

EXACTLY the solution I was looking for.
🙂

thanks for the help.

CS
Chuck Pullen
April 8, 2011 at 2:07 pm

Sure thing Carly 🙂 If you do decide to go the Panasonic switcher route, let me know if you have any more questions about it. I’ve had one for a couple of years, and absolutely love it.

Chuck
Richard Cardonna
April 10, 2011 at 6:06 pm

Download the sd or hd demo version(depends on your system) Good for 30 days. There is a basic support page on the website. avtake.com You can email me if you have any questions.
videomedia(at)gmail

rcm
Richard Cardonna
April 12, 2011 at 2:52 am

Black magic has a new software snd hard switcher this looks like a another solution for you. about 995.00 to 5k .

https://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/atemtelevisionstudio/models/

rcm

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