-
Switcher recommendation?
Hey gang…
I don’t haunt this forum much (I usually host/haunt over in business, cinematography, etc.), but I find myself with a “live events” issue…
We are in need of a switcher recommendation. That’s completely out of my genre of normal day-to-day work, so I’m clueless.
We are a production company that usually does broadcast commercials, and a few corporate projects. We very rarely have to do a live event (and do not consider them our forte by any means), but every now and then we are called upon to handle one… even though we are somewhat ill-equipped to do so.
I had a train wreck of an event Friday night… that otherwise would have gone flawlessly except the switcher decided to go haywire. This was an organization’s big black-tie gala event… with several hundred people at a $100-a-plate dinner, speakers and honorees, and a big-screen presentation. We had produced the video that was shown, and the organizers begged us to do the live event as well. That meant a multi-camera feed to the big screens, as well as recording the whole thing for DVD distribution later.
We used all our own gear (cameras, decks, audio, support, etc.) except for the switcher. We don’t own one since we don’t really have a daily need for one. We used a rented Panasonic WJ-MX50A, as we have several times in the past.
It was easy breezy and I could have directed it in my sleep… except about halfway through the event the switcher developed a mind of its own, and started routing sources randomly to the wrong inputs. I’d call for camera 1, but I’d get camera 2… or we would punch up the DVcam deck, and get camera 3. It was random, and constantly changing. I have a feeling that if we had powered the switcher down and restarted it, it might have behaved… but I couldn’t do that of course during a live show. I yelled through the headsets to make sure my camera ops always had a usable shot unless I told them specifically to make a change, and was able to cover my butt without too many glaring mistakes. The whole thing was a headache, though.
So…. in anticipation of having to do this again, I’m on the lookout for a different switcher.
I do not want to use an MX50 again. Even when they work, I hate this switcher. It was great as a little post-production switcher back in the tape days… but the fact that its air/preview outputs and busses don’t work and route like a “real” switcher does makes it unsuitable for live events, in my opinion.
Anyone have any recommendations I should look at? We do NOT need anything big or fancy. Something that will take in about four or five NTSC inputs and simply let me do hard cuts, dissolves, and fades-to-black would completely fit the bill.
Advice muchly appreciated…
T2
__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
-
17 Replies
-
hi todd
i fully understand your MX50 issue’s this mixer belong’s to the past.
and actually in the trash.i don’t know if your cam’s can output SDI otherwise i recommend the panasonic HS400(does not support composite) the thing is it’s future proof due to it’s SD/HD design and has a frame synchroniser per input.
which you can switch off when your source’s are genlocked. giving a lipsync output. next to that you have the possibility to switch a iso reel on the aux. and you have a multiviewer.if you do have composite source’s you could go to the MX70. but this has it’s latency problem’s.
other option is a Echolab overture. but this has some impact on budget.
grt
MauricePeople saying they don’t make mistake’s often make nothing at all!
-
Thanks muchly, Maurice…
I’m sure both those are great switchers, but they are way wallet-overkill for anything we could justify… at least for a purchase.
As I said we only do maybe one live event a year… that gear would be obsolete long before it ever paid for itself at the rate we’re going. We don’t even hardly charge anything for the couple of live events we have done (it was the pre-produced portions of the events where we made our money).
Of our four in-house cameras, only two of them are HD and only one of them has an SDI output. I know it’s far from ideal, but I’ve just used S-video as camera outputs and board inputs. It’s easy and uber-cheap to run a hundred feet or more of S-cable to each camera and looks quite good. Going component would be a lot clunkier and much more expensive. If we did this every day for a living, yes, but for these occasional one-offs, no.
I really probably shouldn’t be looking to buy anything, in our case rental is much smarter…. but the downside is that the only rental vendors for that kind of gear are at least two hours away from us… and the only small switchers they stock in rental inventory are the MX50s. Uugh.
I’d be happy with something small cheap and simple… standard def, a few inputs component/composite/S, hard cuts and dissolves. IF that exists.
Funny how the world changes… hit eBay sometime and you’ll find Grass Valley switchers as big as a grand piano that probably new cost more than my first house…. with starting bid prices in the $350 range. Not what I need, though.
T2
__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
-
If you do live events that infrequently, indeed you would probably be much better off renting one when you need it. Sounds like you need a better rental vendor, too.
-
The few live events we have done we did indeed rent an MX-50.
Videonics, while not a broadcast level company, sells interesting studio in a box setups – check out the BHPhoto website.If you are doing straight switching, no effects, supers or anything but cuts, perhaps a simple push button switcher – something that switches synchronously without a visual glitch. The audience doesn’t care. Browse the Markertek catalog – they have tons of those types of switchers/routers, etc.
Or you could always go with a patch panel and patch cables – tell your client that the black flash between sources is retro.
Mike Cohen
-
Yeah, I’m exploring those options… have visited both B&H and Markertek, though not exhaustively.
I don’t need any effects, supers, or keying ability (“We need more star wipes!”)… but I do need to be able to do cross fades as well as fades-to-black in addition to hard cuts.
Now that you mention it, I did indeed have a little Videonics switcher years ago… but I never used it and sold it to the educational TV station here…. hmmm.
Renting is definitely the smart option… but not necessarily the best workable one for me. I’m a director by trade and do it every day… but for single-camera scripted productions, not multi-camera live events (I could direct an episode of Law & Order in my sleep, but ask me to direct the most banal game show and my head might explode). And since on these no-budget gigs I end up being both director and TD I’d like to have a board that was in house so I could play with it and get familiar enough that I can punch it without even having to think about it or search for buttons. That’s hard to do when an unfamiliar rented unit shows up the same day as the gig.
I sit in awe of really great live directors and TDs. Especially sports. I can’t even enjoy watching golf on TV because I’m too busy analyzing the mind-boggling directing job those must be.
One of the more amazing things I ever saw was a couple of years ago during the Emmys when the award for directing was given to the guy who directed the previous year’s Oscar show (sadly, I don’t remember his name). The thing was, he was directing that awards show at the same time. He accepted the award and gave his speech in the booth… all while calling camera shots and calling for supers and talking to the camera ops… and telling the conductor he was getting long so get ready to “play him off”… and he was cool as a cucumber through the whole thing. Flawless.
T2
__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
-
Datavideo has a small range of video switchers that may suit, eg. –
https://www.datavideo.info/en/product_categories.php?catID=2 -
I’d only briefly given them a glance before, they were on my mental list of “go back and look at those.”
They look interesting… thanks for the reminder…
T2
__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
-
The Datavideo line of switchers (or video mixers) are very reliable and hit a number of price points. I would also suggest you look at a seamless switcher, such as the line from Analog Way. I’ve run many, many large events using one of their switchers, easily and seamlessly swithcing back and forth between numerous video and computer sources with nary a hiccup. They’re easy to program and update and can be programmed and run from any laptop computer. You can stay under $5K and have a really dynamite machine.
Joel Servetz
RGB Media Services, LLC
Sarasota, Fl
videobyjoel@aol.com -
Hello! I do live events for a living and have used both the MX70 and 50 when the input sources are strictly composite/S video.
You just had a bad switcher! Now, the mx50 is an older switcher so of course that increases the possibility of problems. I used the mx70 just last week with no problems.My suggestion, find 2 – 3 local video equipment rental companies and find out their reputation for equipment reliability. Then just have them spec out for you which switcher they recommend from their inventory to match your needs and budget.
Also, check out bexel.com. I cross rent from them often.
David
Independent Audio Visual Production and Graphics -
Todd – is there someone near you that could rent you a NewTek TriCaster for these?
They work quite well, have a number of different models/levels up to HD, and also offer recording to a file on an external drive for your archive.
Oh, and you can pre-load your roll-in material and have it as a source that begins to play when you take or dissolve to it.
If you do this, do be sure the vendor can also get you the switcher control panel – works like a standard (think GVG 110) panel, fader bar, preview and key buses, the whole thing.
Also built-in scopes – just bring a good (decently-sized) flat screen and you’re off and running.
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up