HD Switcher for HVX?

D

dpavid

Active member
Does anyone know of a switcher, if it exsist, that I can input 4 HVX cameras
using the firewire as a DVCPro HD signal to a swicther instead of a firestore? Does this exsist? I know Focus Enhancements makes a mixer with DV inputs but I don't think it support DVCPro HD.

If not, what is the best switcher for 4 HVX's to live events. I am considering a Grass Valley Indigo or For-A HVS500. As much as possible, I don't want to convert the signal to HD-SDI but want to retain as much HD as possible.

Thanks in advance for your feedback.
 
Hello dpavid,

A good choice for you is the AV-HS300G Package that we put together. Check it out to see if it may work for you. This deal includes the switcher, the HD Component option card (installed for free at our Authorized Service Center) and we even throw in the Thermodyne case for free. The only other thing that you would need is a 12 volt power supply. Because of the heavy power demands that the switcher has, we suggest the Panasonic Power Supply that is on our page or another power supply that's a bit more cost effective.

Best regards,

Andrew Hoffman
Senior Operations Manager
Specialized Communications Corp.
20940 Twin Springs Dr.
Smithsburg, MD 21783-1510 USA
800-359-1858
301-790-0103
Fax: 301-790-0173
andrewh@spec-comm.com
www.spec-comm.com

Please visit our new online store at ( http://www.spec-comm.com/store ). New products being added daily!
 
You will need to figure out a monitoring solution for your live mix too.
Ideally you will have one monitor per camera, plus a Preview and Program monitor.

And you will need some way to record the HD signal too.


Plus, don't forget to think about audio!


- Mikko
 
thanks mikko.

I got the audio down. I have a mackie 16 channel onyx mixer with firewire output recording to a macbook pro using tracktion with 2.5 terabytes of esata storage in raid 0 with each of the channels independently.

For the monitoring, I am getting a miranda kaleido that will hook-up to a 40" hdtv lcd so I can monitor up to 10 channels of video simultaneously.

My missing component is the switcher. I have two options right now. Just looking for the best solution. Thanks for the feedback.
 
Have you looked at the Edirol V-440HD mixer? I saw it at NAB last year and last week I saw it in operation. You can get the info here: <<http://www.edirol.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=33&Itemid=385>>
 
Ediroll is another option. But based on my experience with Panasonic's AW-SW350 switcher, which is their Composite little brother of the HS300, I'd highly recomend it as a basic HD switcher.
I read the manual for the HS300 the day it was released, and I was really impressed by some of the "obvious" features that Panny included that really show smart engineering in the design of the switcher.

Another option, if you have the budget for it, would be the Ross Synergy100-MD switcher (http://www.rossvideo.com/synergy/synergy100md_overview.html) That's my favorate small mixer. However that would need a Frame sync to sync up the non gen-locked HVX cameras. Maybe the SDI converters (that you would need) would have built in frame-syncs.

Good call on the Miranda. I've seen it at tradeshows and have been impressed. You'll need to convert the HD-Component to HD-SDI for this anyway, so you might as well use it for your whole production line. HD-SDI trumps HD-component anyway, there's no reason not to convert over right at your cameras.

- Mikko
 
Any ideas on how one would use this nifty Panasonic Switcher -- and record the switched output onto a Firestore FS-100 in DVCPro HD? I am quite disappointed that Panny did not include a firewire-out. Is there a converter out there that I'm missing?
 
Arcadian said:
Any ideas on how one would use this nifty Panasonic Switcher -- and record the switched output onto a Firestore FS-100 in DVCPro HD? I am quite disappointed that Panny did not include a firewire-out. Is there a converter out there that I'm missing?
Click to expand...

I second this. Is there a way to record straight to a firestore in DVCPro HD from a switcher?
 
Nope, you'd need to find a way to record the HD-SDI or HD-compoent output of the switcher.
So realistically you are looking at a DVCPRO-HD or HD-CAM or XD-CAM-HD deck with a HD-SDI input. Pricy to buy, but not too bad to rent. Note the that monitoring solution discussed above costs about 8 grand if I recall, and that doesn't include the actual monitor!

Live switching isn't cheap or easy, and dooing it in HD is even less of both.

- Mikko
 
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