Which Matrix Switcher

[Ian1481]

I work for a Theatre In Education company and they've asked me to look into the equipment needed to have multipule individual still images, live images, moving images projected onto individual screens (up to 4).

 

I am looking at using a Mac Pro (with 4 Graphic Crads) running the video mixing software Isadora to do the live mixing.

 

I was just wandering if I needed a Matrix Switcher and if so then any suggestions on what to go for would be appreciated.

 

I would need one that covers the input and output of VGA, S-Video and Composite signals.

 

I reckon I have £1,000 - £2,000 to spend on one (is this realistic?)

 

Cheers

[Nick Mawer]

Hi Ian,

 

I'm afraid that there isn't really enough information in your post to give a definitive answer.

 

However, there are some principles to consider. In general, matrix switchers, and certainly ones in your budget range, do not have built in scaling or format conversion. You are probably better off scaling up the composite and s-Video images to the native resolution of your projectors and then switching them all in one matrix. The alternative, is to have a separate matrix for each signal type, but this then requires a sophisticated control system to switch your projector inputs to whichever signal type you want to feed in. I think that for the type of application that you are talking about, that this is not a practical option.

 

How many inputs of each type to you actually have?