Cheap Vision Mixer?

[GOB]

Hi folks,

 

I'm new to the forum, been reading for a few weeks and found some helpful information already, great site! I'm new to Video and Projection and have limited knowledge, but I'm involved in a few projects for some upcoming and regular sporting events and I've been trying to look through the topics for the information, but suspect someone could give me a few quick answers or point me in the right direction quickly.

 

The club want to basically mix a live feed from a Panasonic HD SDT750 Camera through HDMI (as no real other output options) and then want to mix it with some graphics from a laptop and output to a couple of projectors all running the same image. I have a cheap ACER X1110p we can use (800x600 Res, so no problem of reducing the HD Feed), probably acquire another. I tried to do this by using HDMI splitters and VGA convertors etc but was a bit of a fail and must try harder! From what I've read on hear a Vision Mixer is what I need, but I've come to realise my small budget won't go far. I'm hoping that as its a fairly simple combination, that someone can recommend some relatively cheap Vision Mixers or another option? The most I could Imagine using the Mixer for in the future would be to mix 2 Camera's with the Laptop Graphics and perhaps output them to 2 different projectors, however, I'll be more than happy with 1 Camera mixed with the laptop graphics and 1 Output.

 

Thanks in advance for your time and help!

 

Gary.

[jason5d]

check out the new black magic atem tv studio mixer

[martinnoble]

What kind of content are they filming - is it the actual sports, or people talking to camera?

 

Do you need to remain with an HD signal from the camera (from the sound of things you're happy to drop the res, so I guess not).

 

If you only have a small or non-existent budget, you are unlikely to be able to get anything modern to do the job, but you might be able to get a more old school mixer - we have an old mixer at our theatre which takes composite or s-vhs inputs and includes wipes, fades and picture in picture. You can often find them on ebay for not very much.

 

The other thing you need to think about is frame sync as if you have multiple sources and want to switch from one to another cleanly, you need to sync them all together - some mixers have built in frame syncs on their inputs, so it just happens - without this, you can end up with really nasty cuts and the device you output to may think its lost the source and go hunting on its other inputs.

[GOB]

Thanks Jason5d, will check it out.

 

Martinnoble, it is actually fast action sports like Boxing, so the Panasonic does an ok job for our needs at recording it in 1080 / 50p which is then edited, so would be best if we could use the same source for the feed to the mixer and as I say lose the high res for the projection.

 

I had a look on Ebay, but didn't really find anything under Vision Mixer, think perhaps too general a search. If you were to buy a new Vision Mixer to do the job, is there any brands or products you could reccommend? I could probably stretch the budget a bit, but really don't want to go into 4 figures.

 

Thanks for the info on the frame-sync, those are the kinds of details and knowledge I need, thanks for the help guys!

[martinnoble]

I work in broadcast for my day job, so that's the kind of stuff we deal with a lot.

 

If you want under 4 digits, you're very unlikely to find anything that will do HD - you're looking at 4/5k for those really.

 

If you're looking for new, something like this: http://www.proav.co.uk/Datavideo-SE-500-Vision-Mixer/p15215.aspx might work. Never used one myself though as we tend to work with big broadcasters who have lots of money to spend on high end stuff.

 

If you're ending up with an SD mixer, you also need to factor in HD to SD down conversion, unless the camera happens to also have an SD output. Looking at the manual for that camera, it looks like the "AV multi" cable may include composite, so you might be lucky.

[techywhizz]

Sounds to me that you could use a presentation switcher..

 

Maybe something like the Kramer vp729

 

This has 2 hdmi inputs, 2 VGA inputs, and a couple of composite inputs.. Will this work for?

[GOB]

Martinnoble, that desk is definitly more in my price range, would just worry about compatiblity once I start converting the inputs. I will have a look at the AV Multi aswell, thanks thats an option I didn't really look at!

 

Thanks Techywhizz, just had a quick look and the Kramer looks ideal in terms of inputs etc. Going to look into it now.

 

Thanks for the advice and reccommendations folks, I had hit a wall with it!

[cho_drummer]

I might have something of interest for you in the £150 price bracket. If you can sort out a composite feed from the camera. I've done this kind of thing on a shoe string budget with two laptops, and 4 cameras all feeding to my vision mixer and projecting. I've also run multi screen projections from it.

 

I'll say now, that the way I've done it, is not the way it's supposed to be done and if I had a budget, I wouldn't do it this way. But, the fact remains that I've done it for people who don't know how much these things can cost, can't fund the cost but it's still my job to deliver the results. Drop me an email on c.gallimore@live.co.uk and I'll give you more info about some possible solutions. They're 'old school' 'ghetto' 'crude' solutions, but, they work and produce a good result if you know how to use them.

 

Cheers,

Chris.