Video Switcher Question.

beatnik wrote on 4/21/2003, 3:07 PM

I will be doing multi-camera shoots of hockey games. During post I will set-up
the three cameras to feed into some kind of an analog switching device. Each camera
will also be hooked up to it's own monitor. The output from the switcher box will feed through the Canopus advc-100 digital converter and then to the IEEE 1394 port
of the computer and capture to Vegas.

My question is will there be a noticable difference in quality, because as I see it
the video will go from digital --> analog ---> digital. And, will Vegas have a problem with the switching? I will be switching from cam1 to cam2 to cam3 as I follow the action on the monitors.

If anybody has any comments on this topic or suggestions please post!

Thanks in advance,

Alex.

ps. I have been posting suggestons in the past as to what camera to buy...well just
to let you know I just purchased the Sony DSR-250 as my "A" camera and two Sony
vx2000 as my "B" cameras.

Comments

jetdv wrote on 4/21/2003, 3:23 PM
You should have no problems as the switching is happening outside the application. All Vegas will see is a firewire stream and happily record that to the hard drive. We do a multi-camera live capture every week and it has been working great. No difference in quality from capturing directly from tape. In our setup, cameras to switcher, switcher to deck (with tape rolling as a backup), deck firewire to computer capturing live.
beatnik wrote on 4/21/2003, 3:48 PM

Thanks jetdv, is there a good switching device, I would like one with pushbuttons
that light up! Also, how do I setup a monitor for each camera? Would this be the setup...CAMERA ---> MONITOR ---> SWITCHER ---> ADVC-100 CONVERTER ---> IEEE 1394
---> VEGAS 4.0.

Thanks.
GaryKleiner wrote on 4/21/2003, 3:55 PM
You may also want to consider getting a quad splitter (like they use for security applications) so you just need one monitor that will show all the cameras.

Gary Kleiner
jetdv wrote on 4/21/2003, 4:09 PM
Our switcher has two outputs - one for the final mixed video (which is connected to the deck which connects to both a TV and the computer) and a "control" output. The control output allows choosing different types of transitions as well as showing what is currently on each of the incoming cameras. They can be lined up 2 across the top, 4 across the top, or a 4 quad filling the entire screen.
vicmilt wrote on 4/21/2003, 4:20 PM
I'd just like to remind you to TEST your whole setup the DAY BEFORE the "big shoot". There are a zillion little things and cables that you won't want to miss.
Good luck.
v.