New budget analog video mixer from Datavideo

Something of a rarity - a new well featured analog video mixer that would be ideal for VLOBLIVE gigs. This one is from Datavideo - the SE500.
Read more for some of it's unique features...

Just when it seemed that Edirol had the whole budget video mixer thing to themselves, along comes Datavideo with a very interesting model aimed squarely at VLOBLIVE gigs and with some VERY interesting features..

It is a pretty standard 4 input (svid or composite) mixer with the following points of note:

• Tally outputs - hooray! at last a budget mixer with tally outputs. This lets you wire up LEDs for your camops to tell them if they are selected or live or are free to move. Of course you will have to sort out the wiring yourself, and there is no info on the actual wiring convention used, but with a bit of bodging this could give a very workable tally system for a VLOBLIVE gig.

• Quad preview - like some other mixers this one lets you put all four previews up as quad images on a single monitor.

• Audio support. Unlike the Roland V4 or others, this one does have audio mixing which is great for mxing between tape sources or DVDs etc.

• MIDI control. OK the Rolands have this too but it does open the possibility of driving it from a sequencer for fancy effects, or better still driving 3 of them for multi-screen control. Hey we can all dream!

• Component output - if you pool the Svid AND the composite output you can get a component output from this unit which would give you the max possible quality for going to tape or DVD etc. Of course it will not make your video inputs BETTER than the format they came in on, but it will ensure that all wipes and effects are kept as nice as possible.

• Proper picture-in-picture effect.

• small - you could fit this on a slide-out 19 inch rack tray no problem.

Some quick negatives (just from reading the blurb)

• Doesn't seem to do downstream keying (unlike the MX50) so no easy way to overlay text on video....as far as I can tell. That's a bit of a downer really as this is probably the most common 'effect' required by a video mixer at a VLOBLIVE gig.

• only 4 inputs - not a unique failing, but WHY WHY won't manufacturers add more inputs. 6 is pretty much the minimum you would want for a VLOBLIVE gig with cameras - 4 cameras, a PC and a DVD player.

•

• That's it - If you are in the market to buy a new video mixer (or even a secondhand one) then for MUCH less than the price of a secondhand MX50 you could have one of these babies, and have nearly all the features in a much smaller box.

You can find more info on their website including the user manual and you can buy in the UK from MVS Video for around £600.

Posted: Thu - November 17, 2005 at 03:58 PM |

VLOBLIVE :: 2. Equipment

New budget analog video mixer from Datavideo