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MIXED ECONOMY
INTRO
Video mixers are still the most expensive
post production accessory, they’re also one of the most useful, so how does the
new Vivanco VM-5000 shape up against the competition?
COPY
Panasonic were the first to develop a digital
video mixer for home video movie-makers, that was way back in 1988. It wasn’t until 1994 that they had any
serious rivals, when Sony and Videonics weighed in with a pair of heavy-duty
production mixers in the shape of the XV-D1000 and MX-1. Panasonic brought out
a couple of new models in the meantime, now leading accessory company Vivanco
have joined the fray with their VM-5000 2-channel video mixer and processor. Half
a dozen products in eight years, we’ve not exactly been spoilt for choice...
The reason there are so few video mixers,
compared with just about every other type of post production device, is the complexity
of the technology needed to mix two free-running video signals. That’s also why
they’re so expensive, you’re not going to seen much change out of £1500 with
any of them, (Sony’s mixer cost £3000...), however, the VM-5000 brings the cost
of vision mixing down just a little, to
£1200.
Digital synchronisation is what makes video
mixing possible. It works by using one
of the input signals as a reference, then by applying a carefully controlled
delay to the second signal, ensures that both inputs are in perfect step with
one another. From that point onwards all manner of things are possible. In the
case of the VM-5000 that includes basic mix, crossfade and dissolve, various
wipes, moves and zoom transitions, plus picture-in-picture, mirror, freeze,
strobe, chroma and luma keying. We’ll take
a close look at them in a moment. In addition to the eye-catching effects and
transitions there’s a set of processing facilities (brightness, contrast and
saturation), variable background colours, fades and a 3-channel stereo audio
mixer. The VM-5000 is fully configured for S-Video operation and it can be
connected to a PC for external control, via a serial interface socket. If you
get into trouble there’s a simple on-line help facility, that displays
short-form instructions.
The VM-5000 is built inside the familiar
sloping wedge-shaped console, used by Vivanco for their other stand-alone edit
controllers and processors. Control layout is reasonably straightforward. On
the left side of the panel there’s the input selectors and controls for
adjusting background colours; there’s
two T-bars for manually controlling mix/fade and transition effects, or they
can be set to automatic, the speed may be varied between zero and 10 seconds.
The third T-bar is the master audio fader, which can be set manually, or tied
in with video effects, (simultaneous or follow). At the top of the panel there’s
a bank of effect selector and cursor control buttons, the output and monitor
selectors are in the top right hand corner, and below that there’s a set of
faders for the audio mixer.
Now for those digital goodies, which break
down into two broad categories, dynamic transitions, and static effects. First
the transitions. The fade/crossfade facility can mix between two inputs, one
input and a background colour (infinitely variable), or the same input. The
latter is useful if you’re working with one source machine and combined with various transitions effects it
can produce some very interesting effects. There are seven horizontal and
vertical wipes, to or from the second source, a background colour or the same
input; again a single input is not
necessarily a limitation. The move and zoom effects employ the same seven
patterns. The selected pattern and effect number is displayed on the monitor
output. Up to five selected wipe. move or zoom effects can be assigned to an ‘action’
key, so they can be called up quickly, without having to step through the
selections.
The static effects include old favourites
like freeze frame and strobe and the ever popular picture-in picture (the sub-screen
can be moved to any part of the screen). The mirror facility inverts the
picture, or it can be combined with a transition. Dissolve fades the image to
or from areas of colour. Finally there’s chroma and luma keying, where effects
and transitions can be applied to areas of selected colour or brightness. Nine
colour and picture settings can be stored using the mixer’s program facility.
It looks a lot more complicated than it
actually is, but for anyone daunted by the prospect of finding their way around
the controls there’s a useful demo routine that runs through all of the
transitions and effects one by one.
IN USE
Generally speaking it’s fairly easy to use,
though there are a few points to watch out for. The effects select buttons are small
and close together, it’s far too easy to press the wrong one. The two video
T-bars are much too close to one another, they almost touch when the two
controls are at their respective end-stops. The hefty external mains adaptor
supplied with our sample run quite hot, almost too hot to touch in fact.
Vivanco have done the sensible thing and used
phonos for the main AV inputs and outputs, but not for the TV/monitor output
which uses a SCART. That’s fine if you don’t mind sacrificing picture quality,
or your TV has an S-Video configured SCART, if it doesn’t you’re going to have
to get hold of a comparatively rare SCART to S-Video/phono lead (fortunately
Vivanco have one...).
PERFORMANCE
There’s a quick way of telling how well a
mixer or processor performs, just look closely at the edges of transitions as they
slide across the screen. A ragged wavy edge
suggest compromises may have been made in the processing and synchronisation
circuitry; the effects on the VM-5000 are so clean and straight you could cut
yourself on them! Picture stability is excellent, even on slightly noisy
signals, transitions are smooth and progressive. We tried the VM-5000 with a
variety of sources and could find no extra noise or reduction in resolution. There
is a very minor change in the texture of processed images, though this is
almost certainly a side-effect of the digital circuitry, but it’s so slight as
to be virtually inconsequential.
THE VERDICT
The VM-500 doesn’t bring anything spectacularly
new or interesting to the digital video mixer market but it is a very well
thought out package. It misses out on a couple of useful features, there’s no
GPI trigger input, for example, which rules it out being used with some edit
controllers, and the control layout could have been better. It may not be as
sophisticated as some of the other mixers on the market, or have as many
effects, but those it has got are the ones that will be used most often.
On-screen performance is excellent and the price is reasonable.
THE RIVALS
On paper the VM-5000 looks like quite a good
deal, but this is the real world and we have seen it’s closest competitor, the
Videonics MX-1 selling for only £100 more. We have also seen the Panasonic
WJ-AVE5 on sale for under £500, and that’s
the one we’d go for if we were just looking for basic mixing and processing
facilities. Nevertheless, the VM-5000 has much to recommend it, but it’s going
to have a tough job time in this small
and highly competitive market.
SPECIFICATIONS
Make/model: Vivanco VM-5000 Digital Vision Mixer
Typical price: £1200
Features: 2-channel vision mixer &
4-channel audio mixer, on-line help
Effects: mix, 7-wipe, 7-move and 7-zoom
effects to second channel or nominated background colour, mirror, picture in
picture (PIP), freeze, strobe, dissolve, chroma & luma keying, effect
program, auto take & mix (variable speed), audio mix/follow
Sockets: AV in (phono & S-Video), AV out
(SCART, phono & S-Video), headphone & microphone (minijack), serial
RS-232 (DIN), DC Power (DIN)
Dimensions: 330 x 70 x 280 mm
Weight 2.8kg
PERFORMANCE
Effects definition very good
Effect
stability very good
VC RATINGS
Value for money ****
Ease of use ***
Performance *****
Features *****
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Ó R. Maybury 1996 2201
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