1. Video Switchers Mr. Specter Steel Valley High School

2. What Are They? Video Switchers are used to determine what source will be put on-air or recorded. From the earliest days of TV these units were expanded to include limited special effects such as dissolves and wipes. Later expanded to include “digital effects”. Digital effects included the ability to compress and manipulate images in real time. Production houses used to charge an additional $250 – $350 per hour to use digital effects.

3. Types of Effects Basic effects include: CutsDissolvesWipesKeysLuminanceChroma Blue or Green Screen

4. Digital Effects Two basic types: Overlay Effects happen on top of your live image Transition Effects cover a change in source Digital Effects require that the image be broken down and stored in a computer-style memory. This is necessary for compression.

5. Our Video Switchers We Own Three Different Systems Trinity Video Toaster Panasonic WJ-MX-50

6. Main Switchers Trinity Used in the studio Built around 1998 by Play Inc. Offers graphics as well as switching Can do graphics animation and custom special effects Graphics module called “Titlewave” Editing module called “Predator” Switching module called “Air Command” Framestore and moving video

7. Important to Know The bottom row of buttons on the Trinity is Preview, not Program. Program is what is on the air or being recorded. This layout is consistent with most other switchers. The Program buss is the second from the bottom. The Mix/Effects buttons control which busses are active and how they interact. The AUX buss is often called the Overlay buss on other switchers.

8. How to Grab a Framestore Here’s how to grab a Framestore on the Trinity: Click the “Freeze” button on the switcher interface panel. Drag the image into the bin in order to add it. Trinity was designed to directly control a videotape machine. This feature was used for both playback of material during live broadcasts and editing.

9. Main Switchers Video Toaster Used for remote productions due to size/weight Built around 1991 Includes:Switcher Character Generator Color Effects/Filters 3-D Modeling/Animation Lightwave Paint System Framestore Cannot playback moving video on its own.

10. Main Switchers Both The Toaster and the Trinity were designed by the same people. Kiki Stockhammer Michael Moore Others

11. Main Differences Toaster cannot store moving images. Toaster cannot control videotape machines without additional 3 rd party hardware and software. Toaster includes high-end 3-D software called Lightwave. Trinity effects are “cleaner” than Toaster effects that use compression.

12. Next Class We will have a test on the switchers. I hope you paid attention!