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[Joshua Samuel]

Our church is looking into buying a Toaster system. We were going to use it for live switching. We liked the fact that it had a character generator, hard disk recorders and other features. But we were concerned about it being software instead of hardware.

Is there anything out there in this price range (4,000-9,000) that offers me similar features that is hardware or software based.
Being able to show different images on different projection screens would be great!

Thanks
Joshua

[Kevin Hoober]

Not shure what latency is like on the vt4 system...but the vt3 stuff had at least 4 frames of latency--add that to the latency in the projection system...and you get a bad kungfu movie.

Kevin

[Greg Hertfelder]

Joshua
There are a number of offerings on the market in this price range, such as the Edirol V440-HD, Newtek Tricaster, Broadcast Pix, Folsom, Analog Way, Panasonic, and I am sure others that I am not aware of.

You might consider attending the National Association of Broadcasters trade show in Las Vegas next month. It's when the latest & greatest get introduced to the video production market.

The exhibit floor is free if you have a pass code. A lot of folks fly out cheap on Southwest airlines and stay at some hotel like Motel 6 or Super 8...or better if budget permits.

[Tell-A-Vision Media]

Hi Joshua, hopefully this is not too late...I use a VT4 system in our video setup, but it is not my main switcher.

As Kevin stated, if the system isn't configured correctly, latency WILL be an issue.  We started on a VT3 and the PC I had built was either too much for the VT3 (weird statement I know) or VT3 wasn't that stable.  I wasn't happy at all.

That being said, there's been drastic improvements in the VT4 system.  We did a complete upgrade, and I would recommend it to anyone...unless you're going HD soon (this is a problem i'll face next year, unless newtek supports live HD).  Many people in the VT4 community are helpful and willing to share tips and tricks to make it run flawlessly.

I use the VT4 as my IMAG switcher, providing an easy way to roll video files like our weekly video announcements, lower 3rds for song lyrics, scriptures, alert messages,etc.  So basically, it is doing overlay/cg work.  I depend on a hardware switcher to go to tape and do most of the switching.  It was great to have that VT in place one Sunday though, when the main switcher died...all cameras are fed to both the main switcher and the VT for redundancy.

From time to time I will set up streams from the VT, which is very easy, but our streaming is mainly handled by streaming faith.

VT4 is a great production value, you just need to invest in the best components to ensure the system runs smoothly...the video drive configuration can get costly!

Our VT Setup (with VT4 I don't have any problems)
VT4.6; Dual 3.2Ghz Xeons; 2 Gigs Ram; SuperMicro Server Motherboard; 4 15k rpm 125gb Cheetahs for video; 80g 7200rpm System Drive for programs; 80g 7200rpm drive for media storage; RS-8 Switcher, SX-8 Breakout (I suggest getting the SX-84).

Oscar Matthews

[Joshua Samuel]

Thanks for the reply

Its very good to know that there is another church out there that uses it. Is the latency  at all noticible to the congrigation. And has it ever crashed on you.

thanks

[Tell-A-Vision Media]

In my setup, the latency isn't that bad, and its not distracting...if you sat there and tried to watch for it specifically you may see a slight delay...I don't have the exact frame count down, but I will check for that to let you know.  Again, setttings have to be done correctly to ensure it runs smoothly.  I've been pretty pleased.

Since VT4, I can't say there's been any major crashes...many people us it as their main switcher, I do not.  VT3 crashed all the time on this system.  VT4 is pretty stable.  Have you been to the Newtek user forums and read up on user experiences there?

[ProSoundWeb Community]