RS-8 Alternative

Keith Goodyer

Keith Goodyer

New member
This isnt realy third party, but does involve third party hardware.

Being a tactile kind of guy I like lots of real knobs and buttons. The RS-8 quiet frankley didnt have enough sex for me. Having an old PDG-418 Vision Mixer ( http://www.usbroadcast.com/pdg418_1.jpg ) I decided to embark on a project to interface the old control panel from it into my VT.

Well after a few weeks of work, and a change of programmers we now have a fully functional desk interfaced with VT (Using just an RS422 cable and software). All three bus's (Upto 18 inputs), the T-Bar, Chroma, Linear, and Luma Keyer (You can even set the colour from the rotary knobs). Full DSK control (Including DSK source select). DVE's can be selected using the numerical keypad, and transition times can be punched in also. We also have a one touch record button. basicly press the button and the output is recorded, press it again and it stops (Creates a new filename each press).

In theory we could interface toaster into any desk with RS232 / 422 - we will try doing a Grass Valley GVG-100/110 next - you can pick them up on e-bay for next to nothing, at which point we will make a public release of 'ToasterSlap'

For our next trick, we are going to attempt external DDR control (actualy we already have it working using unused buttons on the desk, but are trying to find a sutible external controller) any ideas?

Big thanks to Aussi for the toaster script documentation - confused the **** out of us to start with, but we got there in the end.

Best regards to all

Keith
J13 Broadcast
Milton Keynes
England
 
Thanks Jim - I will post some pictures of the whole rig tommorow. We used the system last week to shoot a Live DVD for John Wetton and Geoff Down (ASIA / King Crimson). The Director had no idea he was using a VT. As far as he was concerned he was using a VideoTek PDG-418 Vision Mixer. The only diffrence is he had 100's of DVE's at his finger tips, rather than the sad 32 boring wipes that were originaly available on that switcher.

Keith
 
VERY cool! :bowdown:

Get the GVG110 working and you will be VERY popular!

Do all the panel indicators work? - Buttons light up, display correct transition duration, etc..
How about the transition control section? Backround/Key Cut/Auto...

- Mikko
 
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Wow, now i like this a lot, i have been waiting for someone to come up with some alternatives...

thanks
chribba
 
Yes, all the buttons and panel indicators light up correctly! Cut, Auto & T-Bar all work corrctly, and you can select Background, Key or DSK from the desk, along with transition type, Mix, Wipe, or FTB (Fade to black). Transition times are set on the keyboard in Frames, just hit the Trans Time Button, followed by the number of frames, the Enter.

Looks like we need to get the GVG100/110 version going.

Keith
 
Same Here! Are you looking for beta testers?

A few questions:

1. Will you need the GVG 100 rack unit as well as the desktop section?
2. Will the GVG 100 work as well as the GVG 110?
3. There is a 'kinda' m/e feature with the GVG 100 allowing you to set up limited wipes and keys, then bringing those to program - could that be implemented?
4. Got any thoughts about audio? (maybe the GVG companion audio board)... is Automation possible?
 
Will this allow us to control VT like a deck (the ddr part)? This would open up a LOT of access to using VT with ProTools systems like the M-box (don't need the big system yet). This would give uncompressed output with audio in realtime.

thanks,

bruce
 
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Jezus that's SWEEEET.

..ok, so does the panel have Tally outputs, and do they work (for more than just the 8 channels of the VT)
And do the panel buttons have both high and low tally status (2 brightness levels)?

- Mikko
 
1. Will you need the GVG 100 rack unit as well as the desktop section?

No it only requires the pannel - put the mainframe on Ebay :)

2. Will the GVG 100 work as well as the GVG 110?

Yes its only the panel, and they are virtualy the same

3. There is a 'kinda' m/e feature with the GVG 100 allowing you to set up limited wipes and keys, then bringing those to program - could that be implemented?

We havent implemented this yet, but there is no reason to no implement it.

4. Got any thoughts about audio? (maybe the GVG companion audio board)... is Automation possible?

This project is just about external control of toaster, we could easily control the audio mixer - but im not sure how audio control was implemented on a GVG panel. But you could just set up VT to link the switcher and audio mixer.

5.does the panel have Tally outputs, and do they work (for more than just the 8 channels of the VT)

No, but we could easily design an add on box to give you 24 Tally lights. What kind of output do people want? TTL (As existing Toaster BOB Tally) or Closing Relay (Which is far more usefull).

6. Do the panel buttons have both high and low tally status (2 brightness levels)?

Not at the moment - we didnt need it in our application, but no reason not to.

7. Would it work for VT2 ?

No Idea, We havent tested on a VT2, but saying that as all the SDK documentation we used from Aussi was originaly written for VT2, I can see why it wouldnt work - may have to make a few code changes because some of the internal VT stuff changed its name. ie. Switcher , became Switcher2.

8. Do we need beta testers

Well anybody with a PDG-418 desk can beta test, when we get a GVG version working, we will put it out for beta.


Keith
 
A picture of our layout, we also control a DataVideo SE800 4 channel vision mixer from the VT machine. This is primarly used to convert the component output of the toaster to SDI and overlay a second DSK, which in our case is live text messages being sent in by users using their cell phones.

We decided to keep all our audio outside toaster (except for the DRR's) as we needed 32 audio channels for our productions.


Keith
 

Attachments

  • layout.jpg
    layout.jpg
    63.4 KB · Views: 1,063
Our Toaster Channels are set up as follows.
1 Camera 1 (Component 1)
2 Camera 2 (Component 2)
3 Camera 3 (Component 3)
4 Camera 4 (Component 4)
5 Camera 5 (Component 5)
6 Camera 6 (Component 6)
7 Second VT (Component 7)
8 VTR (Betacam) (Component 8)
9 VTR (DVCam) (DV Input)
10 DDR1
11 DDR2
12 DDR3
13 CG Player
14 Noise
15 Background
16 Black
17 Black
18 Black
 
Keith, as a fellow hacker and tinkerer of VT hard/software.... I have to commend you on an excellent job!!!

We have tried a few different ways of doing this ourselves but with no success.

Good to see your success.

Please email me at jef at pizazzme.com to discuss a couple of items offline.


Cheers!
 
OMG.....please tell me that smiley at the end meant you were joking. God help anyone who tried that! :foreheads I'd sooner use an abacus.
 
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