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Keith Kyker and Christopher Curchy
A Video Mixer for Your News Show
Every morning, students in classrooms all across the country are treated to their own morning announcement program via their school’s closed-circuit system. Often, these programs are filled with graphics, video segments, and special reports. Unfortunately, some programs begin with a camera shot of little Timmy or Susie sitting at a table reading the morning announcements, and end three minutes later on the same camera shot.
Which description matches your news show? If you chose the latter, a video mixer may be just what you need.
What is a Video Mixer?
A video mixer is a video production
component that allows video signals from several different sources to be
selected and combined. Video mixers are also known as video switchers and A/V
mixers. Videonics/Focus Enhancement's MX line of video mixers are commonly used
in schools.
Videonics' MX-Pro
Connecting the Video Mixer
Video mixer connections are quite
simple. Find the "video out" jack for each video component that you wish to use
in your news show. These components could include video cameras, a VCR (to play
segments), a digital still camera, a character generator (for graphics), a
Laserdisc player, and even a computer that has video output jack. You are
limited only by the number of inputs on your video mixer.
Click image for a connection diagram.
To access the video signal processed by the video mixer, run a cable from the "video output" or "main output" on the back on the video mixer to the "video input" on your recording VCR. If you go live, and don’t run your program through a VCR, then you would connect the "video output" of the video mixer directly to the input on your head end distribution system.
A preview monitor allows your students to view the video sources before they select them. Plan to have at least one video monitor to act as a preview monitor. Connect that monitor to the "preview output" jack on your video mixer.
Using the Video Mixer
The person who operates a video mixer is called the technical director.
It is the technical director’s job to view each image available, and select the
appropriate image. The technical director can "cut" directly to the next video,
or they can select an effect, such as a wipe or fade. Early video mixers
performed only a few different effects. More recent models give the technical
director hundreds of choices for transitions.
What a Video Mixer Can Do
A video mixer can make your news show
more interesting and compelling because it allows you to include video from
several sources, not just the single camera pointed at your newsreader.
Let’s work through an example. On a typical day, here are some announcements that you might find in your news show in-basket:
- The conservation club will have a meeting after school;
- The math team just won the division title;
- Jimmy Coleman was just selected to the all-county basketball team;
- Tickets are on sale for the dance this Friday night.
Imagine all of these announcements being read by your student newsreader, who appears on camera the entire time. Your news show would become boring after the second or third announcement. Sometimes, we implore our newsreaders to "be enthusiastic" or "smile more." Maybe what we’re really saying is that we’re bored with the video image, and we’re just looking for something different.
Now, imagine that same program with several video sources connected to a video mixer. Let’s imagine that we’re using a Videonics MX-Pro, which has 4 video inputs. Our four inputs will be (1) a video camera, featuring our newsreader, (2) a character generator providing graphics screens, (3) a VCR, and (4) a digital still camera.
- Our show opens with a welcome and introduction by our newsreader, who appears on-camera (input 1).
- Our first announcement is the conservation club meeting. Our technical director selects input 2, the character generator, which provides a graphic noting the time and place for the meeting.
- Our next announcement is about the math team. We switch to input 4, the digital still camera. We see a digital photo of the math team and their trophy. The photo has been taken before school.
- Our next announcement is about our basketball player who has received an honor. Our technical director selects input 3, the VCR. A videotape of Jimmy playing basketball is playing in that VCR.
- Our next announcement is about the upcoming dance. We switch to input 2 to see a graphic about the dance…or maybe we switch to input 1 to see our news reader holding two tickets to the dance…or maybe we switch to input 3 to see video from the last dance….or maybe we switch to input 4 to see a still image of the cafeteria, which has been decorated for the dance.
You get the idea! Once you give your students the opportunity, they will become very creative, and your news show will become much more watchable.
At this point, you probably have two questions. First, do I have to provide a video alternative for every announcement? and secondly, doesn’t this make the news show more complicated? The answers are "no" and "maybe."
No, you aren’t required to provide video footage for every announcement. But is sure is nice to know that you can! And that leads us to our second question. Yes, moving from image to image makes program production more challenging for your students. They will have to learn new skills, listen carefully to direction, and work as a team. This, of course, is a wonderful thing! Now, instead of just standing around while the newsreader reads the announcements, your crew will be actively involved in production of their show.
So as you begin this school year, why not investigate adding a video mixer to your studio set-up? And if you already own a mixer, look for new ways to add video to your news program. Your news crew and your audience will certainly appreciate it.
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