Digital Production - Vision Mixer and Wiring


This session was about important cables we may use for our show:

Analog Video

You can find Composite RCA cables in Nintendo Wii consoles. These cables are the red, white and yellow ones. It is important to remember: 

Yellow = Video

Red = Right Sound

White = Left Sound

The most used cable is Composite BNC this is because t is harder to pull out which helps because we don't wan important cables being pulled out

Another type of cable is Component: RCA + BNC. This cable effects the colour quality and is for HD and video

A Universal cable has the same cable as the previous one but contains more information

A VGA cable works with computers

Digital Video

A HDMI cable which is the common most cable works on multimedia interfaces

You can tell the difference between analog and digital cables because analog have gold pins and the block interference which helps with sound however if damaged the quality will drop. Digital cables have silver pins and are faster however if damaged there is a possibility of no transmission 

Component RCA - Component Out on Camera. Composite RCA - Composite BNC - Ethernet - Composite BNC

Vision Mixer

The vision mixer has an SD (Standard Definition) and a HD (High Definition) side. We will mostly use the HD side because of the higher quality over standard definition. There is a white and green light on the camera buttons when you cut between the buses using the C/D lever: Green = Safe to transition, White = Live, so don't switch this


There is an auto button which cuts without a transition however the standard for using a transition is to cut using the buses. Additionally the other way to transition is to either dissolve or fade out. There are about 10 different buttons with different transition types

There is a dial which changes how long the transition is such as having it for a second or longer. When transitioning a button flashes shows it is happening. The transition will happen when the dial is over 50%

Some other important information about the vision mixer is that there is a P in P button which can change size of images you put on the screen to have multiple visuals. You can use a green screen by using the Key, 132 is the default key to have for this setting. The output format buttons are different, plus you have to make sure you are using the correct output format. To do this use this function:

Menu → 13. System → Frame rate →  NTSC
Menu → 11. Contrast → HD/RGB Output → 720

These are other important functions to remember when using the vision mixer

Y = luma. Green

PB = Blue

PR = Red

SD/HD inputs

PGM/PGMI= Programme 1 and 2

AV out on camera= match output format on mixer

(On Screen Display) OSD off (camera setup) 

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