Posted by Ivor Davies on 03/13/06 00:39

John,
If you are interested in a software solution -

have a look at "Visual Communicator Studio" at the following web address.
www.seriousmagic.com

you will find a number of educational institutions around the USA (and
further) that are using this as a solution to exactly the problem that you
raised here.

(I "look after" all the A/V facilities at a Secondary College in Australia -
we have found the above product to be "the best invention since
sliced-bread".)

Cheers,
Ivor


"johnlivingston" <johnliving@cox.net> wrote in message
news:1140371718.134728.285450@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> I'm the librarian at an elementary school and run our little TV studio.
> We use two cameras (an old Pansonic VHS unit and a fairly recent Sony
> miniDV camera) to broadcast internally a live news program each morning
> that the students produce. We've been using cheap A/B switches to
> switch between cameras, cable TV, and a laptop running PowerPoints. I
> bought a Pioneer DVR to record all of this and was dismayed by how much
> noise the A/B switches made (not to mention how crude the
> "transitions" were). I'd like to get an A/V mixer, mostly so we can
> fade smoothly between the two cameras. I wouldn't mind one that had
> some effects built in, particularly PiP. I'm using composite RCA
> connectors currently from the cameras, although I could use S-video
> connections instead. I will probably have to raise any funds needed for
> this, so I'd like to keep it in the hundreds of dollars, and not the
> thousands.
>
> Some web searching has turned up the Numark AVM01, which can be had for
> about $600 refurbished, and the Edirol V-4, which is more like $900,
> and seems aimed more at DJs. I've also seen older, Panasonic units
> like the WJ-AVE7, which seem to go for about $200 or so on eBay. All
> these seem to basically do what I need, but I'm pretty much guessing at
> this point.
>
> Your suggestions would be hugely appreciated.
>
> John
>

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