Scratch built video mixer

HD OK

TEMP NEEDS PHOTO NEEDS FIXING

Concept inception

(Headscratchyfuntimes)

During an event with the university AV department [[hist:Tom McGonagle |Tom]] and Andrew discussed the idea of building a vision mixing board similar to the very nice (if sadly, equally expansive) ATEM 1 M/E Advanced Panel... just without as nice a finish, the clicky buttons, automation... well you get the idea.

Basically; could we build a vision mixer that was functional, hard(ish) wearing and that wouldn't break the bank.

How hard can it be...

The plan

(Hold up lads... I've got a great idea)

Currently, to communicate with the ATEM we use the included software, which simulates the interface of a physical mixing panel (the ATEM 1 M/E panel) using the numbers on a keyboard to select live and standby cameras and their mixing.

While this is a perfectly valid solution to the problem and has worked wonderfully for us for many years, it is rather unwieldy and a bit of a pain in the arse. This is primarily because there's a load of keys in between the numbers and your fingers.

SO, the plan.

Build a case, with some decent woodworking to fit the size of a keyboard. Mount the keyboard into the case. Build a facing piece for the top of the keyboard which blanks off all of the unnecessary keys and refit to make the layout make sense.