Roland V-800HDs Get a Big Slice of the Action with Stage Engage

(19/05/2014) Stage Engage have recently purchased two Roland V-800HD multi-format video switchers to add to their hire and live event inventory. Specialising in professional audio, video, lighting and stage solutions, Stage Engage provide full production services for a variety of clients including corporate events, conferences and festivals across Europe.

With a growing number of events requiring multi-camera set-ups and integrated presentations, the company needed to upgrade from their Roland V-40HD to a product which could handle more inputs. With eight multi format channels from sixteen inputs (4 SDI, 4 Composite, 4 DVI-I/HDMI, 4RGB/Component) and six outputs (2 SDI + 2 DVI-D/HDMI + RGB/Component + Composite), the V-800HD proved to be the ideal specification.

We chose the V-800HD as the right product for the corporate market because it is truly multi format and can connect to any laptop so the client can turn up with VGA or HDMI for example and we don't have any issues. The V-800HD also gives us the number of inputs we need for this type of work and has other useful things such as the holding slides feature. 90% of the time, the V-800HD is being used for corporate clients and conferences or for our own in house production', commented Christian Ablett, Managing Director, Stage Engage.

Most recently, the V-800HD's were used by Stage Engage for full production on two stages at The Big Cake Show'. This three day event at the Westpoint Arena in Exeter included live demonstrations and bake offs from industry stars such as Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood. The V-800HD worked as the HD AV hub for cameras, projectors and laptops for the main stage and for recording the event live. The main stage was a full HD setup and the V-800HD connected to four HD cameras, one on stage with an operator, one static in the audience and two HD PTZ cameras in the rig for close ups on the stage. Two Christie Roadster HD projectors (11500 Lumens) were fed from the V-800HD via the HDSDI outputs to show the live on stage activity on additional screens within the venue. The event was recorded from the second HDSDI output on the V-800HD to an external Akai hard drive. Two Apple MacBooks were connected to the V-800HD for providing additional content, one running HD video footage that Stage Engage had produced earlier (using previously recorded live footage from the event) and the second to run holding slides such as What's Next?' in a rolling presentation. Up to sixteen still images can be stored in the V-800HD itself making them instantly available for use. The second stage used a combination of SD and HD cameras with three SD PTZ cameras running from the composite input of the V-800HD. A single laptop via the HDMI input of the V-800HD ran all the content whilst two 50 plasma screens were connected to the DVI outputs.

Commenting on the performance of the V-800HDs at The Big Cake Show', Christian added, The V-800HD had to be reliable as it was in charge of what was seen in real time on the main screen and it performed brilliantly. The V-800HD is a true workhorse and we are using it on just about everything at the moment.'

The V-800HD is ideal for any live event or installation that requires the freedom to connect any type of source whether it be digital or analog, computer or video format. There is no need to match input sources to the output resolution as every input has its own broadcast quality scaler that can individually scale, stretch, crop and zoom each source as required to fit any output resolution chosen. The V-800HD is HDCP compatible and also features a built-in multi-viewer output that provides a convenient monitoring solution when connected to an HDMI monitor.

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