Does anyone else have any thoughts on this?

@ HighViewSport

I am with you Bryan and I am quite sure that as vMix Replay gains in popularity, support for the jlcooper will evolve into a reality, however, my fear is that the 'demand' is not there yet to warrant additional development and support for a unit that actually costs more than the software and is probably not on the radar for the average user, especially when the Contour ShuttleV2's functionality will accommodate most people's current needs.
Just my thoughts on the matter, but as you know, Martin has been known to wow us in the past with prompt support when least expected.


Ice

Hi everybody,

I was one of the broadcaster Karsten talked about, and I totally agree with controlling the replay system needs to be like an EVS system. This is the one and only way of getting this product into the professional sports TV market. All major OB supplier will still use EVS for sure, but smaller companies, webstreams, regional/local TV channels might use vmix replay in their broadcast environment.

I already had contact to Sondre Njastad regarding hooking up a professional hardware controller to the replay system. (Sorry Sondre, did come back to you via skype but had to much ongoing business that there were no time to figure out new stuff at the moment).

Karsten mentioned the nano controller, but to be honest, nobody has that in the real market, everybody uses the standard LSM panel. Anyway, the protocol is much the same, I´ll have a chat with EVS next week about that and can provide a controller for testing. That would mean everybody who has an EVS system can directly move his controller to a vmix replay and give it a try for smaller productions on a budget. Or maybe just for playback server in a live show.

Other option, as mentioned earlier, would be the JL Cooper range of controllers. But in my opinion only the Elite makes sense as they come closest to the "original" EVS controller. And they are open for OEM integration regarding protocols, so maybe the better starting point.

Regarding the money, no they are not expensive if you take into account what a "normal" replay system would cost. Everybody on a budget could deal with what is already their (Contour, Mouse, Shortcuts) - but let´s figure out a maybe called "pro" version for everybody who play with the bigger kids.

Anyway, we need the correct user interface inside vmix replay itself, I can only point it all the time: It´s vmix and Martin did a cool job - but it has to function like the EVS.
Just a very dirty description: the replay main window should show all live inputs, once you turn the jog wheel all recording channels move back and force - and after marking a clip you definitely need a button to go back to live with all your inputs so you could watch the live action again.
Currently you are not able to watch the live action inside the main replay window once you hit the record button. So why not having the "Live" button really act like that: Pressed you are always at the current position, watching the incoming feeds, once you jog back you´re "Not Live", and then if you want to be back to live - simply press the button "Live".

There are other stuff (like easy choose of audio playback of each channel, already discussed in another thread), but the "Live" button is main issue at the moment for all operators I´m teaching - as they all come from the EVS world... ;-)

Coming back to the controller, if somebody would cheer in we might sort out a group of people who are willing to invest some money in this "Pro" project by getting the EVS and/or JLCooper Elite controller hooked up to vmix replay, I bet we also would need some additional work done by Martin.

I´m open for that - money is there - ideas are there - may the force be with us!

Cheers

Jens

Hi Martin,

yeah, I know that you can use the preview windows, but I would be nice to have that all inside the replay window, so you have all in one screen/window.
And you really need these tactile feedback of viewing live in the monitor, once you jog back you directly see the picture in the same window going directly backwards from where you are - and by a simple push of a button you are live on that same monitor again.
In fast sports production you don´t have the time to fly you eyes of the monitor (or even worse - monitors) to catch the action at different positions. Have you ever worked with an EVS system? If not - you should definitley do that or ask an EVS operator to just show you the basics. It´s the major system not only for their stability and reputation - which by the way you already made a products which is running very stable, so this key element leads vmix ahead from others out there. It´s their user interface - it is so simple and dead usefull. And the way the machine works is so natural for somebody who did understand the main workflow behind a replay system.

Playout of 2 angles is no problem at all, you normally don´t have more than that on an EVS system, maybe a third playout but that´s just used for accessing and editing the playlist once this is playing, but that´s a total different story.

If we talk about the 2 playout channels, we should mention the more useful PGM/PVW mode: You just have one physical output from the replay system to the vision mixer (or vmix itself in our case), this is PGM, and you have a second one which is PVW, but that´s only on your replay screen. You can swap between these 2 by button and having a dissolve/wipe/cut whatever. You jog back on PGM, set your playhead there and switch to PVW, there you jog back to another angle/position while still the PGM "waits" for your playback command by simply dragging the T-bar on your controller. Once this PGM clip is finished, you switch PVW to PGM and the PVW clip swaps to PGM and plays on the same speed like the first clip was played meanwhile you can job back on the PVW again and so on.....
The vision mixer only need´s the command "out", he doesn´t care about how many replays their will be or have to dissolve between them.

Regarding the controller itself, I don´t want to point at you, I meant it exact like you said, "we" as a community (or better to programmers of us) should work on that - just with a little help from your side if at some point there might be a command missing in the API. Sorry if it sounded like you have to do the job, you already laid out this "world of possibilities", that´s far more than other companies does... :-)

So that´s what I think: Someone/We (not you) has to build a plugin/interface for the mentioned hardware controllers, which can be purchased or not, wether you´re Pro user or stay with simpler solutions which are build into vmix already. I might invest into this project and development - but maybe there are other Pro-Users out there who are willing to join this idea - and I mean not by just waiting once it´s finished.
The vmix team could think of these functionality I mentioned (and will provide to you by demo material or online meeting or whatever if you like to) - in order to make your replay system behave a bit more like the big guys do. You could even think about a "Pro" version of the replay system, which might have this approach and cost more thatn the price it is now. Karsten and me are talking about users who would easily spend multiple times the money of the current price for a "EVS-like" Pro-vmix-replay, maybe without even touching/needing of the regular vmix functionality...

Cheers

Jens

"Better" jog wheel support would be the first step, in my view, towards an EVS style experience. There needs to be FF and RW functionality in addition to how it is already configured with the ContourShuttle.


Ice

Hi Jens,

I have start with that in this post.

I'm a software developer and I will start to develop a Plugin or API based controller tool if we have all needed functions in vMix.

Cheers
Thomas

Whilst the JLCooper controller is really nice, there are a variety of midi devices with a similar layout for 1/10th of the price.

Discussion on that here : http://forums.vmix.com.a....aspx?g=posts&t=3832

Even better news is that midi will now be supported in Vmix16.