With churches moving to multi-site video venues and overflow rooms instead of creating larger and larger worship spaces, video production is playing an important role in how churches are reaching their communities. If you're using more than one video camera in how you are capturing and broadcasting your services, then you will be using some sort of video switcher in production environment. In this review, an expansion of the First Look article that ran in the CPM April 2011 issue, we're checking out the Ross CrossOver Solo production switcher. It should be noted that as a CrossOver Solo wasn't available at the time, Ross provided a functionally identical CrossOver 12 – the same system, but in two separate pieces instead of the one integrated unit found in the CrossOver Solo.
The CrossOver Solo is a multi-format SDI (serial digital interface) switcher with 12 inputs and three keyers. It features a 10-input multi-viewer for viewing inputs, preview and program on one monitor; three aux bus outputs; two DVEs (digital video effects); four frame synchronizers; dual animation stores with dedicated alpha channels; chroma keying capabilities; a variety of wipe patterns; and a sync generator. It also is available in a six-input and a 16-input frame.
For broadcast-style character generator/graphics support, you can add the Xpression character generator. The Xpression provides the ability to create broadcast-quality graphics and render them directly into the Solo's internal media store without the need to consume any of the switcher's video inputs.
My first impression of the Solo is that it is a powerful switcher for the price, and is very fast – it had no problem keeping up with fast input selection changes, no matter how fast I toggle the inputs. Its learning curve was pretty shallow for a switcher – after a couple hours I had a pretty good feel for how it operates. The setup menus were also intuitive, and it didn't take long to understand where to find things in the menu structure. Accessing the menus is also easy – when you go into setup mode, the transition selection buttons turn into menu selection buttons, allowing for quick traversal of the menus.
With three keying inputs available simultaneously, it's possible to have four layers of video going at one time – not bad at all for a one M/E (mix-effect engine) switcher.
All three aux outputs are independent, and can be fed from any input as well as preview and program signals. If you want to send a lock-down camera feed to your overflow room's main screen, while independently sending the program IMAG feed via another aux send to the overflow room's side screens, you can do it with the Crossover Solo.
Using the optional Xpression CG software it's easy to create some incredible graphics with alpha channel transparency. However, this application is overkill for most church's needs, and the learning curve would be rather steep. A better solution would be to use a third-party graphics program geared towards church needs, and either use the Solo's chroma keying functionality to achieve transparency. Or even better, if your worship graphics application has an option for providing an alpha channel as well as the video signal, connect both the alpha channel signal and the main signal into the switcher through two SDI inputs. The key signal can then be assigned to the fill (main) signal in the keyer setup, achieving nice transparency that chroma keying can't do.
The Solo has a built-in 10-input multiviewer, enabling up to ten signals (including preview and program) to be assigned to space in the multiviewer. Connect the multiviewer output to an HD monitor, and you have visibility into those ten signals all on one screen, saving significant money on external monitors. This worked great, and is a nice feature to have included in the base switcher.
It is worth reiterating that this is an SDI switcher – all inputs are SDI (both HD and SD signals are supported, making it a multi-format switcher). If you want to bring in a non-SDI source, you will need to buy signal converters. If you want to bring in a standard VGA computer signal, you'll need a VGA to HD-SDI scan converter. So, if you're looking to replace your current switcher and none of your existing video equipment is SDI, this may not be the best solution for you.
With the feature set and flexibility, this is an excellent switcher for the price (MSRP $9,995), and would serve any house of worship that's doing IMAG or broadcast very well. Support from Ross was excellent, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to a church looking for an SDI switching solution.
