Roland has added the VR-3EX to its VR Series of A/V mixers for live production, web streaming and recording. The design incorporates a video switcher, audio mixer, touchscreen preview monitor and streaming-ready USB output in a single unit that is aimed at portable/permanent install applications including house of worship, education, corporate A/V and live production.
Expanding the feature set of the Roland VR-3, the VR-3EX offers four HDMI inputs, two HDMI outputs, built-in scaling with resolutions up to 1080p and WUXGA, HDCP support, a digital audio mixer with effects, and more than 200 video transitions and effects.
The VR-3EX features audio embedding from the HDMI inputs while audio mixer has delay settings on each input allowing lip sync adjustments to match a video source. Supporting HDCP allows use of copyright protected material, such as game consoles and Blu-ray content into a live production. Composition effects such as Chroma key, Luminance key, and picture-in-picture enable title/logo overlay or lower thirds on background video.
HDMI Inputs 1-3 accept video resolutions up to 480p/576p, and Input 4 accepts HDMI resolutions up to 1080p and RGB up to WUXGA (1920x1200). Although internal processing is SD-based, the output can be scaled up to 1080p or 1920x1200. Video Inputs 1-3 feature composite (RCA) or HDMI (SD only) while Input 4 accepts HDMI, RGB/Component or composite video. The video outputs have the ability to scale resolutions up to 1080p via HDMI or component, 1920x1200 (WUXGA) via RGB, or SD (NTSC or PAL) via the composite video output. An additional HDMI output is included to add an external preview monitor if required.
The 18-channel audio mixer provides four XLR/TRS with phantom power, stereo RCA, mini-stereo and built-in stereo mics, as well as stereo audio from the four HDMI inputs. Dynamics such as delay, EQ, gate and compressor can be applied to each balanced audio channel. The built-in stereo microphone on the top of the VR-3EX enables narration or ambient audio from an audience to be added to the broadcast mix. The VR-3EX also has a main and aux bus output so that the audio for the broadcast and the in-house PA system can be mixed separately.
As a USB Video/Audio class device, web streaming requires connection to a computer running a live streaming service. The output can also be recorded using the free VR Capture software from Roland for Windows or Mac ,or by using native OS applications such as QuickTime on a Mac.
