Roland V-4ex2 / ultimate video artist mixer wish list

Forum Pro Video & Broadcast
1

Hey folks, I started this project last year and am looking for any more suggestions on what could make a new model of the v-4ex awesome. I have a contact at Roland awaiting this feedback, and will also be suggesting the idea to Black Magic, as the only two hardware manufacturers who might want to tackle this gap in the video artist market. We are talking about a video mixer in the $2000 - $3000 range with these kind of requests, and Roland already has a lot of the tech needed in the recent high end broadcast mixers, and Black Magic may as well. So from a re-engineering existing released tech into another target market point of view, they might do it.

Feel free to contribute more ideas here, the document is editable:

3 Likes
2

list is getting pretty good, the doc is editable, so add anything you want. I will be sending this to my contact at Roland, and to Black Magic later next week, last call!

3

Made an account just to toss my 2 cents in here.

I love the v4ex but it has a few flaws for modern day use that I think is -all- they would need to change.
Honestly adding too much will make the cost higher and the size of the unit would grow larger than it needs to be, the current form factor is great.

My wants:

All hdmi inputs to take 1080p and go as low as 480p.
All internal processing to be 1080p, if this runs into frame rate limitations, add variable internal processing scaling so someone could scale down the processing for high frame rate if needed.

Introduce parameters to all channels, not just channel 4. This is a big crime on the v4ex with me. No ability to change each channel’s scaling, hue, brightness, contrast, etc was my biggest disappointment. The v440hd had per channel scaling was AMAZING.

Keep vga inputs/outputs, they are incredibly useful.
Keep the sdi outputs and inputs as well. None of the ports need to change, do NOT remove any of them. Modern artists are still using sdi.

Enhance the effects, maybe add in individual modulation options for each effect. Motion recording would be awesome.
Make some more effects and make them as interesting as you can. I find most of the v4ex’s effects to be bland or very, very dated.

Make mirror properly mirrored in the center. It’s off center and that breaks me.

Keep the 1920x1200 resolution option, sometimes 16:10 is a nice ratio to use.

Make preview out 1080p

Nothing needs to change for the controls… unit is perfect. Adding additional controls would need a fundamental change to the size and form of the unit. If they WERE to change anything my desires would be:

Make the unit like the v440hd, which is two mixers staged SD → HD. That was the best and most unique thing about that mixer.

Or replace the t bar with a joystick and figure out a way to do 4 way video blending. If this is possible, that would require 4 rows of effect knobs to have control over all 4 channels at once while mixing. That seems a bit crazy and fundamentally more than just a sequel to the line. That would be a top level flagship $5k sort of device.

But yeah, the Tl;dr is this:
No need for 4k to keep the price lower.
1080p inputs and internal processing
Add more and enhance the dated effects
Add parameters for all channels individually, not just channel 4
Keep everything else the same.

1 Like
4

Forgot to reply to you so you get an notification. Check out above statement.

5

Nice, yea I think a similar form factor would be great too.

6

My notes:

Internal LFO: Including ramp, and ease for seamless looping. As well as step sequencer possibly.

v4ex has an internal mixing bus of 480p. May be unreaonsalbe to target 4k for internal mixing put, 1080p is fine for most of today’s applications. Maybe with an upscaler to 4k?

Support for a shader language (GLSL?) for user-creted effects and transistions.

  • https://gl-transitions.com/
  • isf.video
    (Corner point mapping coudll be implemented as a shader. Once you conceive of this device as layers/blend modes/ shaders; some of the built-in utility features can share the same graphics engine, potentially streamlining development)

Modular inputs seem possibly niche to me, maybe this can be baked into the breakout cable tho?

An X-Y pad for effect modulation, possibly using the touch screen.
T-bar replacable with a touchpad, maybe? Although T-Bar is an iconic signal that this is a video mixer.

Ability to lock ouptut resolutions, or manually specify EDID; a copmplaint while touring is HDMI connection to the club’s projectors not negotiating a proper sync, or re-acquring sync during a perfornamce. Maybe it is possible to diagnose the quality (distance) of the HDMI cable, such as during sound-check. I.e. maybe a calibration/negotation mode (like channel finding on a TV) to find a stable connection.

Sync with industry standard equipment. I.e. Pioneer CD-DJ, Resolume, Touch-Designer, Notch, MadMapper
See Support – Resolume
https://www.tc-supply.com/home
PRO DJ LINK BRIDGE Bridge software for PRO DJ LINK system (software) - Pioneer DJ

Sync protocols

  • OSCQuery
  • Midi Time Code
  • SMPTE LTC
1 Like
7

Have you had issues with projectors and v-4ex’s locked output resolution before? My friend has a solution for that… gotta ask again, was an inline thingy.

8

Re: projector’s and locked resolutions, it’s just something I’ve heard from touring VJs. Specifically with a modern Roland V02-HD.

For the glitch artists, a forgiving composite TBC when they are glitching sync would be desirable.

And I don’t have a complete understanding of genlock, but maybe the ability to sync-split and recombine, again for glitch artists.

9

Oh, maybe Downstream Keying? I hear folks referring to how mixers can or cannot do that, but I get confused about which direction “downstream” means. I think it means passing along video with an alpha channel somehow.

10

Yea to my knowledge DSK is generally for applying graphics over a picture, like a lower third title, or logo. Broadcast folks might have more info about other uses. I have used the DSK in the v-40hd to composite two signals, but it’s DSK is stepped settings and not very tweak-able, no smooth transitions compared to a standard luma keyer with threshold and softness. Not the best for artistic compositing usage.