VM (Video Machine) from Fast Electronic was the core of our analog-video production platform. It consists of a single hardware board that slides into a 16-bit PC slot. An output cable splits into multiple connectors to accept external device signals. The separate VM Studio Box supports additional ports and makes it easier to hook up devices.
VM hardware installation was surprisingly easy. After placing the jumperless VM card into our Gateway 486/66, we booted the auto-sensing drivers that checked for available interrupts and memory addresses. The Sanyo decks fed the VM Studio Box through a serial connection (for computer control) and an S-Video cable (for the video signal).
We then loaded the software application and sele
cted the VM-supported decks from the Device Setup option. We stayed with the driver's default options (except for changing the video format from PAL to NTSC), defined the I/O ports, and designated one deck as the player, the other as the recorder. The Sanyo decks let us stripe SMPTE time code onto SuperVHS tapes that already contained video content. Time coding helped us determine precise frame positioning.
Let It Roll
To create your video product, you designate certain portions of the tape and lay them out on a time line, much as you do with a digital editor like Adobe Premiere. But the software application only retains the pointer information to the analog tape sequence. We marked the appropriate clips from both sources and placed them on the time line. We then dropped transition effects between clips. Video Machine captures the last frame from the "A" clip and the first frame from the "B" clip and stores the frames into its on-board frame buffers. The transition is then crea
ted digitally from the two frames. Because of these digital effects, Fast refers to VM as a "hybrid" rather than an "analog" system.
Once the clips are marked and laid out, we told the Video Machine to compile the final production and record it to our destination deck. The software locates the mark-in and mark-out points of each clip (using SMPTE time code) and outputs the clip to the destination recorder. The digital transition is then output to the recorder, and the next clip is retrieved from the analog source. In this way, Video Machine compiles the edited production from two (or more) sources and applies transitions and effects. In addition, you can overlay images from your hard drive or generate titles and overlay text from any Windows application.
If you have a true A/B roll configuration (requiring three decks), the final compilation can be hands-free. You put one video source in the "A" deck and the other source in the "B" deck and let it roll. We had only two decks total, so the proces
s was not as automated. We had to feed the proper VHS tape into the input deck each time there was a transition from one reel to the next, but the final product came out as smoothly as it would have with a real A/B setup.
If you want to create in-house VHS videos of staff meetings, speeches, and demonstrations, the Video Machine solution is the best way to go. Video Machine supports all the standard transitions and effects you'll need for a corporate production, and the production process is much more streamlined than if you tried the same type of product using digital video.
Analog, Hands On
