The Roland VR-50HD Multi-Format AV Mixer is playing an integral part in the creation of compelling video content for tutorials, live streaming, advertising and more at the Point Blank Music School in London. The courses on offer at Point Blank include Music Production, DJing, Radio Broadcasting and Live Sound Engineering and are, by their very nature, ‘hands on’, in line with the school’s goal to ‘demonstrate the creative process of making music at the highest level’. Video tutorials are key to the course structure and offer the best medium for students to watch, hear and learn their skills through an audio-visual demonstration. The videos created by Point Blank also play a huge part in advertising the course content.

Point Blank needed a video production, recording and streaming solution that could be moved around, was easy to operate and that didn’t need numerous devices to achieve the output they wanted. As an all-in-one ‘HD studio’ with audio mixer, video switcher, multi-viewer touch screen and USB video/audio streaming in a single device, the VR-50HD ticked all of the boxes.

Describing the role of the VR-50HD, JC Concato, Creative Director at Point Blank explains, ‘the VR-50HD is our ‘hub’ for streaming. It’s a great product because we no longer need a separate audio mixer or soundcard and it is amazing to be able to process audio with EQ and compression in the same unit. The mobility and simplicity of the VR-50HD means it can be moved to and from wherever it is needed - from a studio, to other classrooms or to other schools- whereas before the video streaming setup had to be in a permanent location. We received the VR-50HD one day and were using it the next – we didn’t even need to read the instruction manual – all the features are where you expect to find them.’

The VR-50HD allows a user to connect cameras, computers, Blu-ray players, DVD players, microphones, tablets, and more for use as input devices, without having to worry about whether the equipment is analog or digital or what formats they output.

‘Some mixers can be picky in the formats that they accept, or they have to be the same resolution but the VR-50HD will take anything,’ JC Concato adds, ‘this has to be one of the features that we like the best’.

The USB 2.0/3.0 output enables web streaming with ease by simply connecting to a computer running a live streaming service. ‘The built in USB3.0 is a great feature of the VR-50HD as we don’t need another capture card and it makes it a very quick process to stream live. USB3.0 also gives us additional flexibility with the addition of webcam.’

Recording is equally simple by using QuickTime or the dedicated Windows/Mac capture software, the Video Capture for VR. ‘The other way in which we use the VR-50HD is for cutting video live, that is, recording a video and, at the same time, making live edits. We can add some edits later but being able to do it live avoids a lot of editing time afterwards.’

The video format of the VR-50HD is up to 1080/59.94p through USB3.0 and up to 720/29.97p through USB2.0. The resolution and frame rate of video format and audio level and delay can be changed thanks to the dedicated scaler and the dedicated volume and delay for the USB output. The VR-50HD supports 3G/HD/SD SDI, HDMI, RGB/Component, and Composite Video Inputs up to 1080p (3G SDI).

Website: Point Blank Music School in London