The Roland V-600UHD 4K HDR Multi Format Video Switcher has in the past year established itself as the ‘must have’ product for live video production professionals. As live events such as festivals return post pandemic, production companies are faced with the problem of supplying an escalating demand whilst trying to build their own resources back to full strength. The obvious route for many is to look at how to do things more efficiently, with one product, with one person, and it is in this new landscape that Roland products, particularly the V-600UHD have been making their mark.

Roland caught up with Ruben Gorissen, Chief Technical Officer at PRISMAX, experts in visual experience, virtual production, VJ, and ‘Unreal Engine wizards’ to find out how the V-600UHD is helping them to work more efficiently and how it played an integral part at one of their major events – Tomorrowland Winter 2022.

Gorissen himself has been a long-time user and fan of Roland products, having used the Roland V-4 and the V-8 at the beginning of his VJ journey in a club in Hasselt. Describing the scene, ‘there was a V-4 connected to some side screens and that was routed into a V-8 which was connected to a main screen – of course then were talking S Video and composite video – it was a different era’, Gorissen remembers, adding ‘the V-4 is still unmatched though when it comes to VJ-ing!’

Since those early days as a VJ, Gorissen has certainly earnt his worth in the world of video and visual production – now at PRISMAX heading up the projects for clients as diverse as Formula 1, Dubai Expo and the Tomorrowland festivals. Like most companies in the business of production, PRISMAX has had an uncertain few years due to COVID, but now they are more in demand than ever before.

‘Everything is coming back online now after the pandemic, almost all at once’, explains Gorissen. ‘We have lost some competition during Covid so there are not so many companies around to supply the demand. It’s also difficult to attract new and young people to join the live events industry as they are worried that it is not a stable industry to be in. Maybe for the future we have to do things more efficiently than before – using one operator for audio video and streaming’.

Part of that focus on efficiency is using technology in the best way possible, looking at the workflow from start to finish and making sure that the people involved are using their time wisely and have the right products – hardware and software – to hand. ‘We are using lots of real time engines now, speeding up the process of rendering visuals, freeing up more time to be creative. Also, the hardware is now scaling up to meet the job, for example we use the Roland mixers and now we have the Roland V-600UHD with 4K, it’s super easy – we have 4 K processors at the end, and we switch them up, with two computers coming in – before it was datapaths in between, there was a lot of stuff causing delays and quality loss. Now it’s just easy – plug in your computers to the Roland mixers and you’re good to go. You still have some freedom to do some external switching on the AUX bus, grab a few SDI as well, it’s nice to have those tools at your disposal. That’s one way of optimising everything for our case’.

Many production companies have pivoted their focus towards hybrid or virtual events as a result of the pandemic, but PRISMAX remain focussed on their key strengths, upgrading their equipment to deal with changes in the needs of their customers.

‘We don’t do a lot of streaming but virtual production has become an important area for us – mainly virtual festivals or gaming events that need a digital twin of the real-world event. Good hardware is still key to make sure everything works, everything is stable, you have the most optimised quality coming in and out of your IO, so it’s become a really integral part to our workflow to have Roland mixers. In fact, I think we have nearly every Roland mixer except the V-40HD at the moment!’

In fact, Roland mixers play an integral part in all the different kinds of events that PRISMAX do such as corporate events, live events, TV Broadcast, and some feature films as well. PRISMAX have also been heavily involved in XR (extended reality) virtual production setups with big LED screens. As well as XR, they also have done AR (augmented reality) for Formula 1, using Roland mixers to take care of the routing.

One of the major projects for Gorissen and PRISMAX each year is the Tomorrowland Festival. The summer (and original) version of the event held in Belgium attracts 100,000 visitors a day, making it the largest dance event in the world.

The first to be held in two years, the winter version – ‘Tomorrowland Winter Festival 2022’ - took place in the breath-taking French ski resort of Alpe d’Huez, with 18000 visitors and 100 artists over 7 days. PRISMAX created all the content for the stages that had LED walls - the main stage and the Cage stage.

‘At Tomorrowland we had two stages, two stages with a lot of LED, the main stage and the ‘Cage’ The V-600UHDs were both used because the main stage had 2 x 4K outputs (LED) so we used them as the mixer between the main and the backup server. They were also used for some external routing to the OB vans so they would get a main image routed back to them which they could overlay with the live feeds. On the Cage, we had some guest VJ’s coming in so we used one dedicated server, and as soon as the guest VJ arrived he just had one HDMI cable to plug in and we were good to go – just like a flip over switch and that was it.’

‘We are also using the V-600UHD with 4K cameras connected – we had 1 x 4K camera feed coming in which was a close up to the DJ, and then we had 4 x HD operated cameras connected to the V-8HD and that was routed straight into the server.’

Using the V-600UHD at Tomorrowland made sense for Gorissen for many reasons. On the practical side, having one box instead of several that can be operated by one person, makes a difference when your gig is at the top of a mountain. On the creative side, the V-600UHD could deliver the 4K visual quality that the event required, with the tools at hand to bring their vision to reality.

‘One of the major things for us is now we can just use one mixer to drive two 4K setups – and if you need more you just add another V-600UHD. The 4K workflow is just a dream come true because I’ve been waiting a long time for it! We’re always pushing the boundaries when it comes to outputs – and the V-600UHD just makes it possible without adding a bunch of other stuff into the chain. Stability wise, workflow wise, quality of life – it’s a major improvement’.

In addition to the V-600UHD and V-8HD, the XS-1HD multiformat matrix switcher played an important role in the timecode system at Tomorrowland.

‘The XS-1HD’s we use as a little matrix between our timecode systems, where everybody inside the FOH can see what the DJ is playing or whatever track is being played, or when they start mixing – it’s really helpful knowing when a drop is coming or a build up coming so the operators can anticipate that. So, we have two running in back up and connected to a XS-1HD then straight into a splitter and then to the screen, using XS-1HD to switch between those backups. It’s just a matter of making the best use of the tools and to make life a lot easier, making sure that everyone gets the right image with the overview of the music being played sent towards them.’

As the festival takes place 3330m above sea level in the winter, the risk of the low temperature or moisture in the air affecting the AV equipment had to be considered but even after running 24/7 the Roland products performed flawlessly.

‘All the equipment was left on 24 hours because of the drop in temperatures it’s always better to leave power on to save condensation building up. We did have some heaters at FOH but I never trust them. We didn’t have any issues with the products.’

On this occasion the FOH operator did not need to use the ROI (Region of Interest) function on the V-600UHD as they grab everything in and out, one to one, and then manipulate that inside the media server. However, PRISMAX have used the PinP and ROI functions before in a corporate show where they needed to create a side by side shot of 2 speakers on stage. ‘We used the ROI to cut out the images, so it looked like 2 cameras when there was only one camera – definitely a handy feature to have.’

The V-600UHD will continue to be the product of choice for Gorissen going forward – already specified for the events booked in their calendar. ‘For the summer we will have a Roland mixer on almost every stage- Tomorrowland has a summer edition which has around 16 stages with screens that we handle – the LED supplier recently upgraded his LED panels so might be some more 4K in it. The main stage is 4 x 4K, at least three other stages with 4K and some HD stages as well.’

One of the great things about the V-600UHD is that it allows an incremental transition to 4K workflows as demand and budget allows, the ideal solution for clients and visual production companies as we get back to ‘normal’ in the world of live events.