Hello All, Saw a demo of the KAHUNA in LA today.... I was very intrigued... Thanks to S&W, and Ken for the info... An amazinly powerful switcher... VERY WORTH checking out. Tchao!

Hi Costin, you would not block eight keyers in your situation. Per M/E, only one Format Fusion engine is required to convert the signal in that M/E. It takes care of both PGM and PST - so, you have 3 keyers left with 2D-resize engines and one keyer without. The 3D-DVE is entirely separate from this. Chris

Hi! I have a question regarding the Format Fusion and its capability of up converting SD signals. I have this situation: a vision mixer (Kahuna or Kayak; not decided yet) + 6 HD Cams + 8 external feeds (SD signals) + 2 C.G. Channels + 2 HD players + ? The problem is: if I need ALL 8 external feeds simultaneously in PGM/PVW buses I?ll block 8 keyers (2 full M/E)? In this case the keyers will not be available for 2D/3D DVE?s. I understand Format Fusion is responsible for up-conversion SD signals. The vision mixer will be use for news, so all the 8 external feeds will be needed.

Yes, of course, "PGM" is what I meant to say. My mistake. Doh. The point being, the "BGND" mode of K4 should not be engaged, since that does take the keyer away. Cheers, Chris

[quote="Dave Divis"]First, by turning the keyer on, that makes it on all the time, so if I don't want to use it for a particular effect, how do I get around it? Can't use resize to move it off-screen, right? Second, When I get to step 2 in your list and hit the Util 3&4 Use key 4 resize yes button, it doesn't turn green and activate the function. The No button stays lit.[/quote] Hi Dave, Instead of setting Key 4 to ON, set it to PGM. That may take care of your second item. If it doesn't, then you may have to write to our friend in the UK. Cheers, -= Ken =-

Hey Chris- Two things: First, by turning the keyer on, that makes it on all the time, so if I don't want to use it for a particular effect, how do I get around it? Can't use resize to move it off-screen, right? Second, When I get to step 2 in your list and hit the Util 3&4 Use key 4 resize yes button, it doesn't turn green and activate the function. The No button stays lit. Not sure I get what you mean by "if this doesn't work, it may be you don't have that option. " What option are you referring to? AFAIK, we have everything except color correction. Discovered legend lamp in the last revision and have been using it ever since. Yay! Thanks.

Hi Dave - in 2.4r3: 1. Go to Eng Config > ME Outputs and make sure K4 is "on" for chosen output. 2. Go to Eng Config > ME Outputs > Utils. Here select "U3/4 use K4 Resize - yes" and "BGND FF - yes". 3. Go to Eng Config > Source Standards > Format Fusion and adjust settings as required per source. AFAIK, if this doesn't work, it may be you don't have that option... Note that even if you are not using BGND FF, the settings of point 3. can still be used if, in the Resize menu, you select "Format Fusion - Source." Also check out User Config > Xpoint Mapping "Legend Lamp"!... Cheers, Chris

Hey Chris- Thanks for the update. Just installed the new software and I am having problems setting up what you describe. For example, I go to ENG-source standards-Format Fusion and tried making various adjustments like zooming and position. Nothing happens. If I go to ENG-ME output Setup, what do I set key 4 to? Please post a step-by-step as to how to set-up the switcher so I can use key 4 as you describe but get the FF benefits. Thanks.

Hi all, just a quick addendum to Dave's info - in the newest software release for Kahuna, you can actually decouple the Format Fusion engines (which also do resizing) from the keyer. That means you can mix video of different standards (SD, 720p, 1080i etc.) on the background buses of a given ME, and you still have all 4 keyers available - only key 4 doesn't have resize capability in this case (on a Kahuna, each keyer has its own resize engine, they are not pooled). The switcher now does format conversion on both program and preset buses, so you could dissolve between two sources which are both different from the main ouptput standard of that ME, as long as they have the same frame rate. You can also preset how you'd like the aspect ratio treated, so if you are putting a 4:3 source in a 16:9 program you decide whether it's stretched, given pillars, or blown up and cropped on a per-source basis. And if you wanted to, you could now key 3 more sources on top of this, again with each having a different standard, and only the 4th key needs to match the ME output standard. Cheers, Chris

So if you have format fusion turned on, can you dissolve between two sources that the switcher is doing format conversion on and it still only burns one keyer? Newtek is actually putting out new versions of the Toaster that run on Windows XP now. Most of its feature set is for editing/post, but they've added live production capabilities to it as well. Good enough for a school or church video department or cable access, but its real strength still is and always has been post-production. I'll say no more 'cause the last time I did my post got deleted. On paper that Broadcast Pix system looks very nice, I'll have to look more closely at that next time I have to build a cheap video setup.

Hey Derek- You ask many questions so here goes my attempt to answer them. Please be aware that Kahuna is a "regular" type switcher, not a hi-rez like a Spyder, Screen Pro, etc. We have 2 Kahunas, a 4 ME version and a 3 ME version. Like other high-end switchers, it has 4 keyers per ME. If you use Format Fusion, which is what gives you the ability to mix different formats on an ME, you have to select a specific menu setting to activate it. It uses the keyer 4 circuitry to give you that ability to mix signals and therefore keyer 4 is not available for use as a keyer, leaving you with 3 keyers. It is a sacrifice I gladly make because the flexibilty you get in return is more than worth the price. If you were going to do a show where everything is 1080i, for example, you could use all 4 keyers. Usually I end up using some SD playback from beta along with HD cams. In this case, a 4x3 source would have to be keyed since it won't fill the 16x9 raster. I use the resize engine (you get one for each keyer) and set position and size as desired and key the box over a BG. We try to convince clients to do their SD playback in anamorphic, since the switcher can stretch it back out to 16x9 and you can just take it straight like any other HD source, even though it isn't an HD source it will still fill the 16x9 raster. I have mixed 720p and 1080i on the same ME. I'm not sure if you can get Kahuna in other configs but ours is digital. It will take HDSDI or SDI. Our SD decks spit out SDI and we also have 2 HD playbck decks that, of course, spit out HDSDI. If we were to use a BVW 75, we'd have to convert the component to SDI. The switcher has a total of 80 inputs on the mainframe. I use the higher numbers for loopbacks since our system doesn't have all 80 available on the back of the rack it is mounted in. Since the switcher wants its inputs on a BNC connector, even a computer running 1920x1080i has to be converted to HDSDI for the switcher to be able to use it. We use Folsom Image Pro's for this. Depending on what the client wants, a 1024x768 signal would be handled in on of 2 ways. If they want it to fill the raster, we upconvert it to 1080i in the Image Pro and then stretch it in the Image Pro so it arrives at the switcher as the correct size. If they want it to remain 4x3, it still is upconverted, but then I will use what is described above and put it in a PIP and position it wherever they want. For projection, it depends on the projector you are using. We have some that want to seee 720p native but have found through experimentation that these particular projectors actually do skin tones that look better when we feed it 1080i and let it convert! I know it sounds weird, but its true. Hope I answered your questions. If you have any more, please post them.

[quote="Derek Hay"]p.s. For those of you unfamiliar with a Broadcast Pix switcher, it is kind of a studio in a box type of thing. Kind of like a Toaster or Trinity, only newer and arguably better for real production.[/quote] I actually bought an Amiga Toaster card on Ebay just to play around with. I couldn't afford one in my early 20's, so I can now relive my... childhood? The Trinity is now sold as GlobalStreams, or some such name. I'm digging the Kahuna information. The station I'm at is still limping along with an Ampex AVC Century. It's a real trooper, but it's having more and more problems. We'll be looking at a replacement soon. (I hope I haven't jinxed it. :)

Hi Dave, I am curious about your experiences as I work on sort of similar staging events (mainly Microsoft since I live in Seattle). I have looked at the website for the Kahuna a few times and am aware that it can have something like 6 layers of video of mixed resolution per ME. Can it mix more than 2 different resolutions of video on the same ME? e.g. NTSC, 720P and 1080i all on 1 ME. Or is it a total of six layers but only 2 different ones at a time? The webpage isn't very clear on this. Does it do NTSC, or just 601? You talk about using scan converters for hi-res computer signals which I could understand if the source was up above 1920x1080i/P; but what if you are setting all computer sources to something lower than that, like often they are 1024x768 to match the native resolution of the projector. Would this work? The Microsoft show that am an engineer on for the next week is using a Sony switcher for the low res (ntsc)stuff, a Broadcast Pix for the close caption and webcast, and I believe a Vista for the high-res to the 14 projection screens. (4 Mains, 10 delay screens) That is 3 different switching systems, which seems a little excessive, and I am wondering what a Kahuna can handle. Is all of the stuff in your room being done by the Kahuna, or is there a high res data switch? (Folsom, etc.) I am curious what company you are working for. AVHQ, Staging Techniques, Creative Technology? There are a bunch of companies that do this type of stuff. Are you on staff somewhere, or freelance? Thanks, Derek p.s. For those of you unfamiliar with a Broadcast Pix switcher, it is kind of a studio in a box type of thing. Kind of like a Toaster or Trinity, only newer and arguably better for real production. I have no affiliation.

[quote="TCGaskins"]Does any one have any experience with the Kahuna?[/quote] Hey everybody! Hope you all of you are having a great holiday season. I've been using the Kahuna for about a year and it is a good switcher! It does do format conversion internally as opposed to having to set up a scan converter for every source that needs it. However, if you are using a hi-rez signal from a computer, you need to convert it before sending it to the switcher. An example might make all of this easier to understand. I'm currently in Las Vegas preparing for the Consumer Electronics Show. We are provding the screens, projection, cams, record/PB, etc for presentations showing off new gear and ideas from Microsoft and other companies. We are running our cams in 1080i and also have some HD decks that will PB tapes in the same format. We will also have standard def PB. In addition to that, we will be recording in SD and HD, with an uplink feed and a record feed that are in 720p. The Kahuna will handle all this without any external converters. Each ME can be set to output in a different format. It is not uncommon for me to run one ME in SD while running the rest of the board in HD. Only the Powerpoint graphics from laptops and the feeds from the XBox are being converted (because they are coming out of computers). Snell & Wilcox has brought this switcher a long way since it was introduced. We recently received another software upgrade with more cool stuff in it. They also keep adding to the DVE. And, the best part of all, it is extremely stable. Knock on wood, it has never crashed during set up or a show. We had a problem that was traced to a board going bad (minor problem that didn't effect the show) and they quickly responded by getting us a replacement. We have had no other problems in the year we have owned it. By the way, I don't work for them - this is not a shameless plug that I am being compensated for. If anyone has any specific questions, please post them and I will try to answer. Dave