[quote="pony power"]thanks for the feedback I apprecate reading it. As for the hinged tub we too had to open the switcher up because the joy stick became disconected in shipment and found 2 screws were stripped, says something about Thompson's QC[/quote] So the panel has a hinge but it is screwed down? How much could it have costs to add the system that a 4K or Kalypso has to lift the panel, that is weird or cheap.. What's next plastic fader bars ? :) Bill

thanks for the feedback I apprecate reading it. As for the hinged tub we too had to open the switcher up because the joy stick became disconected in shipment and found 2 screws were stripped, says something about Thompson's QC

The Kayak is fairly powerful as long as the side panel is installed. Without the side panel it can be a serious pain. What is even more of a pain is when you have the switcher purchased or offered without simple things like drop shadows on keyers, or not being able to assign a DVX downstream, or the inability to matte fill a DSK. I had a brand new Kayak on a show the other day. The flash card on the switcher panel came loose. We had to take out 20 screws to open the panel. Wouldn't you know the last screw stripped. It took an hour to go to Lowe's and buy a drill to remove the last screw. I was down for about two hours because the switcher did not have hinges. That is something I consider simple. I hope somebody at Grass is listening. I have no problem learning new technology, but at leat make the thing serviceable. Scott Dailey

I just did a show on the smaller of the HDNet trucks. They now have a Kayak on it and some of their people liked the smaller less capable Snell that they HAD then the newer Kayak. I was trained by NMT on the DD-35 and I liked the 35 over what I saw on the Kayak. (NOTE: my time on the Kayak was limited due to a truck delay. We just did takes and cuts, no effects of any type.)

What no one seems to realize and what the "new" Thompson/Grass Valley people don't get is that it is much harder to program this switcher on a one day set, shoot and strike show. It is not as straight forward as the Grass Valley products we know today like the 3/4K and the Kalypso. The Kayak's software is very much like the DD35 from what I have seen and as Eric mentioned, where is the DD35 now? How successful was it in this country? I'm not knocking the product, I'm sure it's very powerful, but the people buying these switchers again are not operators. The same goes for the other switchers that are now in the marketplace. What has been the most sucessful remote switcher? It's an easy question for one reason, ease of use and you can program it quickly especially on one day in and out shows. You won't have the luxury of set days where you'll have time to play. Thompson should realize this and take a lesson from their past experiences with this type of software. The Kayak just has too many menus to go through to do things that are just simple, quick & easy to do on a Kalypso. That is a fact! One level for this, one level for that, then you have to go back and to attach this or that! It's too much and certainly not straight forward as I mentioned. In the remote world you just want to get it done and done quickly because there is little time to program especially on the in and out shows. This is going to be just like it had been with SONY 7K some years ago .... if your trained, you'll be able to name your own price to do the show because they won't have anyone trained to operate these switchers as Eric mentioned. The sad part is, no one ever asks operators anything and these programmers just go and do what they think is right for a market they don't understand. They too are not operators... I'm not saying don't build the switcher, I'm sure there is a place for it somewhere, just not in a remote environment. Time will tell and I know one thing, history has a way of repeating itself.

A Grass Valley rep said that the latest Grass Valley switcher they're trying to sell is going to show up a lot on the road, eh? In other news, Microsoft says it's only a matter of time before the Zune replaces the ipod as the mp3 player of choice. But seriously folks, I've seen the Kayak, a few times at this point, so I'd like to share. Is it a powerful switcher? Yes. Can it do everything you would need it to do in order to switch an MLB show? Sort of... if you know the switcher really well, and can do a bunch of workarounds to make it do stuff that's easier and quicker to build on a 4K or Kalypso.... but then again, so could the DD-35 when it came out. I recall that NMT put a bunch of those switchers into their trucks a few years ago. Anyone remember how that worked out? Oh yeah. As for selling yourself as a TD for baseball once you learn this switcher, that depends - on whether you've learned the 4K/Kalypso yet. If people start hiring trucks that have this switcher installed to do baseball shows, they're gonna need someone trained on the Kayak to do the show. How many TDs are there that have been trained on the Kayak? Don't all raise your hands at once. Oh, eight of you? Good. That being said, I would, of course, take any free training Grass throws my way, after which I will become a total whore and extol the virtues of the Kayak to anyone that will pay me an outrageous rate to switch a show on it.