Roland V-60HD Multi-Format Switcher Tested & Reviewed

There's no doubt from this review that the Roland V-60HD Switcher is packed with excellent features for productions involving multiple cameras. This reviewer even starts out saying he's switching over to the V-60HD as his main video switcher! Read about how he tested it and what his conclusions were here: From StreamingMedia.com

For more than a year, I’ve been using the Roland V-1SDI, a smaller video switcher which sells for half the cost of the V-60HD. I was anxious to see if the new unit would be worth the extra investment—and I wasn’t disappointed. After testing the unit on three live events, I’ll be switching over to the V-60HD as my main video switcher for live event production.

Overview

The V-60HD is not just a video switcher. Unlike its little brother the V-1SDI, the V-60HD features more input and output connections to meet the demands of a multicamera live event. Perhaps more importantly, the V-60HD has a separate auxiliary (AUX) bus to have a separate program output from the master output. The switcher can output video at 50 or 59.94Hz (fps) at 720p, 1080i, or 1080p. We’ll dive into more of these features throughout this review.

The V-60HD is very compact, with a tabletop imprint of 8.5" x 11.5"—just slightly larger than a standard letter size piece of paper. The height of the console varies from 2” to 3” not including the video fader handle or knobs. The switcher and its power supply fit comfortably in a Pelican AIR 1485 case for transport and storage.

Another nice feature of this switcher is the 2.5" x 1.5" LED display at the top right of the console (Figure 2, below). You can review and adjust all of the settings for the switch with this display; you don’t need to reference a HDMI multiview monitor to access the settings. The knob to the right of the LED display allows you to quickly scroll through all of the major categories and enter new values....[continue reading]