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If you need to produce video from the road, complete yet affordable solutions are few and far between. Building that dream machine yourself from component parts can be a challenge. The new Apprentice portable video production studio from Amalgamated Video International might be just the solution you need.
AVI has integrated off-the-shelf video products from third-party vendors into a turnkey system, rather than build the technology from scratch. The company has pulled together tried-and-true components and taken the guesswork out of the integration. Apprentice is a great example of a synergistic product - the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. I also love the turnkey approach: simply buy the product, plug it in, and get to work.
There are two versions of the Apprentice: an analog version is designed for use with S-VHS sources recording to a Sony SLV-R1000 or JVC HR-S9800U deck; a digital version with IEEE 1394/Firewire and Sony's DV-Cam DSR-11 deck which is also NTSC/PAL switchable. At its heart the Apprentice uses the Videonics MXPro or MXProDV switcher from Focus Enhancements, one of the most popular switchers for video production ever made.
For multi-camera switching there are four S-Video and composite video inputs. The digital version adds two FireWire ports. On the unit I tested, the two 1394 ports had been turned into four via small Velcro-attached expansion modules.
There's also chroma-keying and a digital video effects library with realtime transitions that look sharp with few jagged edges. For character generation and graphics, the analog version uses Focus Enhancements' Videonics TitleMaker 3000, and the digital version...