Product Profile: The Panasonic WJ-AVE7
Digital Video Mixer
http://www.studio1productions.com

Please Note:  We DO NOT sell or provide support for video mixers.
We offer instructional videos on the Panasonic MX-50, MX-30 and AVE-7.
Click here for Instructions Videos.

The basic panel layout of the Panasonic WJ-AVE7 is very similar to the Panasonic AVE-5, so making the step-up transition from one machine to another should be relatively easy. And the rear connections panels are practically identical.

Panasonic’s consumer video division obviously did some snooping around next door at the industrial video division’s R & D department. What they came back with was a Panasonic MX-30 inside of an overgrown AVE5 box. The features are so similar that you would think they are twins.

Inherited from it’s industrial forefather is a variable speed auto-take to smoothly move you from one video buss to another, an adjustable speed auto-fade, a total of three video inputs (one camera and two cameras/VCRs), “audio-follow” (which automatically transitions the accompanying audio track from one video input source to another), the same color correction system found on the Panasonic MX-30 and the Panasonic MX-50, and the ability to perform either luminance key or external key, which I’ll cover in a minute.

Another unique feature present on the Panasonic AVE-7 is side-by-side double Picture-In-Picture which allows the user to compress two video signals from two different busses and place them side by side, backed by a background matte color of one’s choice.

Though there is only one size of P-I-P (1/9th screen), either the double P-I-P or a single P-I-P can be bordered with a drop shadow. “Negative” has been added to the digital effect section. And audio fade has been incorporated into the master fade section along with video and superimpose.

Panasonic AVE-7 Keying Effects

Two very powerful functions on the Panasonic AVE7 are luminance key and external key.

Luminance key works on the principal that, when engaged, if there are any blacks or dark areas present on the “B” buss video signal, those dark areas will be filled in with the video signal present on the “A” buss. This permits the use of pre-recorded animation/graphics video tapes, the direct NTSC feed from a computer or a character generator whose graphics are built over a black background, or if you spend some time on proper lighting, a quasi-chrome key effect where foreground individuals are keyed over different backgrounds (i.e., “TV weatherman effect”).

External key allows the user to feed into the AVE-7’s external camera input any high contrast shape, such as a video camera pointing at a dark-colored heart over a light colored background, and that particular shape now becomes the wipe pattern shape between two other video inputs attached to the AVE7 (i.e., VCR A’s footage appears outside of the heart pattern and VCR B’s footage appears inside of it).

Like other Panasonic mixers, whatever video signal that is fed into the “external camera” input becomes the timing pulse for the entire digital mixer, so it is important that this signal be stable, like that of a live camera or a time-base corrected VCR. And that means that if you have one of your Video Toaster friends record onto a video tape all of the linear “Toaster Wipes” (in straight black and white), you can play that tape through the external camera input and literally perform all of those two buss “dripping water”, “breaking glass”, and “falling sheep” wipes. (As if we haven’t seen enough of these. But anyway, you get the idea.)

The Panasonic AVE-7 is an excellent piece of post production equipment and it will fit right in to your editing system.

Please Note:  We DO NOT sell or provide support for video mixers.
We offer instructional videos on the Panasonic MX-50, MX-30 and AVE-7.
Click here for Instructions Videos.