A Look At The Panasonic
WJ-MX20 and WJ-AVE55 Digital Video Mixer
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When you set the Panasonic MX-20 industrial digital video mixer and the AVE-55 consumer digital video mixer side-by-side you’ll notice they look virtually identical. And, with the exception of some connections and the color of the case, they are identical.

The MX20/AVE55 is a digital video mixer that has four-inputs, two-buses, with 298 wipe patterns (yes, the AVE55 can perform 298 wipe patterns, more on this later), digital video effects, luminance and Chroma keying, fly-on and tumble effects, scene grab, color correction, a serial interface, and a built-in audio mixer.

The MX-20/AVE-55’s control panel is less complex than the MX-30/AVE-7 and the MX-50. This is due to the fact that the most of the function controls are menu driven and are accessed through on-screen displays that are shown on a separate Preview monitor. This approach is similar to the Videonics MX-1 and MX-PRO.

Any of the four video inputs can be assigned to either of the two buses. You can also assign any of the background colors, the Still (frame/field freeze) or the Effects on/off activation buttons. You will use a slide fader or the Auto-Take button with a transition speed control, to execute the transitions or wipes. There is an independent Auto-Fade button handles the fade-out duties for the entire mixer.

The joystick will operate as a Wipe pattern positioner, Scene Grab positioner, Color Correction tool, and cursor positioner for Chroma Key set-ups.

The 5 buttons on the top of the Panasonic MX-20 and the AVE-55 video mixerare dedicated to selecting on-screen displays of the different menus. The menus are displayed on the Preview monitor, along with the Wipe Patterns, Effects Colors (background and border), Fades, and Audio. The audio mixer is called up for mixing the different input levels of the four audio inputs.

The numeric keypad is used for the on-screen menus to select wipe patterns, various effects (strobe, mosaic, posterization, negative, etc.), user memory set-ups and other functions. The up and down arrow keys are used for selecting specific range settings. The control panel’s Transition Select, permits the user to select various wipes, dissolve, the Luminance and Chroma Key functions.

Making The Connections

On the back of the Panasonic MX-20 and the AVE-55 video mixer you’ll find four identical blocks inputs. Each block contains one S-Video (Y/C) input jack (4-pin style), one composite jack, and a right and left pair of stereo RCA input audio jacks. (NOTE: When both a Y/C and a composite connection are made at the same time on the same input block, the Y/C takes precedence.)

For output connections, there is a S-Video (Y/C) output jack (4-pin style), one composite output, and a right and left pair of stereo RCA outputs audio jacks. You’ll also find three more jacks, one for connecting a composite Preview monitor, a GPI jack, and a serial interface connection for an edit controller. On the front of the MX-20/AVE-55 is a jack for connecting a Panasonic character generator, such as the WJ-TLL5 or the WJ-KB50.

So, what’s different between the Panasonic WJ-AVE55 and the Panasonic WJ-MX20 video mixers? Basically, the MX-20 video mixer has BNC jacks for the composite video connections and the AVE-55 video mixer has RCA jacks. The Pansonic MX-20 video mixer has a RS-422 serial input and the Pansonic AVE-55 video mixer has a RS-232C mini-jack and the AVE55 mixer’s cabinet is a lighter shade than the MX20. Other than that, the mixers are identical.

What about the difference in the number of wipe patterns? The Panasonic MX-20 manual lists 298 wipe patterns, whereas Panasonic AVE-55 video mixer's manual lists only 191. In reality the Panasonic AVE-55 video mixer does 298 wipe patterns. You see, the Panasonic industrial division counts the “reverse” mode of the reversible direction wipes as additional wipes. If you count the reversible wipes on the Panasonic AVE-55 video mixer, you’ll get the same 298 wipe patterns.

Operation of the Panasonic MX-20 and AVE-55

Operationally, the Panasonic MX-20 and the Panasonic AVE-55 video mixers are identical. The wipes are clean and among the various wipe patterns are both single and dual picture-in-picture wipes, tumbles, picture shuffles, slide-on compression wipes, and more. You access the Wipes by either selecting them from the on-screen wipe menu or by directly entering the wipe pattern’s number from the numeric keypad. You have your choice of either frame or field still capture.

The MX20 and the AVE-55 also features a “scene grab”, 16 multi-picture display, event memory, a multiple picture capture and place function (similar to the Compose mode on the Videonics MX-1).

Color correction is global for both video buses and is controlled via the joystick, sometimes making it difficult to accurate adjustments.

The background colors can be either variety of textured patterns and gradations or a single solid color. Besides having the standard factory colors, you can have a user-definable background color.

Chroma and Luminance Key

The Chroma key function is very easy to setup by its “floating cursor” key color recognition system. The Chroma key effect is clean, especially when you have properly lit the Chroma key background and key subject. The Chroma Key can lock on virtually any color that you use as a backdrop, not just blue or green.

The luminance key function works great and flawlessly. Thus, making the mixer ideal for keying in titles and pre-recorded animation tapes. Like the Chroma key effect, the luminance key is clean and easy to do. Again, proper lighting is essential for proper luminance keying.

Preview Output

The preview output function on the MX-20/AVE-55 is a true Preview monitor function. Which means, whatever video signal is active or on-line, goes out of the mixer’s main video output. While whatever video signal is in “stand by” will show up on the Preview monitor, along with a partial sample of your selected transition. This feature alone makes the MX-20 and AVE-55 a live-switcher’s dream.

When you perform a transition the program monitor and preview monitor swap the video pictures. This will deliver the “next-in-line” video signal to the “on-line” position, while the actual effect will be displayed on both video monitors.

Audio Mixer Function

We found the least desirable function of the MX-20/AVE-55 is the audio mixer function. There are no hardware slide-faders to control the audio levels. You have to enter the Audio menu via the on-screen display and use the up/down and the left/right arrow buttons to make adjustments to the volume for input audio sources.

One thing that is absent is any auxiliary audio input jacks. However, since there are four video/audio input blocks, you can use any of them as an audio only input so you can connect CD players, cassette decks, etc.

How's The Signal Quality

Using a waveform monitor and vectorscope we noticed, the video signals were passed through the mixer crisp and clean. Normally, with compressed pictures you may find pixilization, however with the Panasonic MX-20 and the Panasonic AVE-55, there was little, if any, pixilization in the compressed pictures. The Fly-On transitions have a smooth progression from infinity to full-screen. The signal pass-through and output resolution between the MX-20 and AVE-55 were identical.

RS-422 and RS232C Interface Operation

The MX-20’s RS-422 interface is designed to allow you to connection professional edit controllers and computer-based editing system via a 9-pin RS-422 serial connection. This allows automatic triggering of selected effects and wipes from the edit controller. The MX-20 will work with the Panasonic AG-A850, the JVC RM-G860 and RM-G870, Sony PVE-500 and other professional edit controllers.

The AVE-55’s RS-232C interface is designed to work with lower-cost editing systems, such as FutureVideo’s V-Station 3300. Note: FutureVideo V-Station 3300 can also be configured as an RS-422 system, so it can be used as an edit controller for the MX-20.

Notes: On the AVE-55 Mixer

It has been reported that there are two versions of the WJ-AVE55 video mixer. One with a serial number prefix of “65A” and the other has a serial number prefix of “67A”.

The unit with the prefix of “65A” has a slight Chroma level loss and a very slight drop in luminance level. This unit was one of the very early units manufactured.

The unit with the prefix of “67A” show no loss of Chroma or luminance signal levels. This is the current model that is being produced.

Conclusion

Both the Panasonic WJ-MX20 and the Panasonic WJ-AVE55 are excellent digital video mixers and both mixers are a nice improvement over earlier Panasonic mixers, such as the MX-12, AVE-7 and AVE-5. For the price, you can’t go wrong. Whether you are upgrading from a different video mixer or just buying your first mixer.

 A Look At The Panasonic MX20 and AVE-55 Digital Video Mixer.