Echo Labs, Inc.

A Donald Brickman

Larry K Baxter

A video switching system particularly adapted for use in a small studio environment includes a group of independent selection switches that enables a user to select any one of a plurality of different input video signals and route that signal to a preview output for display on a preview monitor. When it is desired to switch the previewed signal to a program output for actual broadcasting, the user activates a take switch. The system, however, does not abruptly switch the previewed signal to the program output, but rather automatically generates a mixture of the previewed signal and old program signal and automatically adjusts the mixture so that the old program signal is uniformly faded out and the previewed signal is uniformly faded into the program scene. The effect of the transition to the previewed signal is thereby automatically softened. The rate at which the transition takes place is broadly adjustable and may be selected so that it is accomplished in a period of time anywhere from that corresponding to a few video frames up to that corresponding to several hundred video frames. When the previewed signal is completely faded into the program scene, the system invisibly switches the previewed signal directly to the program output, thereby automatically enabling the user to select other video signals for previewing in preparation for future program changes. The system is such that a particular input signal can be switched to the program only if that signal is first selected for previewing by activation of one of the preview selection switches. The user is thereby forced to preview all scenes prior to presenting them to the program.

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Andover, MA, United States of America

A Donald Brickman