Roland VC-300HD manual

the cooperation of people in the industry. We had to get hold of technical standards, use our connections with chip manufacturers, and collaborate with camera manufacturers. I suppose you could say that we studied pretty much 24/7.

When it comes to imaging devices, I think

Roland makes good use of analog

technology.

The thing I like about analog is that you can connect to anything inexpensively. For example, the thing that HDV, DVCPRO HD, and HDCAM all have in common is analog component output. There’s hardly ever a problem with connection compatibility.

Naturally, analog implementation technology has been cultivated for musical instruments and audio equipment. There is also a manageable risk during development. Eventually, our image devices also got some attention when, 13 years ago, Roland started selling the ‘Video-kun’ desktop video editor. It was a board that installed in a PC. Since then we have been putting energy into analog video.

Recently, the price of cameras with built-in SDI has come down below the $10,000 mark so, from now on, SDI will be used more and more. Even so, for live shows, the superiority of analog input–output will continue for a while.

From the point of view of broadcasting, NTSC―PAL conversion is valuable by its scarcity. I expect, however, pursuing a niche like this will turn out to be a thorny path when things like operation validation are taken into consideration.

That function was certainly a tough one. If it can easily perform conversions, I think the applications will open up. It is tough to achieve

conversion between 60 and 50 fields. But since conversion from SD to 720p and vice versa is one type of frame rate conversion, we needed to provide that function.

Validating the conversions was really tough. We started by making stuff we could use for verification. We had to choose recording equipment that could provide frame forwarding and field forwarding. Then we had to check all the camera and VTR connections, and more. It involved a great deal of work.

On the plus side, while we were doing this, we became aware of just how valuable the VC- 300HD would be. Even in the non-linear world, where everything seems possible, we were put through the ringer when it came to making samples for validation. For the catalog, we have drawn up a basic conversion matrix of the formats. It lists frame rates, image pixels, digital and analog, and types of media and so on. The number of combinations of matrices we used for validation is an amazing 3,200. Only after each one was operable, could we then pass the test.

Well, you started shipping the product in March 2007, are you likely to bring out upgraded versions of the product? And, does it have all the functions that were planned for it?

We have been thinking about upgrading. Function expansion: that’s another feature of the VC-300HD. We were keen to include a lot more functions in the first model, but opted first to get the product out. This way we were able to further develop the product by listening to what everyone said about it and use that feedback to expand the functions and improve usability.

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