ABSTRACT
A television studio is a complex place, particularly the production control gallery. Lots of busy people, confusing layers of sound, and many pictures. It falls to the Vision Mixer to make sense of all the pictures by choosing the right one to go out to be recorded or transmitted, and to give the director the correct transitions between pictures, and combinations of images. The Vision Mixer has one main piece of equipment, but that is one of the most complex in the studio. Confusingly that equipment is also called a vision mixer. The Vision Mixer operates the vision mixer! From here on we will show the person as the Vision Mixer and the equipment operated the vision mixer. It is common in some countries to call the vision mixer a video switcher. As we shall see neither is quite accurate because the equipment will both switch and mix. The important thing is not what you call it, but understanding what it does.
