Moving from Trinity to VT-Questions

[rjayx]

Hi all,

I am a motion graphics designer/3D guy completely unfamiliar with both the Video Toaster and the Trinity Studio-in-a-Box systems. It is quite likely I will taking over a small live-broadcast video production department that currently uses an older Trinity system. I have no prior experience with live production, so I am very unfamiliar with switchers and live production systems, so please pardon my naive questions in advance. I have a lot to learn in a very short amount of time.

Although I am unfamiliar with the Trinity system, I do know that it was originally created by Play (who are no more) and is now owned by Globalstreams. I was told by the person whom I'd be taking over for that the Trinity could be upgraded for about $5,000. As a NewTek product user of Lightwave, I have been aware of the Toaster for a long time, but never had any reason to use one or any experience with one. However, if I end up taking this position, I would like to look into the possibility of replacing their old Trinity system with a Toaster system as opposed to shelling out $5,000 for a relatively obscure and outdated system. The department I would be taking over uses two cameras (an old high-end Sony and a Canon XL), a bunch of old VHS decks, a miniDV deck, an audio board, a couple of monitors, and the Trinity itself.

Can anyone tell me how a Toaster stacks up to a Trinity feature-wise? Would it be possible in any way to move their legacy files from the Trinity to the Toaster? What is the learning curve for a Toaster newbie for an After Effects/Lightwave guy? Any suggestions for turnkey Toaster systems that would be around $5,000? And finally, in terms of price, would a turnkey Toaster solution run more than the $5,000 it would cost to upgrade their Trinity? Moving to a Toaster would be heavily dependent on meeting or beating the cost of the Trinity upgrade. Thanks for all info.

Rick Jayx
r_jayx@ameritech.net

[kleima]

Your logic is correct in wanting a VT[3] instead of the Trinity. And, it make perfect sence to use that money towards a new VT rather than upgrading the Trinity. However, 5K may be a little slim for a turnkey system, depending on what all you want the system to do.
The VT blow the Trinity away in basically all areas, except the live virtual sets and realtime reflection/shadow mapping onto the virtual set. Virtual sets are something the Trinity does well, that the VT doesn't really do yet. If this is not that important to you, then the VT would far better.

Here is a sample basic turnkey system from Safe Harbor (http://www.videotoasternt.com/). I used their instant price quote to get a price on a slim system. It has no monitor included (I assume you could use the Trinity's monitor), and no DVD included.
This includes the SX-8, since it sounds like you want to do live switching.

Processor(s): P4 3.06GHz HT w/512K
Memory: 2 x 256MB DDR PC2700
System Harddrive: ST380021A Barracuda 80GB ATA100 7200rpm
Display Card: GeForce4 MX440 64MB DDR
DVD or CD-ROM Drive #1: CD-ROM Drive 52X Internal IDE
Floppy Drive: Floppy 3.5" 1.44MB Silver
Operating System: Windows XP Professional
Keyboard: Keyboard PS/2 Black/Silver
Mouse: Intellimouse Explorer - PS/2 & USB
Power Supply: P4 400W P/S
Case: Workstation Aluminum
Video Editing Card: Video Toaster [2]/SX-8 Bundle
Video Harddrive(s): 4 x 36.9GB Cheetah 10K 320
Speakers: JBL Creature 3 piece

PRICE: $6,729.99

Even though this is a little more than the Trinity upgrade, I still think it would be a far better choice of investment.

Oh, if the Trinity can save or render to AVI's (I can't remember if it can) then all your footage can be brought into VT. As far as importing project files, I don't know of a way that could be done.

The VT has the lightest learning curve of any editing software I've tried. It is very easy to catch on to the basics.