Testimonials - Synergy 4

Delicate Productions Tackles "Impossible" with Ross Switchers

Steve Gilbard
President
Delicate Productions, Inc.
Camarillo, California

Delicate Productions, Inc. is one of a handful of companies in the USA that supplies Audio, Video and Lighting services to a broad spectrum of entertainment events, from awards shows to major rock tours, corporate meetings to major public events and trade shows, remote television specials to film and legitimate theatre.The principals of the company have been involved with the touring music industry for over 30 years. Delicate is considered a premier technical partner in our areas of expertise and maintain close relationships with organizations like ATT, NBC, BMW, Daimler-Chrysler, NFL Properties and Major League Baseball, NARAS (the National Association of Recording Arts and Sciences - the Grammys organization), Panasonic and Microsoft.

Our unique segment of the production industry requires us to maintain the ultimate in flexibility as not only do we never really know what type of project is next, but we also face the task of recreating the designer's "dream" on the fly for live events in sometimes unusual locations. We have created events on golf courses for 1000 with five course meals and equally done events on the sand 10,000+ feet from any facility or roads.

As a member of the senior technical team at Delicate, it is my responsibility to see that we deliver the end result to our clients as per their vision. As part designer, part engineer, part account manager and part magician, I, along with the Delicate team, am often called upon to provide the answer when others say it can't be done. Perhaps a dangerous but good reputation to have ...

In 1999, we made the decision to shift our systems over to SDI digital based on the needs of our clients and the obvious direction the broadcast industry was moving.

We were aware of Ross Video, but it was really the efforts of Ross' Western Regional Sales Manager, Ken Gould, and Barry Enders of Enders & Associates in Los Angeles that opened the door after I saw a demo of the GVG 110 digital replacement and the Synergy 4 at NAB several years ago.

While the first Synergy 2 was purchased to replace Grass Valley equipment in one of our flagship systems, our growth was also a significant factor in the purchase.

The quality, construction and overall value for the $ was unmatched in the industry, and the delivery and technical support on the first Synergy 2 was unbelievable. Upon receiving our switcher, the unit worked right out of the box and the learning curve is as low or lower than almost any other switcher of this caliber.

In fact, two of our competitors subsequently purchased Synergy 2 systems after we introduced ours on several projects, and although we configured ours to be fully loaded, they went a more spartan route.

With the Squeeze & Tease installed on all the keyers, the ability to create a great program is a simple process. The custom control system is critical to the execution of our shows and designs as well as the elaborate preview information, and the VTR / video server control are indispensible to us.

On our new Synergy 4, we were faced with a situation where we were doing a 360 degree cylindrical screen with full edge blended projection on 6 feeds at once. The Synergy 4 allowed us to make a seamless image 9' tall x 96' wide from a bank of digital video servers. I suspect most people who saw the show are still trying to figure out how we did it for 3 months in 4 or 5 different cities each week ... again, we like to do the "impossible" according to others ...

Although we loaded our frames up when we ordered, being able to exchange elements gives us both redundancy and expansion for special needs.

We don't know anything about the warrantee or service that Ross offers - we've never had to use it. Everything always works - even with us slamming the units into trucks EVERY night on tour and driving 500 miles to the next set-up in the morning. Unlike a mobile truck, our gear goes into the different buildings every day as a fly-pack ... so reliability is vital ...

What I can say is the factory, Ken, Barry and everyone we have spoken to at Ross have always been there to deal with any question we've had. If all our vendors were as good as Ross Video, I could take more vacations!

We were so pleased with the Synergy 2 we bought that when I had a problem on a new project and called Barry for advice, he and Ken were at my shop in days with the answer. The truth is, I said yes to the $125K+ purchase in under 30 minutes because I knew from past experiences that the Ross team really does "Get It" and truly cares about the quality of what we, their customers, put on the screen...