Testimonials - Synergy 2

Kmart Recognizes Value of Ross Synergy 2

Jim Lecours
Chief Engineer
Kmart News Network
Troy, Michigan

Twelve years ago, our facility was created as a means of communicating via satellite to Kmart's Field Management and Associates. It is an excellent way to convey ideas, plans, store promotions, employee benefit improvements, and training. We also offer video support for a majority of the company's business meetings.

We are still doing this today as well as venturing into the Long Distance Learning Technology.

To accommodate all the video and graphics necessary for these productions, Kmart decided to allow our department to update so we could meet the demand of our internal corporate clientele.

We moved quickly from analog to DTV placing two Avid Symphony's, for NLE, a Broadcast Room equipped with the Ross Synergy 2 Digital Switcher, another Edit Suite for Linear Editing, new edit controllers, DVE, Media Server for repeat broadcasts and a Transoft Fiber Channel with 6 seats. All media from Avid systems and graphics workstations are on this SAN. New Remote ENG Packages were purchased. All digital recordings are on JVC-D9 product.

It is my responsibility to manage the technical side of our department so that all our work leaves here with quality specifications. I will add that this part of the business is a lot easier to meet with video being SDI and audio AES throughout the whole process. Everything looks and sounds clean!

Although we held off on jumping into the HDTV technology we did plan out the system to be a solid DTV 4:2:2 platform.

Our last system was analog and being that capital dollars are only available on certain cycles we thought it best to update now to DTV. Purchasing video equipment today is much like buying a computer. Make your selections to fit your needs and don't look back. Something newer and better will be out in six months. Just do it!

One of the major decisions we had to make was purchasing Digital Switchers. We had a space constraint in one of the rooms so this was an important consideration as well as selecting a switcher that had a feel of one that we we're all use to. After looking at features, specifications, and operation of various switchers it seemed that the Ross Synergy 2 would meet our requirements. It has, and we've been pleased with it from day one!

We find the Ross switcher to be easy and flexible to operate. The machine control makes tape roll-ins easy and organized. Squeeze and Tease is a nice integrated 2D DVE for moving supers on air. Aspectizers was not available when we purchased the system but we will look at it closer when 16:9 becomes more of a requirement in our productions. We find the standard Chroma Key to be very clean and use it live in one of our formatted programs. Preview overlay is a plus. It definitely keeps you focused on what is coming up next. The number of Aux Busses is very helpful to use as isolated feeds or as a DVE send.

We used VDO LTD. as our consultant and Roscor Corporation was selected for system design and integration, which included the installation and check out of the Ross Switcher. Outside of a few minor complications, the install went smoothly and your Tech. Support team helped out with any snags we encountered. This has been the case during and after the sale. All system distribution is handled by GVG-7000 series routing with an N-Vision frame integrated to handle 422-machine control. Encoders/Decoders, DA's, AES, etc are handled using GVG-8900 Series Modular Products.

To summarize, the Ross Synergy 2 is a product that we enjoy using and due to its open architecture is expandable as our requirements change in the future.