ive had limited experience with an Echolab and I second my friend from the Twin Cities, if youre using an Echolab, dont worry about screwing up-they screwed long ago when they bought the thing. The only transition you need to be sure of works 100% is the "FTB". Show may look better that way anyway. no offense-im sure youre a great TD, im offending the switcher not you.

One of the senior TD's in my market referred to Echolab's products as "routers on steroids" and I think that sums it up up quite well. I cut about 120 events a year on an Echolab Nova700. Usually 3-6 camera sporting events coverage with minimal gfx and no effects. Everything Stephen has said above is true. The DVE is a joke, the transitions are basic and not easily modifiable, can't create timelines, etc... IMHO they are fine for worship services and in-house IMAG. If you are doing anything more than a basic show be careful, they are not "professional" switchers like the GVG and Sony products. One other note: the first year I worked with this unit I contacted Echolab for some support and to see if they were going to be upgrading the software to add new features. "Of course we will!" was the reply. 5 years later and I haven't seen any updates on their website or heard anything from their support since.

What all will you need to be doing with it? I've cut on a Nova for a corporate gig. If you need to do much more than very basic effects you might be in trouble. Here's my list of things to watch out for: Mapping crosspoints and setting configuration options is done by taking a CF card out of the rackmount and editing a text file. The switcher obviously must be turned off while you do this. Bring a CF card reader and a laptop in case they don't have one, because otherwise you might be screwed! In the out of the box configuration, the M/Es do NOT flip-flop, but P/P does. Either A or B bus will be live depending on the position of the T-bar. If the switcher has been in use I'm sure someone will have fixed this, but if they haven't, it's an option in the config file on the CF card. Preview is NOT a true look-ahead preview. A key can only be active on either program OR preview. You can toggle a key in preview with the "key pvw" button, but only on P/P. You're out of luck on the M/Es. Be warned that putting the key in preview with key pvw will NOT make that key part of the next transition. You need to toggle "key tie" on for that. Also: Toggling key tie on will not automatically make the key appear in preview except if you enable an option in the config file. I do NOT recommend enabling it because if you toggle key tie off, the key pvw will stay on and in the M/Es that means the key will be stuck in preview with no way to turn it off! There is no "key cut" button. To cut a key on/off you must either set the key auto time to 0 frames or hit shift+the key auto button. If you want to cut a key with a camera you MUST use the key-tie feature, you can't fake it by just cutting the camera and hitting key cut at the same time. A good way to fake it is to just hit hit the key auto moments before you cut the camera. There are two internal DVEs, but they can't truly be shared among all the keyers. DVE1 can only be applied to any Keyer1 in any M/E, while DVE2 can only be applied to a Keyer2. If you have Keyer1 in a DVE on M/E1 and want to DVE something on M/E2, you MUST use Keyer2 to do it. The DVEs themselves look pretty bad. If you have an external DVE at all I'd use that instead of the internal ones. Keys are applied downstream of the background bus and transition section. Basically, when you do a key tie transition the camera in preview will be slightly visible through the key midway through the transition. It's not too noticeable in most situations, but it's something to be aware of. If you have the commander panel that allows timeline effects, note that it basically only stores sequences of keypresses like a Kalypso/Kayak macro, it doesn't store switcher states. Switcher states can be stored and recalled, but not in any timelineable fashion. There is only one channel of frame buffer, and it DOESN'T store a key signal. If you absolutely must have some kind of keyable frame buffer, there is a hack to do it but it's complicated. The wipe generator shows up as a crosspoint in the switcher, and the switcher supports the creation of custom wipes using greyscale TGA fileson the CF card. If you put a greyscale TGA of the desired key signal into the wipes folder on the CF card, you can call up that "wipe pattern" and the key signal will show up in the wipe generator crosspoint. My advice: Make sure the area is clear of anything sharp that you could use to stab yourself before working with this switcher. =D

What MMA event?... What league? I'm just curious... I do all the UFC events.