Production Switchers

Creating lower third alpha keys in ProPresenter.
Unable to capture the alpha along with the 3rd on ROSS Acuity even though I selected "Yes" to capture the alpha before saving the 3rd.
There are no instructions in the manual on how to accomplish this.
Why won't it work?

We now know the following:
To make an Alpha Key work on the Still Store, we must put the Alpha channel in either Still Store 3 (hereinafter referred to as "SS") or SS 4. (If Fill is in SS1, Alpha must be in SS3 OR if Fill is in SS2, Alpha must be in SS4).

HOWEVER...

when we saved it as a key, where the white key appears on the still, we still have to tie up SS3 or 4 to make the key and Alpha key.

Why doesn't the still SAVE as an Alpha Key (when the White Key is present?

To me, when I save a still as an Alpha - and the White Key is present - I should be able to call up that key as a Fill with an associated Alpha without tying up two channels of Still Store, right?

Please advise....
#Acuity

Digital Video does not have an Alpha Channel -- Meaning it is no 4:2:2:4 which would make it awesome :) Since it is 4:2:2 we have to create a whole other 4:2:2 Video Channel for the alpha. So when you capture (and yes when you mark yes for alpha it will capture both as long as you have the Auto Key pairing for V/A setup in installation correctly) the TGA will be made as a 32 Bit RGB+A file. However when you load it up to use it it needs to put the Alpha into a channel so that the data can be routed to the keyer.

This is the same premise as to why a "CG" device has to send the Alpha over a second Cable. Would be great if SMPTE would standardize the Video to have that embedded in it.
#Acuity

Les:

This is what I would like and would really be cool feature to add!

When you already have an input that is a Graphic that has an associated Alpha Key (such as my Mac1 input where the corresponding shift channel has my Alpha channel) the switchers KNOWS it has an associated Alpha. Why not have a "hidden" channel that saves the alphas?

Yes, while true that you still need a second channel, when you save a key as a still, it's already pre-programmed to know where that Alpha channel is.

Now, the "key-still" is saved as a fill BUT the associated Alpha is saved in the HIDDEN "Alpha key" Still Store area. The switcher "remembers" which Still-keys go to which alpha's. This way the same function is taking place BUT the switcher memory is making is easier for the user!

You can name this "auto-Alpha-Key-Still"!!!

...And send me a Ross Cup, or hat or screw driver for thinking up this innovative idea! ;)

I am SURE this will be a big hit...

Sincerely,
Fletcher
#Acuity

Fletcher,

It won't work because you still need the DDR Read/Write clients. So if you have the R/W client then it is just a channel of Media Store. There is no "Magic" way to gain additional clients and bandwidth. Something would have to be given up to get the extra channels -- i.e. like DVE channels or FrameSyncs (Note this does not apply to Plus/MM systems as those have dedicated FPGAs on the Input Boards to perform this function).

So if we were to have some place to store this video information then it is essentially just another Media Store channel and thus would be able to do anything. I mean if you really really needed to I guess you could use a DVE to Freeze a frame of a key channel then you could split key to the Fill -- you would need to use a MiniME for this though as you need to access the DVE channel and put it on a Bus this way.
#Acuity