• Home
  • Blog
  • Ross Video Introduces Carbonite Black | Videocraft Blog

Ross Video Introduces Carbonite Black

Written by
Videocraft
Published on
May 27, 2015 at 6:01:27 PM PDT May 27, 2015 at 6:01:27 PM PDTth, May 27, 2015 at 6:01:27 PM PDT
Carbonite is not only Ross Video’s most successful switcher ever, it is the market leader in mid-size production switchers world-wide. Carbonite is a mid-size switcher that delivers high-end production power in a very affordable package. At NAB 2011 Ross introduced the first versions of Carbonite which became an instant success. Since then the product line has been tremendously expanded by adding new frame variants and panels as well as regularly releasing software updates that have added powerful new features.As a stand-alone production switcher, Carbonite is the core element of a complete production ecosystem, and provides more production power than anything else at this size or price point. Carbonite has a big creative feature set, ergonomic design that is fast and easy, and a system that can handle 1080P and 4K productions without requiring expensive upgrades. The popularity of Carbonite makes it easy to hire and retain operators.Today there are Carbonite clones available from other manufacturers which all do a fine job, but none come close when considering ease of use and advanced functionality such as MiniME and MultiScreen. Another Carbonite standout is DashBoard – DashBoard is our control and monitoring system that can talk to almost any product, but of course is deeply integrated with Carbonite, XPression Graphics and the rest of the Ross product line that provides highly efficient, repeatable and cost effective productions At NAB 2015, Ross introduced yet another Carbonite family member – the Carbonite Black.This is a very exciting new Carbonite switcher as it addresses the needs of larger productions at an incredibly low price point. The Carbonite Black frame is small – just 2 rack units and the Ross design team have managed to fit it with a massive I/O. It has 36 inputs and 22 outputs, perfect for those larger production environments, it also has AES outputs to play out audio from the internal Media Stores. The 2RU Carbonite Black frame is available with 2 or 3 MEs, plus 4 MiniMEs and Multiscreen processing – in any signal format – including 3G, UHD (4K) (Quad link). Remarkably, when set to 3G modes – nothing changes, there is no reduction in switcher functionality whatsoever. All of the Keyers, DVEs, MiniMEs and MultiScreen features remain. Not many production switchers at any price can make that claim. A 2 ME system can be upgraded to 3 ME.The Carbonite 3ME 32 button panel is a complete re-design that looks and feels fantastic. The styling concepts created for the Acuity series of switchers were exported over to this new panel and the results are stunning. The CB3X panel has Acuity style faders and dedicated 32 button source select rows, it also has dedicated ME row selection buttons for instant control of any ME or MiniME on any row as well as 8 Custom Control bank select buttons. Equally impressive, up to 256 Custom Control Macros can reside on the panel for direct selection at any time. The CB3X panel connects to Carbonite frames via Ethernet, which provides control over much greater distances.With 3 MEs and 4 MiniMEs, Carbonite Black effectively has 7 fully available MEs and a total of 23 keyers.Carbonite Black is the first ever 3ME switcher with more than enough horsepower to switch a large show – in any format – at such a low price.The Carbonite series offers a choice of 5 different processing engines and 9 control panels to match a broad range of requirements. Carbonite and Carbonite Black components are interchangeable.Carbonite Black provides exceptional production value including free lifetime technical advice, and continuous feature improvements via free software updates.