CMX07 Cheap Video Mixer for Church TV Ministry

The CMX07 is the ideal cheap video mixer to start a church TV ministry with.

While researching a low cost mixer to use for training purposes in my local church's TV ministry, I short listed 2 products, the Edirol V4 VJ mixer and Cypress's CMX-07 2 channel video mixer.

The CMX-07 came out as the cheaper mixer by £200, but the main reason why I chose it was that for my TV ministry training application I needed to be able to simultaneously preview all my input sources on seperate monitors, and the Edirol did not provide this facility. The CMX-07 video mixer also an Audio Mixer, but I don't use it and therefore will not be covering this in my review, as my audio is supplied from a proper standalone audio mixer and plugs into the professional XLR inputs of a Sony PD170 used as a recording VCR. If you are pressed for space and need a video mixer, then the Edirol V4 s a good option worth considering.

The CMX-07 video mixer is manufactured in Taiwan, the build quality is what you would expect for a mass produced item from the Far East, the joystick is particularly vulnerable, and there is no T bar for transitions (probably expected at this price range), instead an audio mixer type slider is used.

Mixer Layout
The mixer has a cheap look to it, a plastic case and very delicate controls, the unit is however very light and compact. In use the controls are well grouped, with the frequently used ones within easy access of the operator, and the audio mixer controls are on the far right.

Supplied Accesories
Included with the mixer is the Power Adaptor, a S-Video cable and a stereo phono RCA cable.

The mixer in use
To use CMX07 video mixer, you need to set it up which involves connecting the various video and audio sources to the unit, connecting the preview outputs to the respective monitors and mixer Audio/Video output to the recording device and program monitor.

There are 2 S-Video (4pin DIN), 2 Composite Video (RCA Phono) inputs, all 4 can be monitored simultaneously via their respective preview output (phono connection), 2 stereo audio inputs (RCA Phono) are also provided with the composite video sources, a stereo aux audio (RCA Phono) and a 3/4" Mic jack in the front panel completes the audio inputs. There are 2 S-Video, 2 composite Video and 2 stereo audio outputs, quite a lot of connections for a cheap unit that the CM07 is.

On switch on, the CMX07 mixer which will go to its default settings. Even though the mixer has 4 video sources, you can only switch or use 2 at a time, this could be S-Video only, composite only or a combination of both. This means you need to configure both A and B buses with the required sources for switching. It should be noted that the mixer does not save any settings used during a recording session, so you need to set the sources each time you switch the unit on. Cutting between 2 sources is accomplished by just pressing the required source button on the A or B bus.

Basic Transitions (dissolve, wipe and PIP) are provided, again using the "T" bar on A bus, select Video1, choose the transition, on B bus select Video2, move the "T" bar from bus A to B and you have your transition. An auto take button is also provided with variable speed control.

This is not a broadcast quality video mixer, and therefore the performance is not going to be mind blowing.
The CMX07 specifications say that it has "Dual Time Base Correction for glitch-free source-switching", however in use I have found that when perfoming straight cuts between Video1 to Video2 there is a visible freeze on Video1, this occurs about 80% of the time, the transitions on the other hand are pretty smooth and look professional to me as viewed on a 28inch widescreen CRT TV. The processed output of the mixer had a little bit of gain, as the same scene viewed from the camcorder recorded on to tape (ISO) has a lower contrast/Brightness level.

There are various digital effects (Negative, Mosaic, etc), which I've sampled, but they generally don't get used in the real production environment. There is a Bluescreen Key mode which is supposed to allow compositing work, I haven't tried this, but doubt the quality of the key would be very good. The Picture In Picture mode works quite well, and could be useful, a set of Background colours is also provided, though I have found no use for these in my application of the unit.

Summary
For the price, the CMX07 is actually very good value for what it does, the main pitfalls being the absence of a professional 'T' Bar, and the glitches encountered during straight cuts. I have overcome the glitch problem by using the wipe transition in auto mode at its fastest setting.
Though the unit is advertised as a cheap 2 channel video mixer, I have been able to use it to switch/mix a 3 Camera setup with a little bit of fiddling.

Having used the CMX07 video mixer for over 4 years in a mobile setup to produce my local church videos, I must say it provides good value for money, and would suit churches who want to startup a video/TV ministry, wedding videographers might also find it useful for mixing 2 cameras live at a reception. I think it can even be used for low budget corporate work. If you need something smaller, then I woud recommend the Edirol V4 video mixer as an alternative or the V8 if you fancy some more inputs.