A 25-year veteran high-resolution engineer/screen switcher, Jason Spencer spent those decades using leading equipment brands to build the looks of shows and manage sources for broadcast, live events and corporate productions.
While he felt there were few other equipment options on the market, he kept his eye on Analog Way products over the years. Then Fuse & Spencer, who is now part of Fuse Technical Group, was approached by Analog Way to be introduced to the Aquilon platform.
“Some colleagues had been using Analog Way gear and suggesting I check it out,” Spencer recalled. “They were saying this is the way to go, so I was curious to try Fuse’s RS4. I had been such a fan of the systems I’d been using that for me to even entertain using some of the other manufacturer’s box tells you a lot!”
He notes that leading equipment makers had been “promising new boxes for several years as resolutions and show requirements increased. But nothing happened. Then, bam! Analog Way came out with the LivePremier image processing family which includes the Aquilon RS4, one of several image processing choices designed to meet a vast variation of techno-economic requirements.”
RS4 is a mission-critical 4K/8K multi-screen presentation system and video wall processor with 24 inputs and 16 outputs. Fuse started to use its unit last September, and Spencer quickly got up to speed on the platform. Fuse has used it for corporate productions and broadcast shows, including the NFL Honors telecast and the recent Academy Awards.
“Analog Way’s open collaboration with freelancers and operators is a smart move,” said Spencer. “They feel confident enough in their product to put it in the hands of people who will put it to work on real-world projects then discuss why they love it or hate it. I think Aquilon is a great product line. It does what you want it to do really well from making presets to source management to having a ton of outputs. Its large pixel space is key for the events I do. And being a card-based box, it has configurable I/Os. It’s also user friendly to operate. It’s been great to see Analog Way go down this technology path.”
After positive experience with the RS4, Fuse decided to purchase Aquilon RS6 systems. The RS6 is a higher capacity platform than the RS4. “We plan to do full five-day advanced training by Analog Way in our Las Vegas shop,” noted Spencer.
