Testimonials - Synergy 3
Verizon Center Fully HD with Synergy MD/X
Jeff Blake
Technical Director, CCTV
Verizon Center
Washington, DC
Verizon Center is located in Washington, DC, and home to the NBA’s Washington Wizards, NHL’s Washington Capitals, WNBA’s Washington Mystics, and the Georgetown Hoya’s. The center hosts more then 220 events and concerts each year, and have entertained over 24 million patrons with over 2, 070 world-class sporting events, concerts and family shows.
As Technical Director I spend half of my day cutting and switching live production sporting events, and the other half doing general maintenance.
In 2007 we were preparing to go total HD. We had purchased all new HD monitors and we needed to upgrade our switcher. We already had a Synergy 3 SD switcher, but we wanted to research other switchers to get the most for our money. In the end we still chose Ross by purchasing the Synergy 3 MD-X Multi-Definition Switcher. It was affordable, and it made sense to upgrade as we were already knowledgeable on Synergy. We found that other switchers were not only astronomical in price, but also not as intuitive as the MD-X.
The Synergy 3 MD-X does everything that we need plus more. The switcher offers up to 96 inputs which we are currently only using 17-20 of, and the features are great. While the migrating fly key channels are our favorite, the Squeeze and Tease channels are a close second. What makes this switcher amazing is that we don’t have to purchase every key option. The MD-X is also very visually appealing and creative. It is definite eye candy with the Squeeze and Tease wipes.
The installation of the Synergy 3 MD-X was easier then we could have imagined. Earnie Fingers, our chief engineer, was able to design the entire system and create the setup in just over a month. The actual setup was completed in just a couple of weeks. While the switcher was not as simple as a plug and play, it was very close. It is great to have a switcher that does exactly what the button says it does.
We cannot say enough about Ross’ customer service. Not only can we give a 10 out of 10 on the sale, but we have to give a 25 out of 10 for the service after the sale. We have had 2-3 major issues that were out of our realm, and when we called in we were made to feel like we were the only customer in the United States with a technical problem. It was a genuinely wonderful feeling to know that my problem was priority and it was important to them to help us fix it.