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Our featured system this month is the Numark NUVJ Video Effects Controller, which is a nifty little USB interface which will plug into your Mac and Windows PC, to incorporate images and video clips in much the same way as you can mix music. With the NuVJ, the Audio/Video Technician can trigger images and video clips, add effects to them, mix them through an on-board DJ style crossfader and tweak them in order to create unique and spectacular shows.

Using the system is a breeze with a window on the left containing the File Browser, along with tabs for Effects, Sources, and Visuals, and a graphical representation of the interface, called mixing zone, on the right. Use the file browser window and menu on the left side to identify your movie clips, images or flash files, and simply drag and drop any image or video from the file browser to one of the eighteen cells on the the mixing zone.

There are so many great built-in features on this plug-and-play device, that it is hard to know where to start. In addition to containing movie clips, a cell can also be assigned an effect, which will then be automatically applied to the clip loaded in that particular cell. To assign an effect to a cell, simply drag and drop the effect from the Effects browser list on the left, onto the desired cell. You can even drag and drop folders on a cell, which allows all movies, images and flash files located in that folder to be played one after another in a slide show fashion.

You can identify a background clip that will be displayed if no clip is played on either of the two decks, although this option must be switched on, as is not activated by default to avoid any confusion. You can also have fun playing about with Copy modes as Deck A is considered to be on top of the background color or visual selected, and Deck B is considered to be on top of Deck A. You can use copy and masking options to have the background visual be shown through deck A, or change the way the A interacts with B. As if this is not enough, the Numark NUVJ Video Effects Controller also allows you to mix live inputs, generators, and texts, listed under the Sources tab.

We heartily recommend Numark NUVJ Video Effects Controller for mixing multiple input sources, and this useful little interface can be obtained for under £300. Considering the hardware you might replace using it, that represents a great saving! Go and check one out for yourself.