Show dictionary · Video & LED
Video Switcher
Also: vision mixer · production switcher
A video switcher (production switcher, vision mixer) selects and transitions between video sources in real time: cutting and dissolving between cameras and playback, keying graphics over program, and compositing layers. Its program output is what the audience and the record see.
In practice
The grammar is program/preview: the next shot is set on preview, then taken to program with a cut or transition. Mix/effects (M/E) rows let complex shows build composites (a key over a camera over a background) as reusable scenes; aux outputs feed screens and records with tailored mixes.
In live events the switcher sits in video village with the V1 cutting IMAG and content; in broadcast the TD operates it on the director’s calls. Modern shows blur into software and screen-management processors, but the program/preview discipline and the "take" remain the center of the craft.
How you’ll hear it
"Preview camera two, key the lower third... and take. Aux four still feeds the overflow."
Related resources
Part of the eventools.io Show Dictionary, a free glossary of live event production terminology.