New VJ hardware tends to be few and far between, so we’ve been closely watching the P-10, now officially the “P-10 Visual Sampler.” (The “P” stands for “presenter,” but Edirol has changed from “visual presenter” to “visual sampler” to emphasize the P-10’s sampling features — smart move.) First spotted earlier this spring, the P-10 boasts a built-in display and pads, the ability to play straight from memory cards, and sampling from a live analog video/audio source.

Specs:

• MJPEG movie and still JPEG support
• Slide show capabilities
• Playback and recording from SD(HC) memory cards
• Capture from live video input (onboard composite, S-Video, and even audio in and out)
• Internal color display, 12 trigger pads, dedicated effects dials

About those effects — we now know what they are, and they should look pretty familiar to Edirol owners:

• Movie: Repeat A<>B
• Reverse
• Strobe
• Speed
• Color
• Output Fade
• Still Image: Slide Show, Strobe, Color, Output Fade

There’s also V-LINK support for integration with other Edirol products, though I would imagine you’d mostly want to use the onboard controls.

I think Edirol might be going a bit far when they say this is “a faster, more elegant and reliable alternative to using a laptop on stage.” I’m not sure what they mean by “faster,” and the main problem is that this really isn’t a laptop alternative — laptops just do more. But that said, if I had the cash I’d love to have one of these units alongside a laptop and mixer, and imagine gigging VJs will find the quick SD card capture to be just invaluable, especially if they pick up a camera that saves MJPEGs.

The deal killer for many is likely to be price, but to put this in perspective, this is a lot more compact and flexible than the Korg Kaptivator, which cost about twice as much.
I hope to get a look at the P-10 when it arrives stateside. Speaking of which…

The Edirol V-8 mixer is the big story as far as new VJ gear at Messe, but the P-10 “Visual Presenter” is an interesting piece, too. It’s a video sampler, basically, as was the now-discontinued Korg Kaptivator. The P-10 has a number of advantages over the Kaptivator that could make it a big hit for sampling. First, it’s more compact: you get 12 pads and a tidy control layout in a small space that you could easily pack with a laptop. Second, while Roland hasn’t announced official pricing, we expect it to cost less than the Korg. But most importantly, the P-10 uses a standard video format (MJPEG, or JPEG stills) stored on removable SD media. That means you could shoot video and stills on a portable camera that supports MJPEG and JPEG and drop the card straight into the P-10 — hot stuff.

Basic features:

• MJPEG video, JPEG stills
• Built-in display
• Capture audio and video live via onboard inputs
• 12 triggers, effects dials

Edirol P-10 Product Page [ Worldwide Site]

There’s also V-LINK support and a slide-show function. But for me, sampling + removable MJPEG is the real story. The image we’ve got is a prototype and is expected to change by production time. Price and ship date TBD; stay tuned.

While we wait, I may have to whip up a little applet that automatically loads and catalogs stuff I shoot on my Canon digicam, along the same lines… I can see getting through some paid gigs this way.