Homemade Dining Table - Grass Valley 200 TV Video Switcher

I took an old Grass Valley 200 Video Switcher, and made a dining table out of it! Watch my process of building the table. This project has been on the back burner for a few years, so I'm glad I finally got around to finishing it!
Now for some backstory: A coworker had seen my other video, where I made a coffee table out of an ECHOLab SE/6 switcher, and sometime in 2013, he gave me a Grass Valley 200 panel, which had previously been in service at FC Dallas' soccer facility(currently Toyota Stadium) and the Texas Ranger's stadium(Now Globe Life Park).
The panel sat in my apartment, and then, in my parents' garage for about 2 years. I had designed the table frame a while ago, but did not do any physical work on it, other than gutting out the panel to make it much lighter.
Over the summer of 2015, my dad got a wild hair and decided to tinker around with the panel, to see if he could get the lights and displays to come on. Using an Arduino board, he was able to program the bulbs to come on in random sequences, much like how current day switchers behave when they're idle.
By December, I was ready to start work on the table. I spent a few days at my parents' house, where my dad has way more tools than I'll ever have, and I assembled the table. Dad was very helpful, of course!
After assembly, I brought the table frame, and panel home, then I stained the wood. It took me a couple of weeks to find a glass top that would fit, but after some persistent Craigslist perusal, I located a suitable table top.
The chairs came from IKEA.
Music:
Jimmy Slaughter - Riding Off to Kepler-186f
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[@MarioLoco03]

This is cool. I used to work with these Grass Valley switches when I was in master control. Fun work it was

[@jabelsjabels]

Wow, what a cool way to preserve this piece of tech!

[@josephhaefeli9954]

This is awesome and tragic all at once. GVG made the best stuff. Well they still do, but just not the same. Next phase: buttons and fader tied to home automation. The stereo, room lighting, sprinklers...

[@JimmySlaughter]

They do still make great stuff. The studio I work at just upgraded to GVG LDX96 cameras and OCP500s. They are very futuristic compared the Ikegami's we had before. Anyway, my dinning table won't do much more than randomly turn on the panel lights, for now. Would be cool to do something more with it. Maybe someday.

[@fintanmckiernan]

Love the ending, perfect.

[@Satizfacktion]

Meanwhile, in Argentina, news channel Cronica TV still operating this video switcher since 1994.

[@JamieRowlandthejamieusrowlando]

lol, you guys are crazy. I learnt how to vision mix on that very mixer. But a cool idea.

[@AnikF1R]

Cool table! I got to use a Zodiak in college, but have been on Sonys ever since.

[@JimmySlaughter]

Cool! The Zodiac is a bigger panel. I'd like to have made a table out of that, or perhaps a Kalypso. The flat panels give me a lot more leg room, too.

[@williammitrus]

Talk about taking work home with you...LOL

[@takeoneproductioninc]

This is soooo beautiful. Can you make this for other folks ? I have an old Panasonic WJ-MX 30 that I can't throw away ? Possible to get it to sequence the lights and build a table ??? Cost approximation ! It would be sooo....cool. Thanks

[@JimmySlaughter]

Thanks! I have never really thought of doing commissions. The MX30 is pretty small though. I suppose one could be made into an end table. I would recommend seeking out a local woodworker as they are likely much more skilled than I am at making tables. As for the electronics, I don't know. The Panasonic board maybe more sophisticated since the switcher and control surface are integrated. May be enough to just power it on and have the lights be static.

[@takeoneproductioninc]

Thanks for the reply. I live outside of Lititz PA home of the Clair Brothers which do all the major concerts in the world. They made a new hotel called Rock Lititz and in some of the rooms they are customized with old equipment and posters of rock stars in concerts of days gone by. Somebody took a full audio mixer and turned it into a table just like yours and had all the flying faders moving and lights turning on and that's what gave me the idea a long time ago to do that with a video switcher but you're the first one I've ever seen do it successfully very cool.

[@edleepark]

Love it!

[@ryancarter4058]

Now I know what to do to mine...

[@conkyjoe]

How did you get it to sequence the lights. I have a 300 with no control box

[@JimmySlaughter]

My father used an Arduino board, with a modified ribbon cable going into some of the stripes underneath. He figured out the addresses for the lights and was able to write a program that would randomly switch their on/off state.

[@CrowDazzle]

This is sweet, Do you or your pop's know if you can desolder and repurpose these GVG buttons to something modern like home automation or something?

[@JimmySlaughter]

They could be desoldered, but I think it might be easier to source some new ones that are similar-looking. I would guess that they might be available from places like Digi-Key and Mouser.

[@srobak]

This is awesome. I'm doing something like this for a poker table and would love to get some info for making the lights & counters work from you... thanks!

[@JimmySlaughter]

Thanks! I wish I had done more documenting of the electronics, but my dad spent more time on it than I did. Essentially though, he determined that there are multiple control boards for the lights. He used an Arduino to communicate with the boards. Each light has an assigned address, so he programmed the arduino to randomly send voltage to individual addresses.

[@andrewc1199]

The controls for the Death Star

[@JimmySlaughter]

Close, although I think the panel that blew up Alderaan was a GVG 1600.

[@kims8068]

This looks great! Can you post more information on the Arduino setup your dad used to make the lights blink? I have a GVG 4000, and would love to make it light up. Thanks!

[@seanski44]

I learned to mix on a 4000 :)

[@seanski44]

Love it :)

[@-r9277]

I picked up a 200 panel from a garage sale In dallas It was supposedly The old PB S channel 13 Switcher However a didn't get the frame

[@JimmySlaughter]

I didn't get the frame either. These old switchers aren't much good anymore except for decoration anyway.

[@-r9277]

@@JimmySlaughter How hard was it to interface with the Arduino? I looked everywhere for Documentation On the Communications Port With no success , I envy your Success With figuring out the handshake That has to happen 1st, At least that's how I understand it anyway

[@JimmySlaughter]

@@-r9277 As I recall, we interfaced with one of the ribbon connectors on the board that holds the buttons for the M/Es. I had stripped out most of the boards from the panel to save weight, so I inadvertently chucked the main board, I think. So, there isn't a handshake, so much as just sending voltages to the lights. Basically, my dad figured out the addressing for the lights and then wrote a script that would randomly fire them off and different intervals. I think there are different sub addresses for each M/E.

[@-r9277]

@@JimmySlaughter OK OK that makes sense , Everything is Daisy chained So that totally makes sense You bypassed The panel computer Which would have been the board on the bottom , And you're connecting straight to the Daisy chained ribbon cable Genius why didn't I think of this lol My whole idea was to telnet To the Control panel computer that way I could Press a button and I could see the address it corresponds to I just never got that far though

[@-r9277]

I'm assuming you left the power distribution board with all the power Wiring harnesses going to the individual modules

[@klystron22]

Goals. I need to make a table for my 300, that is currently being used as a dust holder in my basement.

[@JimmySlaughter]

NIce! You can make an even bigger table out of a 300!

[@-r9277]

Would you like to sell it?

[@Electronics111]

How was the arduino interfaced to the lights? Did it use the original buses present inside the board?

[@JimmySlaughter]

There are 4 sets of boards that the arduino is connected to, via a ribbon cables. Those boards are the source selections for each M/E, and the Transition/Keyers for each M/E. My dad figured out the addresses for each light, and he programmed the Arduino to send on/off signals to each address. I think this works because there is an controller on each board for the lights. You may have noticed that the lights on the Mattes, Masks, DSK, and the entire upper AUX/Wipe effects register do not come on. This is because, when I was gutting the switcher, I unknowingly trashed the boards that contained controllers for those lights. Oh well.