We are often asked about VJing and the types of hardware or software that might be required to get students working as VJs.

Like any creative activity, there are a range of approaches that you can adopt. Most VJs use a combination of hardware and software, so in this post we’ll introduce a few of the common pieces of both that you might want to consider purchasing.

On the software front, there are a range of pieces of software that offer VJing ‘packages’ at various costs. These include:

With any software, you’ll need a laptop and projector to take your VJ work into a performance venue. Cheap projectors can be bought from eBay for around £60. Make sure you buy one with most amount of lumens possible within your budget.

In terms of hardware, Roland Systems Group make a range of amazing VJ products. The central piece of technology that you’ll need will be a video mixer, such as the V4 or V8. With a V4 you could hook up an old video camera, a DVD player or two and a laptop. You can use any software you have on your laptop and mix images together with your other sources. You can also use animation packages like After Effects to create movie clips and sequences to throw into the mix. These can be synced together via MIDI or using Roland’s V-link technology.

The Roland V8 is the big brother to the V4. It has 8 inputs rather than 4, has on-board effects processing and other functionality. Here’s a link to a video that introduces the V8 (and the P-10 see below):

The Roland P-10 is a video sampler and presenter. It allows you to store clips on cards and trigger them with the pads or through midi V-link. It’s a lot easier to carry to gigs and less obviousy ‘stealable’ than a laptop. Of course you can use this alongside a laptop, camera, DVD player or any other playback device that you want.

Alternatively, there are a range of iPad apps out there which are beginning to mimic some of the processes of the VJ artist, e.g. Scape:

However, the general consensus from the VJ artists I’ve spoken with are that these touchscreen interfaces are not a patch on the hardware we’ve discussed here and difficult to use in hot and sweaty performance locations!

So, whatever combination of software or hardware that you choose to bring together, your students can have great fun learning to be VJs. There are also some great profiles of current VJ artists on the RSG website.

Please don’t forget that we can supply these Roland technologies for you at a great price and with our customary excellent service!