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wolfvid

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    building an ATHMOS system at home now.... love to hear from folks with same interest
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  1. Review: Better High-Definition Audio From Your Smartphone The DragonFly portable USB DACs and the Aumeo customizable headphone amplifier take HD audio to the next level By Glenn Zorpette Posted 1 Jul 2016 | 15:00 GMT AddThis Sharing Buttons Share to FacebookShare to TwitterShare to Hacker NewsShare to RedditShare to EmailShare to PrintShare to More Photo: Randi Klett Hi-Fi: The author tested a DragonFly DAC with Audeze EL8 headphones. Good headphones are required for noticeable results. The modern smartphone may be a self-contained technological marvel, but that hasn’t stopped engineers from coming up with a vast assortment of gadgets that plug into it. There are gizmos to augment your phone’s camera, monitor your physiology, accept credit card payments, or even listen to software-defined radio. But the best of these (in my admittedly biased view) are the add-ons that improve the phone’s music-playback capabilities. You can now get fantastic audio out of your phone—and you do not have to pay a lot to do it. If you’re an audiophile, you’re probably aware of these offerings. But the dizzying array of products, promises, and prices may have left you puzzled. I’m here to help. I spent some time recently with several intriguing new audio devices. The ones that stood out for me were the DragonFly Red (US $199) and Dragonfly Black ($99), which are digital-to-analog-converter headphone amplifiers from Audioquest in Irvine, Calif.; and the Aumeo, a $129 customizable audio device and headphone amplifier from Aumeo Audio in Hong Kong. One pleasant surprise with these units is how tiny they are. The previous generation of portable digital-to-analog-converter (DAC) headphone amplifiers, for example, could be as big as a smartphone themselves. The DragonFly DACs, on the other hand, are the size of a flash-memory thumb drive. But don’t let that small size fool you. The DragonFlies are high-end, high-definition powerhouses that provide audio quality on a par with devices costing three or four times as much. They are known as USB DAC headphone amplifiers, because they plug into the USB port of your phone (or tablet or computer). Photo: Randi Klett Audiophile Solution: The DragonFly Red is a digital-to-analog converter and headphone amplifier that works with your smartphone, tablet, or laptop. Before I describe the sound from these little powerhouses, some background is in order. Starting with Android 5.0 (Lollipop), late in 2014, Google finally accommodated long-suffering audiophiles by enabling the streaming of music data files directly out of the port. This freed music lovers from the DAC installed in the phone, which operates in the high-noise, electromagnetically challenging environment inside the phone. Google’s decision was a big deal for audiophiles because unlike Apple’s mobile devices, many Android phones have a slot for a microSD card, which can give you an extra 128 gigabytes. This is important because a single high-definition song stored in the popular Free Lossless Audio Codec, or FLAC, format can occupy anywhere from 6 to 195 megabytes, so even a modest music library would swamp the internal storage of today’s smartphones. To take advantage of the USB audio feature with your Android phone, all you need is an On-the-Go cable, which costs about $4, and a music media-player app that will play high-definition music files and direct the output to the USB port. That will set you back about $8. (iOS users can get the audio using Apple’s camera adapter, which costs $40.) To evaluate the Dragonfly models, I tried them with a variety of music files—orchestral, chamber music, jazz, and rock—and in formats ranging from MP3 to 24-bit/96-kHz FLAC. I also listened with four different headphones: the Audio-Technica IM70 earphones (retail price: $115); the NAD Viso HP50 ($249); the Audeze Sine ($449); and the Audeze EL8 Open-Back ($699). Those last two were made available graciously by Andrew Lorberbaum of Park Avenue Audio in New York City. The DragonFlies can turn your Android smartphone into a bona fide, high-end audio machine. They will improve not just stored music but also streaming services such as Spotify and Google Play Music. But although the DragonFlies themselves are inexpensive by the standards of high-end audio, you will not derive much benefit from them if you are using budget earbuds. In my case, while listening through the relatively inexpensive Audio-Technica IM70s, I could not hear much difference between the DragonFlies and my Samsung Galaxy S5’s internal DAC and amp. But with the more costly headphones, the differences were quite apparent, becoming more so as I went up the cost spectrum. With the Audeze EL8s, the differences were stark: Bass notes were tighter and much more defined, percussion was sharper, and there were details and textures in vocals and strings that were simply not there with the internal DAC and amp. Listening with the Audeze EL8s to a recording of the Mozart clarinet quintet, I could close my eyes and visualize the cello as being to the right of the viola. Very rarely have I been able to perceive, with headphones and mobile gear, such a detailed soundstage. Photo: Randi Klett Pocket Size: The DragonFly Red DAC-headphone amp [top] and Aumeo [bottom] provide big sound from small packages. Much more subtle were the differences between formats, sampling rates, and sample sizes. I could generally (but not always) hear a clear difference between MP3 and FLAC files. But my 54-year-old ears could hardly ever hear a difference between FLAC files at, say, 16-bit/44.1 kHz and 24-bit/96 kHz, even with the EL8s. So my suggestion is, if you own lots of CDs, load your microSD card with music ripped from them at 16-bit/44.1 kHz. The Aumeo Audio device ($129) is something unique on the audio scene. To use it, you must first pair it with an app running on your iOS or Android device. The app plays a series of tones in eight different frequency bands. For each one—and for each ear—you adjust a dial on the app until you can barely hear the tone. In this way, the app determines the peculiarities of your hearing. With your hearing profile established, the device then compensates for those peculiarities, adjusting the power levels in each of the bands and for each of your ears. The profile is stored in the device, so once it’s calibrated you can use it with different audio devices. Besides the obvious aural benefit, the Aumeo also reduces the stress on your eardrums. Aumeo’s literature suggests that people often instinctively increase the volume of their music so that they can hear details in frequency bands in which their hearing is weak. However, that means that they are overamplifying in the bands in which their hearing is strong. For some people, Aumeo claims, this overcompensation can contribute to “listening fatigue,” which can manifest itself as a headachy feeling. I am perhaps the ideal Aumeo customer. Three decades of scuba diving, and two injuries to my left eustachian tube, have left me with hearing that is idiosyncratic and asymmetric. And, indeed, I did find that the Aumeo let me listen to music more comfortably than I have in many years. With Aumeo, I had the odd and pleasurable sensation of listening to my favorite songs almost as if through young ears again. If you are a music lover of a certain age and you often listen through headphones, the Aumeo can enhance your enjoyment. I do have a few minor quibbles with the device: it slightly exaggerates sibilance (i.e. the sound of the letter “s”). And when I used Bluetooth to pair it with my Samsung phone’s music player, it would occasionally drop out for a fraction of a second during songs. However, I never have that problem when I connect to the Aumeo by means of a short cable, so that’s how I use it now. But my biggest beef with the Aumeo is that it is not widely available now. An initial offering through Indiegogo has sold out, and though the company has set up a waiting list for a second production round, no other details have been released. Whether your ears are golden or olden, all these add-ons can take your listening to the next level. If you’re an audiophile, the DragonFly Red is a compelling proposition, especially in comparison with stand-alone high-end audio devices such as the PonoPlayer and the Astell & Kern, which cost twice as much, and also require you to carry around another clunky gizmo. But even if you’re just a music lover with decent headphones, the DragonFly Black is well worth auditioning. It differs from the Red model in its slightly lower power output and its analog, rather than digital, volume control. To my mind, at $99, it is one of the best bargains in high-end audio today. This is an extended version of an article that appeared in the print edition as “DragonFly DACs.”
  2. For its upcoming November 17 monthly meeting, the AES Los Angeles Section is throwing a creative focus on the immersive surround-sound capabilities of today’s Virtual Reality for gaming and other consumer playback, in addition to hosting a unique Career Networking gathering for audio professionals and students to meet with prospective employers and colleagues to discuss employment opportunities. The meeting will be held at Harman International, Northridge, starting at 6:30 PM for the Career Networking portion of the evening and 8:00 PM for the VR presentations, and will be limited to 150 attendees on a first-come basis. Event sponsors include Harman and Source Sound. Please RSVP for the event at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/aes-la-audio-for-virtual-reality-tickets-19103574305 **Important Parking Info** Please use the Employee Parking Entrance for parking at this event. The Employee Parking Entrance is located just south of the main entrance, at 8370 Balboa Boulevard. Organized and coordinated by Linda A. Gedemer, Adjunct Professor at LMU-School of Film and Television’s Recording Arts Department, “Virtual Reality for Consumer Media” will be presented by Tim Gedemer, President/CEO of Source Sound and Charles Deenen, Director of Source Sound Digital, a Los Angeles-based sound design and mixing group that specializes in immersive, VR-specific audio services. Other presenters include Joel Susal, Director of Virtual and Augmented Reality at Dolby Laboratories and Adam Somers, Senior Software Engineer at Jaunt VR. Joel Susal is responsible for leveraging Dolby's immersive surround-sound technologies, while Adam Somers is responsible for audio technology and Mac/PC application development for Jaunt, in addition to working on web and mobile applications. Tim Gedemer is a 27-year veteran of the Hollywood feature-film post community, with concentrations in music, sound design, mixing, sound supervision and sound editorial. He has been honored with an International Monitor Award, several MPSE Golden Reels Awards and was a member of the Academy Award-winning team for the film U-571. Having worked for both Interplay Entertainment and Electronic Arts, where he led audio teams in the development of EA’s racing franchises, Charles Deenen has worked on more than 300 feature-film and game trailers, in addition to dozens of award-winning commercials and feature films. He has been nominated for a several MPSE Golden Reel Awards and is credited with a win in 2012. He leads the firm’s game-audio division on cinematics and trailers for such titles as Star Wars, Halo, Gears of War, Xcom 2, Mirror’s Edge and Call of Duty. Source Sound was also involved in the production of the first mainstream theatrical trailer for Dolby Atmos immersive surround sound, the first game Atmos reveal and the first Atmos VR experience. In addition to serving as an audio finishing provider to both Warner Brothers' and Fox’s feature-film marketing groups, the firm’s separate division, Source Sound Digital, services the game and interactive media industry. Deenen and Gedemer also worked on a number of VR projects with Jaunt, a leading developer of technologies for creating cinematic Virtual Reality experiences, including the Paul McCartney and Jack White concert experiences, as well as the cinematic short film Kaiju Fury from Jaunt. Meetings are free and are open to everyone including students, non-members and guests. Please see our website at www.aesla.org for additional Section information and activities.
  3. yes there is a whole movement amoungs audiophiles/streophiles to higher sample rates and custom electronics and files to get to a higher qua;ity than dvd. IT'S ALL very EXPENSIVE. I just "heard" the Blueray version of "birdman" and was surprised by extreme quality of recording and reproduction and editng and stereo (5.1) placemeent played here at home from a Sony DVD player with newest software on my decent (but not outrageous) analog home system. ( Sony receiver amps ( mediocre at best) and Vandersteens) THEN THERE IS: Cirque de Soleil KA a the MGM Grand (Vegas). Speaking of sound systems- holy shit! Sound and video The Kà theater, which has a capacity of 1950 people, is equipped with a total of 4774 loudspeaker drivers in 2139 cabinets: a pair of speakers at ear level in every seat and hundreds more strategically placed around the auditorium.[12] The digitally mixed audio system routes an intricate mix of sound effects and music to these speakers to create a very dynamic surround-sound audio experience.[13] Sound effects can be targeted, manipulated and customized to any of 16 seating zones.[12] The multimedia projection in the show utilizes both infrared video motion detecting as well as a system of touch-sensitive panels beneath the surface of the main 'Sand Cliff' deck. This allows the system to track the location of individual performers and change the video content accordingly. A similar example of the infrared portion of this technology can be seen in some movie theater lobbies where people can step on and burst video projected bubbles.[11][14] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%A0 folks with good ears that i respect have told me that it took their breath away.
  4. AC protection and UPS To protect the AC input to your system forever with insurance use only what Whitlock (a god amongst engineers) recommends: http://www.surgex.com/products.html Surge X start at $ 299 for 8A protection at Markertec http://audio-video-supply.markertek.com/search?w=SA-82&sitepref=1 10 year warranty ( of connected gear) http://www.surgex.com/products/sa82FlatPak.html larger one to look at: http://www.surgex.com/products/Axess-ELITE.html They just started making stepped wave UPS which I have not researched. I recommend APC UPS start at $ 650 for sine wave at http://www.apc.com/products/category.cfm?id=13 (have a good warranty for connected gear, but their AC protection is not up to SURGEX, check on fans and if you can add batteries to built ins, and if they turn on without AC present at input! Most do) APC has excellent phone salesmen; they can tell you how you can find out how many amps you are actually using. They will even tell you what an Amp is and what it has to do with battery life in the UPS. They have smaller UPS that you can extend with temporary battery packs for longer operation. http://www.markertek.com/Product.asp?baseItem=SUA1000RM1U&cat=POWER&subcat=&prodClass=UPSSYS&mfg=&search=0&off= Here a big dog 3K watt http://www.apc.com/products/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=SUA3000XL for this they have extended warrantees… investigate for “professional” use. I think these are sine wave UPS which is something that will save you inexplicable problems when you need it. http://www.apc.com/products/family/?id=165 ”I know APC in its various incarnations and have blown plenty of it up thru various unknown conditions (others operating) [ this would be an argument for the SurgeX in addition wolf] and can recommend them for great sales service and good well designed (now also built in China) goods. You have to turn them off on a purposeful disconnect, but they will work with no 110V present and really take good care of batteries.” A user from the Wexler board Since our video assist monitors don't really need continuous power in case of failure I think I will try the cheaper Surge X stuff. We use the square wave APC UPS for video recording carts... (Cheaper than sine wave) there is no discernible noise from the semi sine wave output anywhere (not even in wideband UHF preamps for TV receivers it kept 15 feet away – but why risk it for the extra 20% in cost) battery weight is always an issue!!!! Sine wave equip. from APC has the widest latitude and is the sturdies and more expensive. wolf Furman strips, like most MOV based powerstip “surge Protectors” are junk: If they blow a light goes out - nothing else happens, there is no safety for your gear there at all. Some though have a $15,000 warrantee included, that may be a good idea. Furman has autotransformers in expensive boxes: just looked at the Furman AR15 approx $ 650.00 http://www.furmansound.com/product.php?div=01&id=AR-15_II http://www.furmansound.com/pdf/manuals/AR-15_manual.pdf no circuits provided (very suspicious – written for dummies) it does have autotransformers ... this is different from their "strips" which are just cheap MOVs. Problem with MOV’s is that they wear out and there is no way to tell if they are good or not here a few independent test sites for this stuff... http://www.google.com/search?q=compare+ups+power+backup&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a this http://svconline.com/mag/avinstall_furman_ar_series/ guy is a total lunatic: " Comparing the units, the Furman seemed to take the edge off the high (of audio) end a bit, but with no other major distinctions. The stereo image feels deeper and more defined with both. Reverb tails have more definition, but are not extended as though compressed. I also compared two identical 17in. VGA LCD monitors. I had struggled with these monitors prior, since the number two unit simply did not look as good as the number one. It was grainy by comparison, and not as bright. When I connected it to the Furman unit, I discovered that it had been powered by straight wall AC, unconditioned. Upon application of conditioned power, the image was remarkably better — crisper, brighter, and more vivid. There is no question that regulated conditioned power is far preferable" [You find such nuts on the net… beware] if a power supply has those effects the guy also sees flying saucers on demand L 695 recently had a first class edu session which covered batt powering and AC safety more thoroughly than anything I have read here ( I miss some stuff for sure). Have a look. Also the end of the "groundloops" class by Whilock from Jensen at the very end has some good hints on power control... http://www.695.com/html/edu-vid-gr-loops.html I am giving away some nice battery boxes as in http://wolfvid.com/datasheets/Specials.pdf build your own XANTEX is a high quality inverter ( they do have fans though): http://www.xantrex.com/power-products/power-inverters/prosine.aspx I use a Xantrex Sine Wave 1000 watt inverter ( as good or possibly better than APC larger and more expensive but just an inverter, not inverter and charger combined)) powered off an AGM 79ah Marine battery. You need a Xantrex 20a charger that charges the battery. The battery powers the inverter as well as all 12 v DC equipment. Its worth a thought or two to protect your expensive stuff… wolf
  5. wi-spy works great on a PC $ 350 or so http://www.amazon.com/Wi-Spy-2-4x-USB-Spectrum-Analyzer/dp/B001E032KU/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top its a USB plug that acts as receiver data cruncher. they have many different newer models out some up to $ 700 the model i like has an external antenna input so you can track down pirate transmitters. wolf
  6. MLK’s Call for Economic Justice Posted on Jan 16, 2015 By Eugene Robinson mdgn / Shutterstock.com The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s economic message was fiery and radical. To our society’s great shame, it has also proved timeless. As we celebrate King’s great achievement and sacrifice, it is wrong to round off the sharp edges of his legacy. He saw inequality as a fundamental and tragic flaw in this society, and he made clear in the weeks leading up to his assassination that economic issues were becoming the central focus of his advocacy. Nearly five decades later, King’s words on the subject still ring true. On March 10, 1968, just weeks before his death, he gave a speech to a union group in New York about what he called “the other America.” He was preparing to launch a Poor People’s Campaign whose premise was that issues of jobs and issues of justice were inextricably intertwined. “One America is flowing with the milk of prosperity and the honey of equality,” King said. “That America is the habitat of millions of people who have food and material necessities for their bodies, culture and education for their minds, freedom and human dignity for their spirits. ... But as we assemble here tonight, I’m sure that each of us is painfully aware of the fact that there is another America, and that other America has a daily ugliness about it that transforms the buoyancy of hope into the fatigue of despair.” Those who lived in the other America, King said, were plagued by “inadequate, substandard and often dilapidated housing conditions,” by “substandard, inferior, quality-less schools,” by having to choose between unemployment and low-wage jobs that didn’t even pay enough to put food on the table. The problem was structural, King said: “This country has socialism for the rich, rugged individualism for the poor.” Eight days later, speaking in Memphis, King continued the theme. “Do you know that most of the poor people in our country are working every day?” he asked striking sanitation workers. “And they are making wages so low that they cannot begin to function in the mainstream of the economic life of our nation. These are facts which must be seen, and it is criminal to have people working on a full-time basis and a full-time job getting part-time income.” King explained the shift in his focus: “Now our struggle is for genuine equality, which means economic equality. For we know that it isn’t enough to integrate lunch counters. What does it profit a man to be able to eat at an integrated lunch counter if he doesn’t earn enough money to buy a hamburger and a cup of coffee?” Obviously, much has changed for African-Americans since that time; anyone who says otherwise is plainly wrong. There is no longer any question of who gets served at lunch counters. Mississippi, where African-Americans were once disenfranchised at the barrel of a gun, has more black elected officials than any other state. An African-American family lives in the White House. But what King saw in 1968—and what we all should recognize today—is that it is useless to try to address race without also taking on the larger issue of inequality. He was planning a poor people’s march on Washington that would include not only African-Americans but also Latinos, Native Americans and poor Appalachian whites. He envisioned a rainbow of the dispossessed, assembled to demand not just an end to discrimination but a change in the way the economy doles out its spoils. King did not live to lead that demonstration, which ended up becoming the “Resurrection City” tent encampment on the National Mall. Protesters never won passage of the “economic bill of rights” they had sought. Today, our society is much more affluent overall—and much more unequal. Since King’s death, the share of total U.S. income earned by the top 1 percent has more than doubled. Studies indicate there is less economic mobility in the United States than in most other developed countries. The American dream is in danger of becoming a distant memory. This column is not about policy prescriptions or partisan politics. King was a prophet. His role was to see clearly what others could not or would not recognize, and to challenge our consciences. Paying homage to King as one of our nation’s greatest leaders means remembering not just his soaring oratory about racial justice but his pointed words about economic justice as well. Inequality, he told us, threatens the well-being of the nation. Extending a hand to those in need makes us stronger. Eugene Robinson’s e-mail address is eugenerobinson(at)washpost.com. © 2015, Washington Post Writers Group
  7. from Time magazine on line https://time.com/3615160/sony-hack-salaries/ there is no mention here of bonuses and other sums they get which some say double the salary or more. of course this article does not go into why the company looses money so that mass layoffs ( at 500 in LA alone) were implemented. its just the nature of what capitalism has become. if you write to the author Sam Frizell please let us know of further information. (noone has said this is a scandal because this is commonplace now) Sony Executives’ Salaries Leaked in Devastating Hack Sam Frizell @Sam_Frizell Dec. 2, 2014 Michael Lynton, chief executive officer of Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc., gestures as he speaks during a news conference in Tokyo, Japan, on Nov. 18, 2014. Bloomberg/Getty Images Thousands of social security numbers also made public Documents containing Sony Pictures employees’ personal information were leaked late Monday in the wake of a massive online attack against the company. The internal documents listed the names, titles and salaries of more than 6,000 Sony Pictures employees, including senior executives, Fusion reports. Included in the data were 3,803 employees’ social security numbers, including all the company’s top executives. Seventeen executives make over $1 million per year, the documents reveal. Only one of them, co-chair of Sony Pictures Entertainment Amy Pascal, is a woman. The information was posted onto the anonymous uploading site Pastebin. According to Fusion, Pascal and CEO Michael Lynton are paid $3 million per year. Sony was hacked by a mysterious group on Nov. 24 by a group calling itself #GOP, for Guardians of Peace. The FBI said this week it’s investigating the attack, which some reports have linked to North Korea.
  8. Filmmakers Face Charges in Death on a Set in Georgia much has been said in the above discussion, some will be answered here: By MICHAEL CIEPLY JULY 3, 2014 LOS ANGELES — A prosecutor in Georgia said on Thursday that three filmmakers had been charged with involuntary manslaughter and criminal trespass in the death of Sarah Jones, a crew worker who was killed by a freight train on the set of the film “Midnight Rider” in February. In a statement, Jackie L. Johnson, the district attorney for Georgia’s Brunswick Judicial Circuit, said indictments were returned against Randall Miller and Jody Savin, a husband-and-wife team who were producing the film. An indictment on the same charges was returned against Jay Sedrich, who was a production manager on the project, and was also credited as an executive producer, Ms. Johnson said. Donnie Dixon, a lawyer for Mr. Miller and Ms. Savin, said he had just learned of the indictments and declined to comment further. Mr. Sedrich, reached at home, said he had not yet been advised of the indictment, and declined to comment. In her statement, Ms. Johnson said the involuntary manslaughter charge carried a potential sentence of 10 years in prison. Criminal trespass, a misdemeanor, carries a sentence of up to 12 months imprisonment, she said. The case for an indictment was presented on Wednesday to a grand jury in Wayne County, where Ms. Jones died, Ms. Johnson said. Photo Randall Miller, a producer of the film “Midnight Rider.” Credit Stephen B. Morton/Associated Press Ms. Jones was working as a camera assistant on “Midnight Rider,” an independently financed film about the rock star Gregg Allman, on Feb. 27, when the accident occurred. She and other crew members, including Mr. Miller, who was also directing the film, were setting up a shot on tracks of the CSX line when a train unexpectedly appeared, killing Ms. Jones and injuring several others. Ms. Jones’s parents and others have since filed lawsuits against a number of defendants, including the producers of the now-terminated film project. The parents, Richard and Elizabeth Jones, who have pledged to create a permanent campaign dedicated to film safety, issued a statement Thursday saying in part, “Elizabeth and I are comfortable that the authorities were both careful and meticulous in investigating and bringing charges related to the incident that took our daughter’s life.” The statement added: “Our mission remains the same: to ensure safety on all film sets. Safety for Sarah.” A previous on-set disaster, a helicopter crash in 1982 that killed the actor Victor Morrow and two child actors on the set of “Twilight Zone: The Movie,” also resulted in criminal charges. John Landis, the director of the anthology film’s prologue and the segment affected by the accident, and four co-workers were tried for manslaughter. They were acquitted in a trial that caused great anxiety in the film industry. A version of this article appears in print on July 4, 2014, on page B2 of the New York edition with the headline: Filmmakers Face Charges in Death on a Set in Georgia. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/04/business/media/charges-filed-in-death-of-crew-member-on-midnight-rider-set.html?_r=0
  9. IATSE Sound Local Put In Trusteeship After Leader Complains Of “Shakedown” By Leaders Of Louisiana Union BY DAVID ROBB, Special To Deadline Deadline.com » Blog ArchiveHollywood Union Put In Trusteeship Amid “Shakedown” Allegations Deadline.com » Blog ArchiveHollywood Union Put ... Allegations of a union “shakedown” and “extortion” in the hallway of a Las Vegas hotel have been leveled against leaders of an IATSE local in New O View on m.deadline.com Preview by Yahoo David Robb is a long established LA labor reporter, he used to write regularly for the LA Weekly and exposed the previous "leader" Tom Short as a bully and thug. There are lots of theories of what is really going on behind the curtains - I have no credible insight. The folks in the office just want to stay on the payroll. Is the IA trying to just get rid of thorn in the side Osburne? Is he just being the usual idiot unable to work with anybody? Anyway what is really sad is that there is no leadership in 695 that is preparing for a non return of Osburn and is looking for some smart young labor lawyer who can spend our combined $260,000 of his + E.A. salary and be effective. .... and why does this board not have a LABOR heading? many of us rely on the contracts the IATSE negotiates for our living. Something to discuss ! http://m.deadline.com/2014/05/iatse-sound-local-put-in-trusteeship-after-leader-complains-of-shakedown-by-leaders-of-louisiana-union/
  10. a thorough article in the paper of record: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/24/business/media/death-raises-on-set-safety-questions.html?_r=0 and Hollywood of course has full blown ADD meaning memory is erased every day: .... John Landis, the director of the anthology film’s prologue and the segment affected by the accident, and four co-workers were tried for manslaughter. They were acquitted, but the trial shook the film industry, and might have curtailed the authority of swashbuckling directors, who found themselves more closely watched by safety monitors. Death Raises Questions About On-Set Safety By MICHAEL CIEPLY MARCH 23, 2014 Photo Richard and Elizabeth Jones, the parents of Sarah Jones, who died during the production of the film “Midnight Rider,” directed by Randall Miller. Credit David McNew/Getty Images Continue reading the main story LOS ANGELES — It took seconds for a freight train to kill Sarah Jones, a 27-year-old camera assistant who died on the set of an independent film, “Midnight Rider,” in rural Georgia on Feb. 20. Sorting through the consequences may take years. As Hollywood weathers the initial shock of a rare fatal accident during a film production — a candlelight walk along Sunset Boulevard was the most visible of several memorial events here and elsewhere — a complicated tangle of county, federal and private investigators is sorting through narrow questions of specific responsibility. These questions may also address a broader issue: Can, or should, independent movie productions, ranging from no-budget student films to star vehicles underwritten by state subsidies, be more closely policed for on-set safety? “There was clearly a disregard for some very important protocols,” said Ray Brown, president of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 479 in Atlanta. “Who disregarded them, the investigations will tell.” Photo Colleagues at memorial services have questioned the safety of film sets. Credit David McNew/Getty Images Mr. Brown said he was inclined at this point to see Ms. Jones’s death as “an isolated, very unfortunate incident” without wider implications. He said film shoots in Georgia, which has subsidized a growing number of productions in recent years, generally adhere to strict safety procedures that would have prevented the accident if they had been observed. But others say film crews are being pushed too far. “As a result of apparent negligence and an entire disregard for safety and common sense, our daughter is now dead,” Ms. Jones’s parents, Richard and Elizabeth Jones, said in an email statement, underscoring a point that was made by Ms. Jones’s industry colleagues at the various memorials. “From her unnecessary death,” the Joneses said, “a cry for safer film sets has circled the globe.” Ultimately, debate about the possible need for more oversight will turn on the answers to basic questions about what went wrong — and those remain far from resolution. Ms. Jones was killed while helping to prepare a shot that involved placing a bed across the tracks of a CSX railroad line near Doctortown, Ga., about 60 miles southwest of Savannah. After two trains passed, crew members on the film, a biopic about the rock musician Gregg Allman directed by Randall Miller, apparently believed they would have a safe interval to get the shot, for a dream sequence. But a third train appeared, moving at high speed through the set, killing Ms. Jones, injuring others, and nearly adding Mr. Miller to the victims. The question of whether producers were on the tracks without permission from CSX is under examination, according to people connected with one of the various inquiries, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigations are incomplete. The inquiries, these people said, are also examining whether the railroad should have slowed or stopped the third train after the first two passed the gathered film crew — if it can be shown that railroad employees should have seen a potential for trouble. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the incident. Terry Williams, a spokesman for the N.T.S.B., says his agency typically takes as long as a year to complete an investigation and develop recommendations about any proposed changes in transportation-related procedures. Jesse Lawder, an O.S.H.A. representative, says that agency only has the authority to issue citations within six months of a workplace safety violation. Gary Sease, a spokesman for CSX, said the railroad was cooperating with investigators, but declined to comment further. In a separate inquiry, the sheriff’s department in Wayne County, Ga., where the accident occurred, is in the middle of an investigation that could conceivably lead to criminal charges, though none had been recommended to prosecutors as of last week. Matthew Hiltzik, a spokesman for the “Midnight Rider” production, declined to discuss the inquiries, or answer questions about how the film was financed or whether it would be completed; work on the film was suspended after Ms. Jones’s death. The movie, in which William Hurt portrays Mr. Allman, was set for distribution in the United States by Open Road Films, but at the time of the accident it did not yet have a release date. A spokeswoman for Open Road declined to discuss the film’s future. Photo Mr. Miller Credit Robin Marchant/Getty Images The director, Mr. Miller, who is also a producer of “Midnight Rider,” is now represented by Harry D. Dixon Jr., a lawyer based in Savannah who was the United States attorney for the Southern District of Georgia under the Clinton administration. The presence of Mr. Dixon, known widely as Donnie, points to the high stakes in the various inquiries into the accident. In the last week, those inquiries have included a private investigation by Jeffrey R. Harris of Harris Penn Lowry, a Savannah law firm that was recently retained by the Jones family. Mr. Harris is expected in the next few weeks to file one or more civil complaints in connection with the accident. Reached on Thursday, Mr. Harris declined to discuss his legal strategy, but he made clear that questions about conduct in the film industry, particularly among smaller independent operations, were not off the table. “There’s a lot of pressure on these producers and directors to make these films under budget,” Mr. Harris said. “It would have cost them a lot more to have the railroad shut down.” Ms. Jones’s death has recalled another on-set disaster, a helicopter crash in 1982 that killed the actor Victor Morrow and two child actors, Myca Dinh Le and Renee Shin-Yi Chen, on the set of “Twilight Zone: The Movie,” a Warner Bros. film. After the crash, John Landis, the director of the anthology film’s prologue and the segment affected by the accident, and four co-workers were tried for manslaughter. They were acquitted, but the trial shook the film industry, and might have curtailed the authority of swashbuckling directors, who found themselves more closely watched by safety monitors. “You became more aware of it after that,” said C. O. Erickson, a veteran line producer who spoke last week of the enhanced consciousness of safety that pervaded studio-level filmmaking after that accident. The biggest Hollywood films, Mr. Erickson pointed out, are overseen by studio safety officers who check and crosscheck potentially hazardous situations, making an accident of the kind that killed Ms. Jones almost unthinkable. But smaller productions, Mr. Erickson said, rely heavily on the professional skills of production managers and, especially, assistant directors, who check details that might escape a harried director. A frequent safety complaint among film crews working on both studio and independent productions centers on a common practice of demanding long work days of fourteen or more hours. The filmmaker Haskell Wexler described the hazards of long days in his 2006 documentary “Who Needs Sleep?” Among other things, he recounted how lack of sleep led to the driving death of an assistant camera operator in 1997. Still, a vast expansion of movie and television production in states that use tax incentives to support both independent and studio films does not appear to have resulted in a rash of serious accidents like the one on “Midnight Rider.” In Georgia, where film permits are overseen by local municipalities, state money helped to subsidize more than 140 movie and television projects in the last year, without a similar mishap, according to state officials. For many, however, Ms. Jones has become a symbol of the need for safer sets. A bit of street art spotted on Wilshire Boulevard here last week pointed to her new status as a kind of guardian angel for film crews. It was a yellow and black placard, in the familiar style of road signs that point toward movie locations. The only words were “Sarah Jones.” The directions — a set of hearts and arrows — pointed straight up.
  11. wonder why noone asks for a 695 section in case of its demise maybe a "unionism" section or something like the economics of sound work or just plain BREAD wolf PS maybe a section that allows anonymous posts called "bad payers". ( yes I can imagine problems don't anticipate them though looking at the users)
  12. I want to strongly recommend something solid, not friggen OPINIONS Producing Great Sound for Digital Video 2nd (second) Edition by Rose, Jay published by Focal Press (2002) (0010) http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_39?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=producing%20great%20sound%20for%20digital%20video%20second%20edition&sprefix=producing+great+sound+for+digital+video%2Caps%2C734&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Aproducing%20great%20sound%20for%20digital%20video%20second%20edition new $ 50 used $ 2.00 or free if you are devious. Jay is on this board occasionally. He is a rational human being. ( I have found few mixers where this applies - yes there are some! ) of course none of this has anything to do with a financially successful career as SOUNDMIXER. wolf
  13. and a very moving video http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/video/sarah-jones-tribute-society-camera-687364 wolf
  14. here's a Variety article that features a side view of the infamous bridge... http://variety.com/2014/biz/news/midnight-rider-accident-leaves-the-industry-pondering-the-fatal-flaws-in-on-set-safety-1201129615/
  15. We've started the petition "IATSE International President Matthew D. Loeb: Allow 695 Members to hold immediate elections for new officers and restore autonomy to Local 695." Will you take 30 seconds to sign it right now? Here's the link: http://www.change.org/ petitions/iatse-international- president-matthew-d-loeb- allow-695-members-to-hold- immediate-elections-for-new- officers-and-restore-autonomy- to-local-695 Gaylen Nebeker, Video Assist
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