Philip Perkins

Worked great for me. Folded up into a small Pelican for moves, hung on a mic stand or whatever was handy. Was good training for clients in returning their headsets for moves or at the end of the day. A visible, obvious home for them got their better instincts to put them back in the pockets. We found that with that thing near their chairs they left their headsets just laying anywhere much less often.

When this kind of thing happened to me on a job, like it was talent that damaged the mic, the production would be charged full replacement value for it. I had this conversation many times. They may not like it but there is no way you should be on the hook for this cost. As was said, lav mics are an expendable.

Go ahead and fix it, but this mic is now a backup that needs to be replaced with a new "front line" mic. Once this sort of thing breaks it's just a matter of time before it breaks again.

one can only hope...

another patent dispute?

I just got the email that I'd guess a lot of you received, saying that Location Sound Corp is now part of Trew Audio. I hope the deal went well for the many very long-time employees of LSC. It sounds like they will close LSC's Riverside Dr. location and move everything to Trew in Burbank. The people of LSC (and ASC before that) were really helpful to me when I was just starting out--anytime I got to LA I always made a pilgrimage to ASC and always learned something important when I did. Thanks folks--best of luck to Trew et al!

Thanks--very interesting. Maybe not great for small scale operators in urban areas and at major events...

I need to rent a Hi8 format video deck to dub off the video from a performance from the 1990s. Local SF area would be best, and I can use a Hi8 camera to dub from if need be. I only need to copy about 45 min of material, for Lines Ballet's archive. Anyone have or know where I could find such a thing? thanks!

I was hoping the new-model Schoeps would be less moisture sensitive...

It's only conventional for sound dept.s to do data management if they are being paid conventional wages to do it, ie compensated for the extra time involved. Data management should not be free, unless it is very simple. I can imagine a conversation with an AD along the lines of "would you like me to manage and package up all my data and reports for a mid-day upload or would you like me to record the scene you are getting ready to shoot?" Further: "you've pushed the shooting down to the last minute of the regular crew-day, would you like me to do some data management for OT wages?". I have asked this question many times, the answer is almost always "no", because the data manager is going to stay on the clock anyway to deal with the pile of camera files. Sound data they can do on the side while they deal with picture.

What the OP is proposing sounds a bit like what a camera truck is on USA productions: fairly large, with enough work space for multiple camera crews and their gear (as well as a spot for a coffee maker etc).. These sorts of trucks are rentable, but they are not cheap. In the USA, what is rentable cheaply are small box trucks meant for people moving house. It used to be common for bands, small dance companies, small theatre troupes to rent these and do a temporary build out of the interior (shelving and tie-downs mostly). Not very secure, and with the rental company's logo plastered all over the sides--a somewhat obvious theft target. Is your production paying for this vehicle? Will they have secure overnight+day off storage for it? Will your production cover the insurance for this truck?

You can train your muscles all you want but at the end of the day a boom op needs to be able to make a judgement about the sound they are pulling in. It takes some experience to understand how to feather a mic between multiple speakers in a group scene, while continuing to "pattern-off" an interfering sound. If this is done merely by eye then all you are doing is guessing about whether or not your mic placement is working. In modern dramatic scenes with multiple actors the mixer might be managing and monitoring a large number of lav mics and plants at the same time as a boom or two. As the mixer I can't keep my monitor feed only on the poles all the time, so I rely on the boom ops (with cans) to tell me how they did on a given take. I also need them to report to me about problem BGs with info on whether or not that noise is on-axis enough to their mic that we need to get help with it. Out on the set an AD is going to hear a possibly problematic sound issue and ask the boom op if they are picking that up. The boom op needs headphones to be able to give a good answer.

With these early machines SD really wanted to prove themselves, and did. All the 7xx machines are amazingly versatile, well thought out, rugged and sound great. That 2006 post mentions the Tascam HD-P2 as well. I had one of those for a few years before having enough $ to get a 702T. The Tascam was a really good deal for what it cost, but it was NOT well thought out, not super versatile (although it would lock to tri-level sync from HDCAMS, quite useful in those days), very illogical in use and sounded only "meh" compared to the 7xx SDs. I see lots of folks still using 7XX SDs, I rarely hear of anyone using the HDP2 these days.

toys for rich tech bros.

I would want a lot better support for a new wireless system than I've gotten from DPA (re: wired mics) in the last while. No thanks.