John Blankenship

Unless something has changed that I'm not aware of, 608-614mHz (TV Channel 37) is illegal for our use in the U.S. 608-614mHz -- This band is used in the Wireless Medical Telemetry Service (WMTS) and the Radioastronomy Service. This band is allocated for both Federal and Non-Federal use. As far as your desensitizing issue, have you tested putting the antenna on a remote cable to see if that would solve the issue? If you determine it does, then you can start experimenting with placement. Getting it on a plane away from the receiving antennas would be where I would start -- below their plane or above it. I wonder if adding one of the Zaxcom filtered antennas might help -- a question for the mothership.

The best way I've found to silence producers when they come up with absurd requests is to throw large numbers at them.

As Mattias mentioned try ORTF. It will give you a really nice "how your ears hear it" result. A pair of hypers in that config would work great for what you're doing and you only need one mount for each pair.

Good catch -- thanks.

I've never noticed you having anything but an admirable command of the English language -- unlike too many of our compatriots. A common term here for the rack mounting strips with pre-drilled holes is "rack ears."

Who is it you're not trusting -- me, or Howy, Zaxcom's ace programmer? 7.81B is 7.81 with the mirroring issue fixed. Going to a higher number (8.1, etc.) is where you get into different features.

Marco, IIRC, 7.81 had just such a problem. Install 7.81B firmware. If you don't have it, either contact Zaxcom and they can send it to you or PM me with your email address and I'll be happy to do so. Also, set "Processor Speed - NORMAL"

Definitely worth a moan. Thanks for the chuckle.

Congratulations! Proud papa must be poppin' buttons -- as well you should be.

Mono and the Stereophiles

For anyone who doesn't know, the Arri Mini and Arri Mini LF have different audio connections. The LF uses a 6-pin Lemo with D.C. on one of the pins.

Hi, Stacy At least for a Comtek I would wire it: TRS 3.5mm plug: Tip = XLR Pin-2 Ring = XLR Pin-3 Sleeve = XLR Pin-1 (In the XLR, ground Pin-1 to PIn-3) TS 3.5mm plug: Tip = XLR Pin-2 Sleeve = XLR Pin-1 & Pin-3) On the Comteks, Tip and Ring are the same mono signal but out of phase to each other. By grounding the ring you diminish the chance of out of phase cross-talk. On the camera side, whether pin-3 has to be grounded depends upon the input topography, however, grounding it should work whatever the input design. According to the R1A manual: "Mono Plug/Stereo Plug Usage A Mono plug or a Stereo plug can be used with the IFBR1a headphone jack directly. When a Mono plug is in- serted, a special circuit senses the “ring” to “sleeve” short and automatically switches off the ring to prevent excess battery drain. To reset, switch power OFF then back ON. " So the above wiring should work fine there, too.

Mostly "weird fixation." The main issue with hiding lavs is usually more about clothing noise than it is about frequency response. Most producers prefer them hidden. If they don't, life is easier for everyone as deployment is quicker, applying them less intrusive, and the sound is not as compromised. But I don't worry about it either way as it is the production's call -- and I make it work either way.

My computations show the correct antenna length for 590mHz to be 12.7031 cm / 5.0012 in. Of course it takes two things to benefit from that level of accuracy: a ruler marked in ten-thousandths -- and a perfect world -- both rather hard to find.

No doubt there are many variations to this depending upon how they've been cared for and used. My experience is that they tend to hold up quite well in terms of sound quality but will vary the most in handling noise.

They are a bit noiser. To try to quantify it: In a quiet room with a quiet talker, the difference is definitely noticable. In a room with some background noise and a normal talker, you'd need to do a side-by-side comparison to tell much difference.

A Lectrosonics WM, or Zaxcom ZMT3-X transmitter, or any regular transmitter in a condom with a desiccant -- paired with a Countryman B3 (water-resistant and cost-effective) mic and you're in business.

K.I.S.S. A stereo pair (50s in this case) in the mono compatible configuration determined best for the acoustics of the space and positioning of the singers. Concentrate on a good mix rather than a complicated one.

My deep condolences, Jeff.

My reactions when I test ran a Nova for a few days: -- Even though I'd laid my hands on one at NAB, when I opened the box my first reaction was how small it is. An interesting side note is that in any photo that I've seen, its small size does not come across. -- My next reaction was how solid it feels. -- Doing a setup, my reaction as a Nomad and Deva user was a bit of confusion with the menus. After becoming more acquainted with it my reaction was how well thought out everything is. Even with it this small, all the controls felt easy to access. Another sound mixer who was auditioning it with me commented, "They really listened to their users." -- I missed having the battery level on the mix screen I prefer. (Easily solvable going forward. Perhaps what efksound showed -- and it doesn't even need the E -- we know it's a battery symbol.) -- I did not have a reaction that the screen was too small. -- My overall reaction remains that the Nova is rather awesome -- Zaxcom has a winner here.

SMPTE Drop Frame skips the frame count by two frames every full minute except for the tenth minute. For example: 01:08:59:28, 01:08:59:29, 01:09:00:02, 01:09:00:03 Tenth minute: 01:09:59:28, 01:09:59:29, 01:10:00:00, 01:10:00:01

Cinela suspensions and wind protection are only too expensive until you've used them.

I'm curious how you got that number. My guess is you may be thinking about frames rather than percentages. The difference between drop and non-drop should be a tenth of one percent (.001).

Okay for CS-3e without filter (as long as you have the updated version -- look online to find the serial number after which they are updated) Need filter for CS-M1 (again, as long as you have the updated version -- look online to find the serial number after which they are updated) Okay for Schoeps 641 without filter (as long as you have newer version -- for many years now -- with gold ground plane surrounding the pins in the XLR connector.) Need filter for Schoeps CMIT. Contact Gene Martin at the Audio Department for filtered cables.

Given that we do the best we can to get a nice open sound under whatever wardrobe the director and wardrobe department decide upon, this is one of the first post mixers to tell us we should be EQing more. How interesting... as, in current times, most posties want to reserve that choice. More pertinent to the discussion is what lavs was the mixer in question using? Choice of tools, especially mics, does make a difference. As far as headphones, what works best is whatever personal standard you have tuned your brain to.