rich

ive worked with many cameras that its taken me 20 minutes to find the headphone out on it ;-) seriously though. it would be quite useful on something like a sony 790 so you can plug you minijack tails into the 5 pin out and the camera operator can have the headphone out (or the other way round if you want to let the operator have the distorted output)

thats not too dissimilar to the motorboating you can get with some sanken mics with the 442. http://www.sounddevices.com/notes/mixers/oscillation-xfmr-inputs/ maybe its a similar thing? it does sound electrical rather than acoustic though guess you already cleaned the contacts on the mic

i got a couple recently. job i just finished, i tried them out when one of the actors was wearing a long wig. it held the mic in securely all day which was great. but the make up girl said the clip was difficult to close without pushing firmly against the actors head which isnt ideal. but not yet had the chance to actually try this myself. though it may work to have the first snapper just behind the mic and with the cable wrapped around the rubber like in the strain relief which may also make it easier to close the clip fits my dpa 4063 and should be fine for most mikes

i got a couple of cr123 rechargeables a while back when i got my zaxcom trx900 transmitters. i used them for testing only as they have approximately a third of the capacity of a non rechargeable cr123 -600mah compared to 1500mah. which roughly equates to 2 hours or 5 hours on a battery. from what i am aware of whats available at the minute, non rechargeables seem the only way to go for production use. also. on a job i did recently, production got in some GP brand cr123 batteries and they would barely last 4 hours compared to any of the higher end brands (duracell, panasonic etc) which would easily do 5 and half hours. maybe i got a bad batch, but maybe GP are cheaper for a reason

how about a version of the ifb 100 that will work with my laptop so i can control my zaxcom transmitters from there? like the idea of being able to play back all zaxcom recording transmitters (that have ifb remote. sadly my trx700 doesnt have this function) in sync to re-record a multitrack, but not sure i'd like to try and re mix it without a video monitor.

would love to see some pictures if some are available

thanks for the info Andy. i will certainly have a close look at one when they are available

just ordered 5 from the uk distributors (audio ltd) they should hopefully arrive any day now. noyz boyz reckon theyll fit a dpa. will let you know how i get on

one of the best jobs i worked on was called 'the joy of curry' which started out as a look at the UK's love affair with Indian food, but sadly morphed into celebs talking about curry. but we filmed at michelin starred indian restraunts and the owner said 'oh you must stay for lunch, will you have champagne as well?' we all put on half a stone on that job. happy days

i would check with zaxcom, but any emails i send them bounce back from their spam filter, and as glenn was initially answering some questions here, i thought a public answer would be useful as other people would like the answers as well. but you are, as ever, correct about contacting the manufacturer directly. thanks for the heads up on the right angle ta5s andy. hopefully they will become available this side of the pond when lectro comes back over here. and whilst i agree that $35.50 is steep, if its the only thing that does what i need, then i guess i shall have to suck it up.

okay, but any thoughts yet on the sync generator powering, using bottom mounted ta5s in a bag and timecode and high quality ifb? thanks rich

Wow Glenn, thats a lot going on in one box. i have a question about the timecode generator option. does it have a battery backup dedicated to it? for example, with a multi camera shoot using the QRX as your camera sync box as well, some of the cameras go off out of the range of the master QRX of IFB100 (which in itself isnt a problem as you have a generator that carries on timecode), but whilst the camera is away, there is a battery change or even an hour down for lunch (yeah , i know. but it might happen), you need to be able to keep sync without external power so that when the cameras get back together or meet up throughout the course of the day, they are still keeping good timecode. (i am thinking of shows like the apprentice for this example but pretty much any multicamera shoot where you are not confined to a set and cameras can go off for hours at a time). it could be a good option in the bag as well as it takes up less space than 2 receivers, has ifb control of the transmitters (if i am reading that correctly) and has similar current draw specs to the older RX. but it would be nice to be able to use output connectors that are right angled so that there is less strain on the cable in the bag - i use neutrik right angle plugs and loon low profile plugs in my bag - as i wouldnt trust ta5's in that situation. but the only suggestion i have to get around this is some sort of plug on adapter to the bottom of the unit that brings audio, power and time code out to the side gives a different set of problems, particularly securing it to prevent damaging any connectors if it gets knocked. i also like being able to get the confidence return from the camera, but have a question here as well. it would be nice to get the return using the high quality mode so i could listen to it all the time, rather than occasionally just to check something is getting to the camera (as i suspect i would be doing in low quality mode) would i be unable to send back timecode to the TRX i am using to send sound to camera? or would i need a separate timecode transmission? and sorry if the answer to some of these questions is read the info in the morning rather than at midnight. thanks rich

can you open the video in quicktime? in the info window (apple+I if youre mac) it should tell you the frame rate

i go for both, but giving the mic where it was played in the scene first, then try and find a nice spot to get the bird song or whatever after. it cant hurt to have the option and hard disk space/tape is cheap(ish). if im allowed time of course.

i wonder how much of this is the now obligatory ass coverage. in theory firewire is hotplugable, but i guess if they advise against it, you unplug it whilst powered up and you take out your firewire port then its not their fault cos they advised you against it.

i like the loon a lot as well. i got the 18ft with the base mate and wing and internal curly cable specifically to use with the trx700. having the weight of the trx700 at my end of the pole is nice - it gives a little bit of a counterbalance - i missed it when i had a play with a trx992. in use it is fine - obviously you have cable noise to avoid, but you wouldnt shake the pole during a take anyway (not yet tried running alongside actors though). i do prefer the stage clamps on the panamic, which i was using previously, but mostly cos they are bigger and easier to grip.

if only it did. ive noticed a little lag when going from off to unity fairly quickly but nothing that should be a problem in real life. which isnt very scientific, but its the best i can do

well the trx700 may not be particularly heavy (6.6oz or 187g without batteries), i may just be being a bit of a wuss. i'm sure if you emailed arietec they will be able to ship one out to you, but that doesnt allow you to go to a store and play with one before buying it

i have a trx700 and really like it. it sounds much better then the audio 2020/vdb bomb combo we were using before. not yet had issues with range, but it doesnt always play nicely with the mic you may want to use it with. i have a sanken cs3e and neumann kmr81 than can pick up some rfi, though not all the time. my schoeps ccm41 has been great with it and i have also used a sennheiser 416, mkh 50 and mkh 60 with no problems. being able to record on it is great, especially for wildtracks and wild lines where you may have to be out of range fro the cart my biggest disappointment is the lack of remote control for it, so you cant send it timecode over ifb nor control the gain from the cart, but i haven asked if its possible to have the ifb board fitted. when i first got my unit, i did have some QC issues which required a new unit being sent to me - unacceptably high noise floor, but the replacement unit has been great. also search on here because Matthias Richter tried out a trx700 and couldnt get anything he was happy with and is now trying an arietec p48 adapter and trx900 combo http://www.areitec.fr/AREITEC/Pico48/pico48.html i also ended up having to get a loon boom (though any internally cabled pole would acheive the same thing) pole so i could have the trx700 at the base of the pole rather than the mic end - its quite a heavy unit, certainly compared to the lectro unit and 2020/vdb and it made the pole quite difficult to control on fast moves. i get about 4-4.5 hours using some ansmann 2850 NiMh batteries - you probably will get the same on some lithiums too. I've never looked at using the expander and compressor settings, mostly as thats something i think that should be added with the ability to undo it, i.e. in post. also, if you change your transmitter gain setting, you need to change the threshold setting on the dynamics as well to keep it sounding the same. also remember that you need to get a matching receiver as well if you havent already. if you havent already, have a look for the thread about the trx992 as another option. hope that helps rich

you can either playback the audio needed from the transmitter to your receiver and recorder or pull the sd card and export the audio using the zaxconvert software. if you use the zaxconvert software, you also have a wav file with the original timecode but its not in the same place as the rest of your audio tracks (until you copy it over of course) and you would need a computer for this, though i reckon a netbook could handle it (i emphasise reckon here to cover my ass if im wrong) though maybe thats something for the deva64. a built in mini sd card reader so you can pull the cards from your trx7/8/9xx and have them on the main drive with the recorded timecode.

i could hear up to 18khz. im 32

i used a trx992 last week on a job i was swinging on. normally i use a trx700 and a sennheiser ew100 for my feed from the cart. the sound of the 992 on the boom was what i would expect from the system. and the high quality mode on the ifb was pretty good. you have to make sure you have the correct firmware in your ifb100 fro this to work -Glenn kindly emailed me the latest version. Billy Sarokin mentioned on ramps that in hiQ mode, you lose remote control and timecode sending capability and i agree with Billy that i would much rather have the remote control functionality than higher quality ifb feed. because you can listen to the boom direct from the trx992, i can get by with a lofi feed from the desk. the release notes say that for the private line function to work, your receiver needs to have firmware x83 or x78 for this to work, so if you have an older revision - like me, you receiver will need to go back to zaxcom. i thought the talkback mode would work using the stereo mode, switching between the left channel for the main feed and right for the private line, but the trx992 works in mono mode (if you have it in stereo, you lose the ifb in the headphones completely) and activating the private line switches the output on the receiver. using it, i didnt mind the weight on my belt, it is pretty light. i had a loon curly jumper cable between the 992 and my loon pole, which worked out fine when we were going for a take, but if i wanted to put the pole down, i needed to either pull off the trx992 and disconnect my headphones or disconnect the cable from the boom which means losing sound for the ifb feed to director etc. either way, its not ideal. i also missed the extra weight of the trx700 at my end of the pole, but that me just being lazy. but i think, for me, i prefer the trx700 and separate ifb. i just wish the 700 had the remote control options so you can set the gain from the cart and timecode and recording if need be. there is a good argument for hearing the boom straight off the pre-amp, but as i use cheapish in ear phones rather than hd25s or similar, i only need to be able to hear what my mixer is telling me and a reasonable idea of what i am getting on the mic and still keep a bit of an ear out for whats going on around me. (i would like to use something better, but am reluctant to spend the money on some moulded earpieces, but i reckon thats another thread)

i did a job not so long ago and i was the only person in the room who could hear the insect scarer that was whistling away. if i am brave i will have a listen to the test

dont know if anyone has mentioned the islate here http://www.apptism.com/apps/islate which seems (at first glance) similar. would be nice if there was some way to get timecode in to the iphone so the timecode display was more than a neat gimmick. but i wonder how accurate the clock on the phone is compared to a lockit

thanks for that Jeff. i have a loan unit for a job i am doing tuesday and wednesday and will see how it compares with using my trx700 and a sennheiser ifb. though hopefully the seeming lack of availability of vpx batteries in th UK wont be too much of a problem. unless we shoot for more than 4 hours of course ;-)