BAB414

I have a small stingray bag that makes keeping the Tx far away a pain. But I got the 1/4 wave antenna which I feed up through my harness and that does the trick.

This is a rad idea!

Thank you both for the suggestions. Worldizing with a speaker is a great idea and a backup plan in case the earwig doesn't cut it. They plan to also cover the scene with a process trailer on a different day, where I will have more flexibility. The hardest part of all of this has been getting their attention, followed by getting answers to my questions. I also thought about a phone system as a transmitter/receiver but we will be in the middle of nowhere so I can't know for sure if there will be any service out there.

Hey all, I have a scene coming up involving a character singing to the radio in a small convertible car, shot with the Russian Arm/Ultimate Arm. I will drop the bag in the backseat and am planning to ask the non-driving character to hit play on a small phone feeding an earwig. In case playback NEEDS to be triggered by someone not in the car, what can I do to ensure the cleanest signal for the earwig? I have not had good experiences with talent Tx in one car and my Rx in another car. I sometimes get decent range on the 216MHz comteks going to a follow van. However, I think it's important to have the earwig Tx in the picture car. So should I hop the signal over with an SMQV at 250mW in the chase car to a 411 that feeds the BST? I'm planning on worst case scenario where we see the entire car. Any other tips or tricks? Thanks!

Hey Ben, I'm sure there is a device that can measure it but I've never heard of it. You can do the math yourself though. I recommend anyone who works with wireless audio to check out the full video here from Lectro. Here's where they begin to talk about RF gain structure:

When you hit your receivers, you want to be at -6 to -2 to prevent overload. -6 is an acceptable amount of loss to work with.

Thanks Jeff, didn't realize. I'm still all Lectro digital hybrid for now.

Don't all the new high end digital wireless mics operate in the 2.4 GHz range?

Wow in all my time doing sound I never came across this. Thank you very much.

Can someone please explain why an antenna farm is a bad idea? How does adding another pair of whips affect the performance of anything else? I moved from whips to 2 dipoles and a PSC RF Multi SMA because you really do see and hear a difference in range.

I always wondered what the F stood for in RTFM! Thanks. There are just a couple quirks with the Venue 2 that I've learned to look out for. One of them goes like this: I have my Channel 5 Tx setting set to B Band because sometimes I use a block 21 Tx, sometimes I use a block 22 Tx. My channel 6 Tx is set to block 21 only (narrow band) in the Venue. When I switch to ratio diversity mode and then switch back, I have to manually reset the channel 6 block settings because it has taken on the channel 5 block settings. Switching to diversity mode altered the channel settings even after you go back to switch mode.

I always make sure when I'm in that overlap range to check which block I'm in. Just one extra step but takes less than a second. Also, A band is not a block and should not be referred to as such (makes things more confusing). It's a band, containing 3 blocks. ['the more you know' rainbow]

Band A includes blocks 470, 19 and 20. It's well documented that 470 and 19 have overlapping frequencies which Lectro made clear when the SRC came out. Are you saying your receiver retuned itself on its own?

Agreed! Love seeing a 552 out in the wild. I just installed mine in my main cart (as the backup) as my 744 went in for repair and I need something soon. Usually my 552 works on my playback cart routing signals out from my interface.

I was going to say the mic as well. Was the input on the 788 set to mic level by chance? I know you said line above but thats the first thing I'd check.

A couple movies ago, I'm doing this intimate scene on a rooftop (for some reason). It was so windy the crew had to be harnessed in. The two actors are right next to each other and whispering almost inaudibly, for the sake of intimacy and for no other reason. It was a "very emotional scene" (I hate that line - they're almost always emotional...). After take 1, the director calls out for me. I run over. "I can't hear them," he says. "Neither can I." I say. The director asked them to speak up a little but they barely gave me any more signal. At that point, it was what it was. I might be in the minority here but I try to never interfere with or adjust the performance unless it's going to be ADR or otherwise mess with the suspension of disbelief (like the loud bar scene example). I want the scenes to be what the actors and director intend as long as it plays well within the rules of physics. Sometimes I ask for more level and the answer is no. They always assume the wires will capture it all. I sometimes have to explain that I, like everyone else, am limited by the laws of physics. In a weird almost nihilistic way, I enjoy the absurdity of it all (sometimes).

Call lectro and have someone do it over the phone with you.

This is my understanding as well. A low cut filter isn't zapping the freqs away like Izotope. It's attenuating them X dB per octave.

Also, if I'm not mistaken, each successive low cut further shaves off the remaining low-end, resulting in more of a drop-off of those frequencies, at least up to a certain point.

I agree. When I do have the good fortune of attending tech scouts, I'm the only one interested in where video village (and I) will live. No one else seems to think about it until the day of. I'm sure all this tends to be different on $20 million+ movies but then again every project is different. I worked on a huge television show for over 5 years that never had sound on a tech scout but I can name two others in my area that always have sound on it. Point is, we all know how important it is but it's ultimately their call and they get what they pay for. I'm of the mind to try to go with the flow when all else fails and not get stressed out when things are out of my control.

I used to be under this impression, but I believe a few years ago, someone at Lectro told me that the inherent gain of the paddles (measured in dBi) is something else and not to be factored into these calculations. Maybe someone could chime in?

Just did a movie where the UPM (and he's not the first one) told me that they don't invite sound on tech scouts as a policy. I told him that it's nice for me to at least know what to expect and to be able to plan ahead instead of dealing with problems for the first time on the shoot day and he kind of shrugged. His logic is, the sound will be what it is and it's an area where he can save money. On this movie, there were so many times where there was a noise we couldn't track down until it was too late. The sound definitely could have been better.

I don't have mine wound up. I just coil it like any other bnc. It might be just *slightly* stiffer than, say, regular sdi cable but I've been very happy with it.

For my MiniCart, I use the Remote Audio LifeBox going to a small Audio Root distro. I had a special dummy Hi-Q "battery" made (powered off the distro) to fit into the cup of my bag so I can quickly add or remove the bag from the cart.

State-side I order my ultraflex at custom lengths from Field Components. Maybe they ship internationally?