davidm

I have been using Metric Halo 2882's with Metacorder for 5 years as my primary recorder. My newish Mac Mini Sever lost it's firewire port a few weeks ago so I pulled out my backup 1.33MHz G4 Mac Mini. You do need 1meg of ram in the G4's to do 8 tracks reliably. CPU usage in a G4 will be around 25 - 30%. Any Intel Mac will handle Metacorder or Boom Recorder withe ease. The only thing to be aware of with Mac laptops is that the firewire port shouts down when you shut the lid and so you'll have to restart your audio software when you next open the lid. David M

Hi John, The new Australian distributor appears to be: Modular Components and Automation 183 Northcorp Boulevard Broadmeadows 3047 VIC www.modularcomponents.com.au Linear Bearings who are in SA used to be the distributor and may have some legacy stock. They now sell a broadly compatible Bosch-Rexroth product. I think ITEM is a much larger and refined product range. David

For my ITEM extrusion cart, all I have ever done is create a drawing by hand, work out the lengths required and send the list off to the distributor. I don't know what the situation is elsewhere but in Australia / New Zealand, there is no extra charges for cutting to length and tapping the ends. ITEM mill out the threads required in the end's of the extrusion to a far higher standard than I can achieve tapping the threads by hand. I do have lengths of extrusion for those parts that just didn't work out in the drawings. I take the extrusion to a local aluminum window fabricator who does perfect cuts at exactly the right length for a modest fee. If you are making a frame the size of Jeffs cart, any full length shelves or rack supports can become the bracing to keep it rigid. A really large frame or shelves mounted at one end only will benefit from some bracing. If you look at my old cart on the right, it has bracing corner pices under each of the shelves. The great thing about these systems is that you can easily add bit's such as corner supports later if it becomes apparent that they are needed David

The odd thing about this software is that the user gets to choose the sample rate. As the drift is far worse at 44.1KHz than 48KHz, I'm sticking with the math error theory although the crystal stability is always going to be suspect in a consumer device. I'm guessing the timecode slate apps on the iPod / iPhone will have similar problems. David M Auckland, NZ

Tested the timecode stability a software timecode generator on an iPod Touch 3G. Downloaded Pocket Sync, a timecoode generator app from France: http://www.polytonic.fr/ Set Pocket Sync to 25fps / 48KHz. Jammed a GPS calibrated Ambient Master Controller to the Pocket Sync signal via the headphone jack. Drift was approx +0.9 frame per hour. Set Pocket Sync to 30fps / 48KHz. Drift was approx +1.2 frame per hour. Set Pocket Sync to 24fps / 44.1KHz. Drift was approx +0.6 frame per minute! Pocket Sync 29.97 shows up as 30fps drop. Perhaps there are math division errors in dividing the sample clock by the timecode rate. Conclusion: Not good enough. David M Auckland NZ

My ITEM dealer is well - my ex ITEM dealer as they now distribute a similar but seemingly more heavy duty product made by Bosch. No 80/20 product here either. I now have to import the ITEM parts and extrusion from ITEM Australia. David M Auckland New Zealand

Absolutely agree Mike. The problem here in New Zealand is that producers & PM's don't see 3rds as anything else but a trainee boom operator. When you do get a the trainee, they then expect that the trainee will be a competent boom op at say the end of a 6 month episodic TV drama series. That way, this fresh boom operator can go and work for some other mysterious production who might be wanting a "newly trained" boom op (not). This also means you get a new trainee every season which is cheap for the production. If of course you are on a production which is fundamentally 1 boom, the trainee gets little experience at booming. All this is lost on the production office. Genuine 3rd's don't last long here. They can't get reliable work. Having said that, the two trainees / 3rd's that I have worked with lately have been terrific and I'm about to start a 2nd season of a TV drama series with the same boom & 3rd as last year, including the great boom op Mike Westgate mentioned. Yay.. David M Auckland NZ

I found the StarCase drawer to be fabricated a little to cheaply and the latch was of poor design. Actually, I found a better latch at my hardware store but the overall concept was all wrong. I replaced the StarCase with a Middle Atlantic drawer which is incredibly heavy compared to what's inside it. Am currently building custom sliding drawers and shelves out of "Item" aluminum extrusion. David M

Looking at the iFixit teardown (www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Mac-Mini-Mid-2010-Teardown/3094/3), there's 8 wires coming out of the power supply. The issue here will be if the power supply just outputs 12 volts or if some of these wires are control circuits from the motherboard. The power on/off switch appears to be directly connected to the motherboard. If it is just 12 volts, then a 30watt, 9-18 to 12 volt DC-DC converter will most likely work. In the Mac Mini AC supplies, there's a substantial amount of RFI filtering and that would need to be replicated before the DC-DC converter to reduce the power supply noise going back to the 12 volt battery. This is really important if you want to power a computer and audio equipment from the same battery. Hope to report back on this by the end of the year unless someone else (hopefully) beats me to it. David M

Was waiting for the new model Mac mini to come out and - AC only! Picked up one of the few remaining previous model Mac Mini servers available locally this afternoon as I need DC operation. Seriously thinking about the new model for use with my TV. David M

The ease of traveling in and out of Israel depends on the the airline. If you are traveling on El Al with equipment, plan on a 4 hour check in time. After interviewing all of you individually about why you are going to Israel and having checked your baggage they will then examine it in front of you and then take some of it away for further examination.... I missed an El-Al flight in Hong Kong once because we didn't factor in the extensive baggage checks. Any other airline is fine. Israeli customs are easy to deal with. David M

Hi Edwardo, I recommend that you use the Mirror function in Metacorder only when you have finished with any scene / take / notes metadata editing. I transfer batches of files using Mirror when I finish a scene or have some downtime. Admittedly, I use hard drives and CF cards which are a lot faster than DVDRAM. Metacorder like Fostex and Sound Devices recorders have common file names and scene/take metadata. Editing the file names on the DVDRAM media in Finder does not change the metadata of those files. It's the metadata that is used by Avid or FCP for file management, not the file names. Metacorder has slipped behind the competition with respect to true Mirror file Metadata updating. Otherwise, Metacorder is a very effective system. David Madigan Auckland NZ

Lectrosonics receivers do not output a traditional pro-audio line level. The standard line level outputs on pro- audio equipment are typically 0dBu or +4dBu = OVU and Digital -20dBFS. Above this operating level will be 20dB of headroom as pro analogue electronics output a maximum +20dBu to + 24dBu. Lectrosonics receivers output a maximum of around +5dBu (411) to + 8dBu (Venue). If the transmitter is set for a nominal signal level 20dB below limiting, the signal output will be around -15dBu. This is primarily done to reduce power consumption in battery powered receivers. Lectrosnonics receivers practically output what would be described as a low level line signal or a high level mic signal. David M

Avid can sync common timecode recorded on a camera audio track & an audio recorder. There's a function in the Avid "Special" Menu: "Read Audio Timecode". If the camera material has been digitised, the Avid batch samples the timecode of each take in about 3 - 4 x real time to calculate the beginning and end of timecode. For a days rushes, this might take an hour or so but the Avid does this unattended. I understand that that this process can be done as camera tapes are digitised into the Avid which speeds things up but if the vision is on non linear media, the timecode on the audio track has to be batch processed. When that's done, the TC from the audio track will be in the "aux-TC" field of the vision file bin. The trick here is to understand that the AVID can only autosync identical fields of different bins. Import the BWAV audio from the 788T into a bin and duplicate with [Apple] [D]) the ‘SndTC’ column into the ‘AuxTC’ column. You can then perform a Group Sync of all the camera and audio files. A days rushes can then be synced in less than 5". Seriously - I have had to show editors how to do this. David M

I think the image quality of USB XTRAVIEW and the EyeTV are about the same. EyeTv will resolve 720×480 and BTV-Pro goes up to 720×576 in NTSC. The one problem I have with EyETV 2.0 software is that the floating image does not stay on it's assigned window when using "SPACES". Richard Lightstone is obviously having success with this but I floated the image over the lower left part of the Metacorder window and it remained in the same position when switching to other windows. BTV-Pro does stay on it's assigned window (at least on Leopard) which is great considering it's an OS 9 port. The other problem with Eye-Tv is that it aspect ratio is not correct when fed with 16x9 in PAL. I think the image quality of these devices compared to a low cost 7" monitor is great. The actual image quality on my system is not good as the screen does not work well with my Mac Mini and the overall colour rendition is poor. On a Mac laptop, my EyeTV looked great with a direct video input. I have tried CAT5 for video and audio and it didn't work well for me. For a couple of SD video feeds it would be great but with my EyeTV setup, it was only one video signal and so not worth it. I can't send my audio to video assist down Cat 5 with a video signal as it creates a common earth between the computer / video input and the audio output. I have independent power supplies for my audio systems and my computer to ensure the lowest possible noise floor. The only two common earth points are at the mains side of the float chargers and the shield of the firewire cable between the Mac Mini and the MH2882. David M

Hi Bernie, Item extrusion is from Germany. Here's the distributor page from their international web site: http://www.item.info/en/contact/distributors.html David M

Hi Richard, I used a direct video cable from the video assist setup. There was always interference when running on mains, even when using a video ground lift transformer in the video cable and sending transformer isolated, ground lifted audio to the video assist. A few months ago, the mini USB connector on the EyeTV box broke off an I couldn't get it going again. My current video screen has appalling colour which made the video worse than it probably was. As I'm going to fit a newer screen I may have another look at the EyeTV as a new screen with although I'm keen to have a couple of low latency SDI monitors. I wonder if it's possible to get two EyeTV interfaces running on the same computer? That might be quite elegant solution with the quad screen. David M

Hi Matthew, The 744T is operated by a CL1 remote mounted to the lower right of the screen. As it's a backup recorder, I rarely have to touch it. I just power up in the 744T in the morning and set the timecode. I did run an EyeTV 250 USB interface for a year or so. This enabled a video feed to float over Metacorder on the screen but the picture was never great. I tend to either sit directly behind the director and script supervisor and watch their monitor or watch the larger monitors provided by video assist. However, I'm going to buy a pair of monitors next year and will probably mount them vertically on a Magic or Noga arm attached to the right hand side of the cart. My cart is stripped down for cleaning and rewiring at the moment. I'm looking at shifting the 744T, Comtek transmitter, computer and drawer further into the cart as my knees bump into everything if I do sit on a directors chair rather than stand. The plan is to build a frame from 20mm Item section and have someone fabricate some lightweight sliding shelves and a drawer. I'll be putting in a new Mac Mini, a slightly larger screen and a 788T will be my backup machine. David M

I respectively disagree, My point is not about any drift over the duration of the take. It's simply, do you want the timecode feeding the camera to be perfectly in sync with the vision or is up to one frame after the vision good enough? Despite the fact that our audio is sample based, our video cameras (linear and non linear) and vision synching systems such as Avid's, are frame based. If the external timecode value arrives a microsecond after the start of a video frame, it must wait until the start of the next frame to be written to tape or camera file. With both external genlock and timecode feeding the camera from an Ambient Lockit or Denecke SB-T, the timecode is consistently aligned with the bi-level or tri-level sync pulse within the video frame. I'd suggest that as perfect timecode and video sync is possible and assuming we have control over the sync at the start of the acquisition process, we should make every effort to offer the highest standards available David Madigan

Hi Mike, Did you take the photo of your Vitara at Bethel's the same evening that you shared a bottle of red with Corrin on wrap and then went fanging over the sand dunes - and got stuck? Corrin was just wondering.... David M

Hi Arnold, Expanding on my earlier post that Chis has copied, I researched a large number of data sheets for NiMH AA batteries and found most to have variable and oversized width compared to Akaline AA's. Two NIMH AA batteries which do conform to the Alkaline "standard" are Sanyo Eneloop and the now hard to find 2200mah Energizers that Lectrosonics used to ship with the SM transmitters. I think Lectro now supply a larger capacity cell. The Eneloop's are rated at 2200mah and will run the Lockit's for up to 18 hours or so unless there is a significant termination load on the video/AES sync output. David M

Hi Chris, The usual cause of locking problems is worn compression collets / rings. I have some clients who replace the collets every 12 to 18 months and others who might replace them after 5 years, It's a matter of use and environment - sand and grit can damage the compression collets. Ambient supply a silicone grease that should be used on the assembly. Here's the link to the boom maintenance publication on Ambient's web site: http://download.ambient.de/Ambient%20products/quickpole/Boom%20maintnance.pdf David Madigan (Ambient Dealer)

Hi Philip, My cart wheels came from Skyway. http://www.skywaywheels.com/products_005.htm Their industrial wheel range are available with narrower hubs than bicycle wheels. The link below has a basic guide but there's many different bearing / hub combinations available. http://www.skywaywheels.com/products_007.htm David M

Hi Eric, What's the black Sonosax device on the top right above your mixer.? I suspect it's a controller for the recorder built into your mixer but I haven't ever seen one before. If it is a remote, is it standard with the built in recorder? David M (a Sonosax ST8 owner)

I have been running around 20 Ipower 9 volts and 70 odd NiMH AA since October 2006. I doubt I have any of the original 2006 batteries still in use. I ran a mix of Powerex and Sanyo AA's but although they are fine when freshly charge, I do find uneven runtime in Lectro SM's if they are left for more than a few days without charge. This doesn't seem to be a problem when using them in equipment such as timecode slates which use multiple cells. On my current shoot I purchased 50 Sanyo Eneloop low discharge AA NiMH batteries. While they are lower capacity, I find the performance consistent. One other feature of the Eneloop's is that they appear to be the correct dimensions for AA batteries. All the high capacity NiMh batteries that I have tested have been oversized compared to Alkaline AA's. Ambient Lockit's and Master Controller's need the alkaline sized AA's. Their timecode slates take the tubby high capacity cells. I have a flat weekly consumables fee that I charge on feature films, television production's and advertising. It's $60NZ (around $35US) per day and covers everything except gaffer tape and rental carpets. I spend it all and there's no consumable items that my department needs that we don't order in. The $60.00 was based on the cost of 9V and AA Alkaline batteries and recording media that I had previously been using. David M Auckland NZ