Fred Salles

I understand that is the reason why we have active antennas with onboard gain booster.

I am not sure I understood you correctly. I am not aware yet about what the french tax system could do in my situation, except hopefully not demanding that I pay them VAT on a payement I did not receive. My company managing the gear is only subjected to VAT, no other taxes as it does not reach the minimum “income” to get taxable. Do you mean confronting the producer in person? you mean asking him to pay from his own pocket? I surely pressure him every month to get update but did not tackled it that way. Not sure about that.

Thanks, Production bankruptcy it is actually more complex than deadbeat producers. A production company not paying an invoice can be sued and forced to pay by law. Whereas in case of bankruptcy there is no more company to sue, and it is the french officials that manages whatever money is left in the account of the company. In case of embezzlement the CEO can be sent to jail but that does not mean the suppliers will see their money, at least not before decades! Besides, in my case as in many, they did not do anything dishonest, circonstances and « deadbeat » debtors pushed them out, to make it simple... Covid19 has and continues to do serious damage to independent film producers. Do you require the same for your own gear? (Invoice to be paid at or before pick up) For production companies that they know rental companies here usually ask for end of the month payment or payment on invoice issued after the shoot (possibly charging in case gear got missing or broken). So it is difficult for us technicians to ask producers to pay upfront or on pick up. But I have not tried yet and will probably always do from now on.

Yes, an equivalent to a signed purchase order, but that does not really change a thing in a context of bankruptcy. The french system forces priorities legally: whenever there’s money available first the salaries are paid, then all the taxes and social system contributions (and there is a long list). The suppliers come last.

Hello everyone. I invested quite a lot in new gear last year (SD888, Wisycom wireless, more Schoeps mikes, etc...), but, My first big invoice with this new gear, a full kit for a feature shot in October 2022 still has not been paid by the coproducer that employed me. This french production company, for which I did quite a bunch of gigs in the past so i trusted them, got bankrupt just as we came back from the shoot. They paid all salaries but, as often in that situation in France, the suppliers come last of the Lasts... Not sure if that invoice will ever be paid. It is the first time that ever happened to me and it had to occur when I am the one renting out the full gear. I have rented out my gear for documentaries for decades but feature films full gear was outsourced from rental companies till now. Appart for the financial and morale blows, I am wondering what I should have done to prevent this situation or make it less painful. Shall I ask for advanced paiement before the shoot from now on? Can you share about how you manage your finances regarding gear? Do you make sure that you save a « float » amount when you invest in case of unexpected drawback? Thanks

Appart from the brand related app (wingman & SD-remote for Sound Devices gear ; Wisycom, Lectrosonics and most pro wireless brands have now their own app to control some features of the transmitters and/or receivers ; Tentacle synch BT for their Time code boxes, etc...) I am also using an app to scan UHF band frequencies and coordinate the freq called TX Advance. It unfortunately runs only in Android machines, but I bought a second hand tablet and i am very happy with it, especially for scanning on locations during reccies without having to bring the actual RX/TX gear.

A cheap foam mattress will protect you and the mikes from the rain and absorb the shock of the drops falling on it, even in heavy rain, at least for a while until it is saturated. When saturated you can find protection and squeeze the water out of the mattress easily. it must not have a hight density and no cover sheet/fabric/plastic. A single size mattress is transportable for a short hike in the forest. With an assistant that would help.

linked worked fro me also. They say it is the Rycote microphone database they have put online. It seems the "production status" data is not up to date, far from it (MK6 schoeps still "in production" 😅) so they have just used the old data without doing much work on it. the search is also not very useful.

I have been a Windows user since forever, but I must admit that I agree with Olle: in term of noise the MacBooks pro are impressively quiet. Power consumption is also impressive especially since the M1 chip. I have not purchased one recent yet though so I cannot give a reference for certain but looking at spec it seems no PC beats can beat them.

Hey everyone, again I am back in Nairobi till April 2023. This time I have my gear for feature film as well (SD888+ Wisycom MTP60&mcr54, Schoeps mikes, etc...) Then back to France after that.

The user manual of MCR54 says power: 5-18 Vdc (2,5 watt max). So as JonG said, it will be perfectly fine with you vlock batteries, assuming your cabling is correct (Hirose pin 1 ground/V-, pin 4 V+). I have not tried to power with only 5v but would be curious to know if anyone has successfully powered their MCR54 with a 5v dc supply...

I have been trying to buy a spare windjammer fur for my aging but still efficient stereo setup. Initially the person with a rycote email was positive it could be purchased from them, but then i have been taken from a vitec to a vivendum email address person and back to no avail. Lately no one responded anymore... The acquisition story is very saddening. It is also very difficult to understand the reasons behind it. Rycote company was not in difficulty, or was it?

Hello, I finally bought my MCR54 and 4x MTP60 kit at AEITech and all went well. I am happy to have been able to get quick exchanges with the vendors and fast shipping. After looking around all summer it seems the prices all over Europe are quite the same. No significant difference weither directly in Italy nor anywhere else. The only element where there was is the BPA54 socket. For some reason it has different prices across countries. No big deal but a 100€ is noticeable.

I am with JonG point 2 on this one. Before thinking about buying I would advise to work as a trainee and second assistant (or utility, you have all these names in the US I do not know about!) as much as possible, with different teams and setups. Then on short films as well. Since your topic is about gear, although I consider gear to be only 20% of the job, my point here is to get to experience different gear in real life situations, and how experienced sound teams use them. So you can then choose according to experiences and your own taste. Basically never buy a mike just because someone else told you it is the best one. We all have our « best& worst mikes, headphones, preamp, recorder, etc... » and guess what, each of us has a different list. Better for you to make your own with your ears and experiences on the field.

+1 for the Neutrik, very easy and convenient to remove compare to any other brand and that is a major plus. They are also easy to mount on the cable.

I do not follow you. 1.2v*2.55A=3.06Wh for the Eneloop, the EBL are rated 3.3Wh, so on paper the EBL should run longer (slightly) with 240mWh extra capacity.

Thank you again Johnny for buying and doing a full run of conclusive tests !! My friend said he run his wisycom MTP41 for longer time with one of these ELL than with the eneloop pro, BUT he has not done real test like yours, so it just a feeling really. And since he changes them at lunch time before they could shut down, there is no point in comparing the run time for him. But the weight difference is what makes him choose the lithium over the nimh ones. He actually bought them first for a shoot in Siberia at minus 30° Celsius average temperature, as they are suppose to handle cold better than nimh. Then he sticks to some of it for the weight advantage. Also the small USB charger over the bigger nimh dedicated charger is a plus if you can carry only one bag.

Thank you so much Johnny for the tests! And Larry for the explanations and very plausible theory. I also guess that the self protection of the power management board of the battery, as with any Lithium rechargeable batteries, would shut down earlier to prevent under voltage state of the cell(s). Johnny did you get to see what is the battery telemetry status of the tx before shutting down?

Mmm there would be no space for fitting the resistors inside the plug. Maybe unless you use cms but i am not even sure. You might need to have a small inline “package” along the cable for the resistors. It can be very small as -if I understood correctly- your signal is unbalanced so you just need 2 resistors. I use Vishay CMF55 metal film resistors for that purpose. Very silent.

Hey Johnny, looking forward for your feedback on the test. You are right and furthermore it should run for a slightly longer time than the nimh , as on paper 1,2v 2450 mAh NIMH would read 2940 mWh.

Look for a cosy Airb&b that has a big GSM 4G (+5G) antennas next door, the ones you don’t wanna take your kids to live nearby 😅 that would be a good RF testing location for a start I suppose.

A friend just gave me a praise on these AA lithium rechargeable, not IpowerUS but similar except they do not need specific charger: https://www.amazon.fr/EBL-Rechargeables-3300mWh-Tension-Constante/dp/B08SGQZ56V/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=pile+aa+lithium+rechargeable&qid=1667749503&qu=eyJxc2MiOiI1LjQ2IiwicXNhIjoiNS4xMSIsInFzcCI6IjQuNjUifQ%3D%3D&refinements=p_89%3AEBL&sr=8-2 They do cut very fast without warning as the voltage remains constant (as discussed previously) but he says he just change them at lunch time and they last much more than half a day in a Wisy MTP40s. For him not having to carry big charger is a massive plus. (look at the page they charge via micro usb)...

Oh It seems it cannot be used with the PHA60 for wireless boom! Major fallback. The MPT60+PHA60 set sounds very good and works very well but kind of heavy on the boom so we were hoping for the lighter version🙁

Hello, there should not be the B letter in the ref of the Lemo connector: it should be FGG.00.305... the FG can change depending on the type but the important part are the last G. then 00 then 305. Apart from that it looks like the correct size except I am not sure if the right angle would work as the plus is very close to the lens. I always used straight plug so cannot be sure. Beware that the new Alexa Mini LF has another different audio in plug (yes, I know, a real pain....)

Thanks, I really like the idea that the short SMA to BNC cable is also used for bag work for the bowtie. But with the female/female BNC socket you have a total of 4 connections par cable along the way. That is a lot if you need to troubleshoot RF issues. Although the Neutrik socket is very unlikely to have issue appart from dirt and oxidation. I will probably try that setup, thanks. Afterthought remark: Neutrik does not do any 50ohm socket. Do you use the 75ohm ones?