jwill

JD, I cannot comment on runtimes with a 788 and cl-8 and any interferance issues. I can however comment on the varizoom batteries. I have used them for over 1 year and have no issues other than they power my SD 552 with 3 channels powered phantom &2 ucr 401s for up to 3 days. They have been golden, I have had IDX in my bag and they were great....except for the cost, I have heard the axiom "you get what you pay for" and I do not believe this applies to the Varizoom Li Ion batteries... IMHO. JHW

Race, I have the porta brace interior for my 1620, what is your interior? I also have the 1650 and will roll in that for corp jobs, a mini c stand, matthews knuckles, boom pole holders, sand bags, 2 boom poles andd the cables/turnarounds, splitters...its and easy 80lbs. For ENG/sports the 1620 and run bag seem to work fine. I like to leave the mixer fully dressed with pig tails, wireless boom and hirose all plugged in, so all I have to do is pull out mixer mount shockmount and 416 and build and tune wireless build the handmike! JHW

I presently roll my 552 fully built (xlrs hirose and xlr jumpers) in a Pelican 1620, I carry a full ENG set up...3 extra xlrs 2 ecm 77s and the 416 in a rycote shock mount and softie detached a versaflex harness and 1'4'" collapsed boompole goes to 6' 9". My question is how do fellow JW Soundie roll to the job? I use the case as a platform when doimg live shots, is there anything a little smaller from Pelican tht any of you utilize? i also utilize a portabrace run bag on black the 2nd largest ! JHW

Pro Sound In NYC hands down! They work with you to make sure you have the tools you need and it is all about customer service! JHW

Heartless c*cks*ckers, there is an energy.... known as kharma... and it does go round and round...believe me , I am 53 years of age and in the biz for 30 of them...seen it and it is awesome!!! JHW

I worked a corporate gig the other dayand had to use "their" gear. The equipment was a Sound devices 442 and sony uvp wireless and an akg shotgun on a boom. The gear stays "on campus" and is always built and in a pelican case. Everything worked fine, easy to tune (had to retune 3X), the only unwitting thing was the amount of AA batteries they carried! The Sony wireless recievers only operate on AAs' !!!! Has anyone come up with a battery eliminator for their recievers? They had plenty of range and they sounded pretty clean,( not sony mics), voice technologies I believe. My 8 hr day left me favorably impressed by the Sony wireless with the exception of the battery sled and having to change them so frequently! A bds solution would be a great improvement!! Someone in JWSound world has a solution!!! JHW

I too run into this dilemma, the hidden lav almost always (imho) sounds mufled. Therefore I try to either place lav (B-6) just out of frame or tuck it into a tie knot or as close to the outside of garment as possible. I agree 90% of the time the boom sounds better, I too have had instances where I will pan the boom straight up if I hear a scrtchy, muffled lav. Just did a press junket and producer said" no lavs boom only, we have 20 interviews and have to keep this moving" So I used my MKH 50 on Interviewee and 416 on interviewer! Worked like a charm. JHW

Great advice from all, I started with an FP-33 a borrowed canare umbillical , 2 borrowed Lectro 195s' and an old Senn 416 and borrowed boompole! As the jobs came and I saw the opportunity I slowly upgraded my gear. I started by buyimg my own "pre owned" 416 and internal coil boompole, then I upgraded with used Lectro 401s , one and an smv then two months later a second used 401 and new smv, as I was getting paid I slowly upgraded. A remote audio umbillical, used, 2 months later a set of used ecm-77s, a year later a Sound Devices 552 used from this site, six months later a 10 pin hirose used from this site, recently a used Senn MKH 50 from Trew audio, and always advice from here and your local dealer! In NYC I trust Pro Sound Services, and let your clients know about the investments you are making and adjist your rates accordingly! I roll old school and believe NO DEBT IS GOOD DEBT!! Best of luck JHW

As this discussion goes on, is there any truth that supplying phantom power to a channel that has a mic that doesn't need phantom power, will damage the mic over time? My example: Sd 552, ch 1 & 2 set to line for my lectrosonic 401s',sh 3 4 5 set to phantom, 5 has the 416 and sometimes I use the Mkh 50 in a choral setup or large group. Often when on sports venues we do sitdown interviews so i leave ch 3 &4 on phantom so I can slap on two ecm 77s and not worry about batteries, then when not using lavs I still use ch 3 and an re 50 for standups, the re 50 does not need phantom yet rather than throw switches I leave it on phantom and have not had any issues! JHW

Hey Matt, clever idea and worthwhile if you are powering lots of wireless etc! It looks as tho you do some nice work, you should get together with a couple of JW Soundies and start a company making specialty equipment!! Eric are you seeing this? Nest of luck, if I were you I would build several in your spare time and sell them! Best of luck JHW

I was on a shoot where the "Talent" wanted to do a standup in the endzone and wanted the camera out at the 40 yd line, her idea was to start tight as the camera could get and zoom out to show the distance and her point was this team had not had a passing td from that distance all season. Ok i puy my 2700mah rechargeables in my lectro hm and mate it to my re-50..."no I want a lav"...so out comes my smv windscreen put it on her and off she goes....as soon as she gets into the endzone I start getting dropouts, b4 we even attempt a take I realize the smv is on 50mw, a quick reset to 100mw did the trick. My question is this, I understand that for most applications the 50mw setting is more than ample, at what distance does it become untenable. I looked in lectros website, i searched here on JW Sound and cannot find an answer. I know there are all sorts of variables, this scenario was a direct line of site I had let all of my 25 ft snake out and went closer to the talent,(no metal poles nearby) 40 yds or roughly 120 ft and 50mw was breaking up! I have left my one smv set to the 100mw setting anticipating another such standup. What do JW Soundies set their smvs to? Has anyone ever used the 250mw setting, what kind of range does that give? Thanks for your input/thoughts and advice JHW

Thank you for your input, my stuff works and that is that, don't strangle anyone and I won't tell rf police about the block 27s, and I will put a bottle of shut the f*ck up in my bag. There are some sound guys that preach the gospel according to them, I will have to ignore them. PS I do NFL games for ESPN and if you light up your wireless without having called the frequency coordinator beforehand, they come and find you in quick order and will block you! The teams all use wireless for helmets and booth to field. I am good with block 19 and am so glad the 401s' scan easily for a channel that I get assigned! JHW

I met a fellow sound man on a job last week and he went off on me about my using Lectro 401s' as recievers in my bag! I went from Sony to Lectro about a year ago and it was what I could afford at the time. I have had zero issues with this setup.... an hm 2 smvs' and 2 401s' block 19. The only possible shortcoming is the permanenet antannae ! This gent weny on about increased range with 411s' and 401s' are only for camera hops? I see lectro says that same thing in their literature. Am I wrong using 401s' in my bag? Thanks for your thoughts/advice on this matter, JHW

I have had aseveral requests lately for a second headset. Someimes I am able to give the producer a set of cans they can plug into the monitor (sdi) , but I realize I should invest in an IFB setup. My question is which one? I have used Lectro r1's and they seem really well built. I see they now have frequency agile IFBT4 and R1A. Does anyone have experience with this setup and what else in addition to tx and rceiver would you recomend. Earpiece/power ac&bds cable? Thx in advance for your input. JHW

Thanks for the offer Eric, I will keep you in mind, and thanks for info on wiring, I just swapped out breakaways and will use the XLR ended Remote Audio snake....the camera end is avout 6 inches longer and provides... IMHO ...better strain relief than the PSC snake...probably gonna get a Remote Audio hirose for 442 to use as every day snake when not doing tc recordings. Thanks again for qick replies John

I have a question with regards to PSC and Remote Audio snakes. I have a 552 and bought a 10 pin hirose from PSC, the camera end has a short, can I sub the Remote Audio camera end (which is also longer/easier to tie off) until I get the PSC Hirose repaired? Or is it just easier to swap out the 10 pin and use the XLR snake? JHW

Has anyone used this device from lectro? If so what are your impressions /advice & thoughts!

Thanks for the replies, Jack we went thru running camera/monitors on batteries, ground lifts, I was sending line level using Sony ECM 77 lavs with aa batteries, had my audio seperate from ac....dimmers were 1 foot away from main A camera. The confusion on my end was the buzz was on the A camera return (not clean to cam) when I went to reseat B side snake the buzz on the A side cam went away!! Ended up sittimg behind b cam with my 552 and sent B cam audio direct to cam and monitored cam B cam direct w/ear bud and A cam thru snake. Added 40 minutes of angst. Thank you for your collective wisdom on this matter, it is much appreciated, if every day went smoothly it would be a bore!! Thanks JHW

I set the gear up for the next time I get a call to be on location in 1 hour, then enjoy my son and wife and have as much family time as possible....before the next crazy 3 or 4 day gig comes! JHW

Hello, I just came off a job where we had 2 guests and 1 HOST AND 2 CAMERAS....lots of lights/dimmers etc. I ran 2 mics to the people being interviwed and a single mic to host, I used the 10 pin hirose snake to feed the a cam on the guests and a regular xlr snake to feed the reverse (talent cam) camera. Once we went to fax out I notice a buzz coming from the A side return? The cam op and I went thru every circuit and found no relief, The relief came when I tried reseating all cnx to the 552. When releasing the b snake the buzz stopped!! I have fed 2 cameras several times and have had no issues. I tried a second snake and same issue...when plugging b side XLRS buzz on a side comes back!!! I tried a single XLR (all cables known to be good) and buzz on a side!! I ended up sending host audio to b camera directly and running a pair of headsets and riding the level from cam pots while mixing the two iinterview folks L/R on main cam! Thats rite, the shoot had a 2nd broadcast cam and no op!!!! This is NY markt and network morning show!!! Oh well enough about that and back to my issue of buzz on return!!! Any ideas/thoughts/advice? I thank you in advance for your thoughts on this issue. JHW

My "new" pre owned 552 and Lectro 401s' w/ SMV transm itters and Petrol 601 bag

Yes ...you can search, clearly you would like an insatant answer....MKH 50 would be my choice..bullet proof in every environment I have subjected it to...15 ft seas in the Atlantic....driving winter blizzards...extreme humidity...it is good to go. Make sure you get a wind screen...perhaps a rycote baby ball gag... 25mm (pn#011003) $135.00.....BBG wind jammer (pn# 021801) $68.00...BBG Hi Wind Cover (pn#022514) $58.00 special order. I have this exact setup and it works perfecltly!! JHW

I left too early and got no SWAG from Pro Sound!!! Bummer

Just put my new petrol 601 bag on my pre owned SD 552, which was purchased from this site! I must say the petrol has really got their design down, way better IMHO trta brace with an rm bag, the petrol even does a nicer job of holding my 2 lectro 401s'. First day out with the new rig and I love it! JHW

I recently picked up a used 552 and have neen using it with my remote audio umbillical. If I need to do the 2 camera feed I see I can use the mini xlr outs to my 2nd remote audio umbillical... but no return. The hirose hose is the way to go, which one do you employ? I see remote audio has a 10 pin hirose with the TC bnc to t3 connector, anyone use this hose or is there another hirose I should consider. Thx JHW