Simon Koelmeyer

Agreed - they do themselves NO favours - indeed possibly harm their rep with a site like this - however all I can tell you is their products and customer support is fantastic. I've owned Portabrace and Petrol in the past - and these KTS products are certainly, IMO, on par in terms of build, but many of them are built specifically to a certain mixer - not just, for example, a generic Petrol 602 etc....

look at http://www.ktsystems.co.uk brilliant UK designer - well balanced, helpful, can custom change pretty much anything, well balanced, hard wearing, designed from customer feedback not by officebots... they do make a brilliant 664/cl6 bag though it's not listed on the site - sure they'll send details if you approach them

Sad to hear of this death.....a great loss to the sound community http://www.bbc.co.uk...t-arts-20874953

As someone who grew up in Belfast in the 70s and 80s and was accustomed to daily bombing, shooting massacres, maiming of women/children/innocents and endless soul searching about the purpose of guns (and the obvious downward spiral of getting hold of a gun to protect oneself against guns) - and now as a parent living in the UK......... I watch the news in USA with horror. Having travelled to more than 60 countries and spent time getting to know people around our world, my opinion is that my American friends (and all others I have met over the last 40+yrs) appear no more inherently homicidal than anyone else on the planet. We all have moments of 'red mist rage' whatever our cultural background. However, I believe that the ease of availability of guns in any country (and therefore the ability to punctuate or indeed 'close' a grievance with one) leads to massive problems. Which keep on repeating themselves. I appears from studying the internet/Twittosphere etc…that the more you argue with any country's gun lobby, the more entrenched thier position becomes. Their bottom line defence (in the absence of futher logical debate) appears to inevitably be "we have inalienable right to bear arms. It is enshrined in our constitution." So…..if you wish to debate it further….get a new angle? The Guardian (UK newspaper) took the opportunity to examine some FBI stats a few years ago1. It appears that roughly equal numbers ofAmericans have been killed by fellow Americans in ONE year of domestic gun related homicides (8775 in 2010) as were killed in BOTH Iraq wars AND Afghanistan2 AND 9/113 put together. Who is terrorising who? Good luck in your journey to find a balance that keeps all of your citizens safe - gun owners AND (their) children Have a Happy Christmas. I wish you all good luck and good health and a SAFE 2013. 1 - http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/jan/10/gun-crime-us-state#data 2 - http://www.defense.gov/news/casualty.pdf 3 - http://www.c-span.org/pdf/911finalreportexecsum.pdf

Thank you all for your input. I will have a chew on your responses and let you know how I decided to proceed!!

yep. Big fan. V sad indeed.

I've personally used them for 6yrs. They work fine. Only problem is the LED power indicator strip has failed on 2 of 6 of them - so I don't know charge state - just need to keep an eye on the watch......! A single 73Wh will run my SQN and 4 radios for an 8hr day if I switch off often. For me, they were approx 50% cheaper than Hawk Woods/IDX etc... However my 788T/Deva EATS them. If you're running one of those units - then a more expensive brand may be a better long term investment. I'd guess the 73Wh lasts 2hrs with 8 channels up on 788T ? suggest you buy one SWIT and hire a Hawk Woods /IDX and do a comparison test on your day off.

Hello All, I will be recording sound on the Dakar Rally in January 2013. Re-located from Africa due to wars and now staged in South America, it is essentially an extreme endurance event for rally cars. 6000 miles in 2 weeks over the Atacama Desert, across the Andes twice at altitude of up to 5000m and travelling at around 90-100mph all day across 'moonscape' terrain. http://www.dakar.com...3/us/route.html I have been tasked by the producer to record drivers intercom at all times (as well as the stuff outside the car filmed with 3 x Canon C300 - should be relatively easy using the normal boom, 4 radios etc into a 788T) My uncertainty lies with the in car recording and my questions to the group are two: 1) Does anyone have experience of recording in extreme vibration/rally cars for very prolonged periods? What kit did you use? pitfalls or winning solutions/tricks etc…. 2) does anyone have experience with Peltor intercoms? failure rates and known workarounds? The driver and co-driver will be in helmets in very small cars. They communicate with each other via mics hardwired into each helmet. They use this system. http://www.demon-twe...CFUbKtAodnjoAHA I can tap into that as it offers an Aux Audio Out on phono. Drivers will be filmed on Minicams - recorded onto a Panasonic HD recorder of some sort (no model numb yet). This has an Audio In via 3.5mm socket. I will connect the Peltor Aux out to the Panasonic recorder and let it roll. Kit will be hard mounted to roll cages inside car. We start recording at the start line and essentially wave them off. Rushes collected at the end of each day at base camp. Totally unmonitored while in record. As part of my due diligence in prep, I'm thinking about failure and workaround. Impedence allowing, I MIGHT parallel the Peltor out and record the audio onto another SD recorder e.g. a Zoom, an M1 etc…..something I can buy 2 or 3 of and if they break I can toss them. Has anyone stuck one of these cheap SD card recorders in a rally car before? How do they function in extreme vibration? Or do you have a better idea? Any negative experiences with this Peltor system? Any information or opinons gratefully received Thanks Simon

For those in the UK - Henry at RFS in London will do this work for you if you're unable to do it yourself. See link http://www.richmondfilmservices.co.uk/news/2012-11-23/82/

Thank You Paul Isaacs. I had my cables modified today and will report if the problems are ameliorated in the coming weeks

yep - over here a jack or a plug or a jackplug......goes into a socket I guess the terms change around the world......here in the UK we are also in a generation of transition from Imperial to metric and so things get more confusing .......I think in terms of XLR, we normally refer to male or female ends (not plugs or sockets), however, in terms of a guitar lead, we always use 1/4" (never metric measurements), but for minijack/ipod etc we always use 3.5mm (never imperial measurements) we buy petrol in litres, but calculate efficiency in MPG, we buy food in KGs and eat ¼ pounders, beer in pints and vodka in Litres...….etc anyway - getting of topic....my answer to the topic "Is the Canon 5D is capable of recording a good 'scratch track' for your project ?"- If that's what the customer wants then give it to them, but I'd tell them that personally I WOULD NOT use it for a final mix as Canon's internal mic AGC cannot be disabled and is hissy and it pumps audibly on critical listening. If production INSIST on doing this, then there is a work around I use on my own 5D. I have installed Magic Lantern firmware (a freeshare project not approved offically by Canon) onto my CF cards. This is NOT permanently uploaded to the camera but remains on the card. You can do the research yourself, but the massive benefits are 1) It allows the AGC to be switched off 2) It gives you audio metering on the video screen 3) It allows you to plug your 3.5mm headphone jack (insert whichever international translation required ) straight into the A/V out to monitor the audio. Obviously, this is not practical if you turn up on a shoot on the day and ask production to turn over their CF cards for you to pre-format. Not your job! - but, if you are in paid prep for a job that insists on a workflow that gives a Production mix on 5D - then I can recommend this as viable solution. MAKE SURE production are aware of the fact that Magic Lantern ALSO gives them visual benefits (zebra peaking etc….), but WILL change the menu systems seen by the operator.

.....in america.

I own a Canon 5D MKii and I send it sound from my 788T via a G2 Tx and Rx set. On the Canon, you go to Menu - Tools - Live View&Movie Settings - Sound Recording - Set to 'Manual' With this setting activated AND a 3.5mm (is that what you Americans call 1/8" ?) stereo jack in the Mic Input - it disables the internal mic. BTW - The mic input of the 5D is extremely sensitive. With zero level tone hitting the Rx, I have the camera mic input '2 clicks' above off to get the tone hitting the right levels

Hahahaha......so true

You're too kind Vasileios. God bless you! I hope the underground success continues for the film and it makes it into cineplexes across Europe. If anyone can break the major studio distribution domination model, it's Marcus Marcou!