Richard Ragon

Hey guys.. I failed to post that this is a clip from "gardians of the galaxy"!! Which was made this year, and not in the 90s. -Richard

Well.. Here is the new slates that were required to have.. 6ft tall!!

P.T. Barnum would be proud!

I had the distinct pleasure of being on set last night, on the final production day of MadMen, with Production sound mixer Peter Bentley, whose last day was yesterday. What a nice guy, and good luck to his endeavors, after 25 years in the business.. -Richard

Congrats Tom!

Dam impressed.. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/15/larry-mack-nyc-firefighters_n_5490466.html But, overall, a great story too.

I've always been interested in where people are moving too.. Are more people coming to California?? I found this kind of interesting.. http://www.citylab.com/work/2014/06/high-school-dropouts-and-college-grads-are-moving-to-very-different-places/372065/ A vast number of uneducated people are coming to California.. huh.. -Richard

I feel a bit of a loss... Hope your coming back to visit us soon. Let us know what your working on. -Richard

Getting Paid in Subway Sandwiches? I guess thats next.. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/10/restaurant-fined-335000-for-paying-workers-in-pizza-and-drinks -Richard

Greetings Phillp, I tried with battery sled, and external 12v wall wart.

Yeah, I didn't realize that the IFBs from the cart would be so intrusive over my whole block 24. This puts a damper on gaining additional wireless when I'm using the IFBs. I will have to look into another block for extra wireless. Bummer..

Jason: Don't know about the cart IFBs, but I'm assuming 250mw. They don't seam to interfere with each other, ever I didn't realize that these were so powerful. Jose: I turned off everything in the cart, and the problem goes away.. I'm assuming (yes assuming) my problem is the only two transmitters that are on my cart. But, I will definitely verify this. Scott: Interesting.. Why do you think that adding a bigger antenna will make anything better, seams like better antennas would make it worse? Since my venue is narrow band (21-22), do I put it in before or after the venue? I'll keep this in mind. Senator: I did basic trouble shooting.. Perhaps I didn't explain it better, though. The interference is NOT location based, it's coming from my cart. I will cycle my IFBs tonight, and see if it's one or both of my IFBs, or perhaps another source on my cart.

So, I purchase a SRb (block 24) to add 2 additional wireless to my cart, just in case. Needed it yesterday, so I break it out to set it up. I do a scan.. this is what I get.. SOLID BLOCK.. I walk away from my cart, and it gets better.. my cart is what is causing the problem.. Other wireless are in the 21 and 22 blocks, but I have 2 IFBs in the 24 blocks.. So, I'm assuming that the issue is the IFB transmitters on the same block. Can I NOT use block 24 receivers anywhere near the same same blocks as my IFBs??? -Richard

Old topic, but it keeps going.. Has anyone looked at this yet? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBSAE5WsTBk Small size, 24MPG, low floor... It's on my list once I retire the astro.

Tried before.. Can't see anything wrong with it.. I've pulled it apart several times, and inspected it, and did continuity test on it, and I can never find any issue. weird huh. The cable works, when you put the slate in 'read' mode.. I see correct TC. Then you place the slate in 'run' mode.. doesn't work. I've been thinking it's the slate for a few years now. It's a very random, sporadic problem. Then this last week, it got worse.. the last shoot I was unable to jam the slate at all.. Swap a different lemo cable, then it suddenly works again.. The problem is very hard to troubleshoot. At this point, I'm going to just toss the TC cable, and go with another one that I have (the BNC one).

Block 21 is also particularly useless in most of Pasadena too.

Yeah, I'm probably going to have to do a custom one... In which I can do myself if need-be. Last week, I discovered that my Sound Devices Lemo to XLR (to 1/4) just crapped out, and I can't sync my slate, so I'm going to make use of my Lemo to BNC. I've got something that looks like Frankenstein on the end.. BNC to RCA, Then RCA to XLR, Then FXLR to MXLR, Then XLR to 1/4 Phono. If I could just get a single BNC to 1/4 that would be awesome... But, I'll take BNC to 1/4 cable.. Thanks all who replied.

BNC (Female) to Standard 1/4" Phono Plug? I've got a Sound Devices XL-LB2 Lemo to BNC I/O cable, and I want to convert to 1/4 plug for the smart slate.. Weird that I can't a single website with this simple adapter. Thanks

It took me a bit to get the Microsoft Box joke.

The Apple Box!.. ended up buying one a few years ago, when the Boom op that the production gave me was only 5ft tall. I use this on just about every single production I've been on.. here's to the Apple Box! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxI7knqFLiw&feature=share

This wondlan looks pretty good. It has HDMI in and back out. Plus it is has VU meters on the side of the screen. A nice feature for when your running audio to the camera. See if they are NAB? p.s. I have Ruige monitors. A bit costly, but they look nicer than the DPs monitors sometimes.

Just a note.. The wrong cable, as I've used, will short out the BDS, causing it to loose power. The reset kicks in with time, but this can cause havoc on a shoot. After placing in every power cable, but sure to run your test by leaving the system on for long periods, just to be sure, before any production work. Even something as simple as a new cable should be tested thoroughly, before any shoots.

Bruce your right about the bullies.. seams like every forum has them.. I think Reddit has done an outstanding job for filtering out bullies. They have a system of reddit gold, and points. People who 'donate' their time with patients, are rewarded. People who don't, are voted out of obscurity, as far as the forum goes.

Sadly, I never came back to this issue.. I ran out of time because I had several things going on at the time, and I was already looking into a hardware embedded solution anyway. The general consensus was the core audio buffer, but the thought that perhaps is was 'the hard drive' did cross my mind on one of the checks. Lets face it, it's a laptop drive, running at slower speeds of 5400rpm, and the very nature of hard drives is to keep changing. Unlike embedded hardware, things can change on a laptop, and without your knowledge sometimes. I did however, go the Dante route on my mixer/recorder, and when I had some more down time, I hooked the labtop back up, and routed the tracks to the laptop via the Dante interface using Boom Recorder. Worked like a champ for 8 hours of off and on testing. I also installed a mini mac into my cart (Dante/Boom Recorder), and it's now my back up recorder #3 on my cart. Personally I think the Dante interface is much better over the USB2 also.