Derek H

That’s pretty great! Doc have you tested control pack runtime with NiMH? Also, have you considered selling the control pack separately? I’m curious how the control pack compares to other IFB style receivers in terms of reception quality and range. If the control pack is as good or better than whatever original receiver for the particular transmitter you’re using then that’s valuable for purposes other than discrete cueing. For example you could use a strong Lectro transmitter but get better battery life than an R1a and as a bonus use whatever Bluetooth ear piece you want.

What kind of battery life is this system capable of? I don’t see any runtime specs anywhere on the website or in the user manual. Interested in it as just an IFB receiver potentially with wired headphones, what kind of battery life out of two NiMH? Two lithiums?

Would love to see a screen shot of the 16 channel view.

Here’s a fresh scan. Indoors at Cinespace studios. Pretty useable. But it’s very location dependent. This morning doing a scene outdoors about 3 miles from downtown but with an unobstructed view of the skyline and we were getting intermittent hits across multiple frequencies in the DG simultaneously. It’s pretty bad here. I’d bring options!

The main screen on any g3 g4 receiver feature a visualization of the squelch setting it’s the little dots that appear next to the RF meter on the bottom. RF indication above the dots (whether signal or interference) will break through the squelch and below the dots it will be squelched. They’re actually really well thought out devices. I just wish they had a little better range and stronger headphone output.

Yup they’rea game changer

Digital calipers. Will let you measure outer diameter and inner diameter.

Kudos to the OP here for doing a real world comparison of some of this new gear. (Yes I know the Zax stuff is not new) We need more field testing publicized. I definitely think Lectrosonics 400 series should always be in any comparison like this since it’s ubiquitous and a great RF performer. Glenn are you guys going to update the RX12 with Dante?

I highly recommend just calling PSC or email if you prefer. The owner of the company, Ron Meyer, is incredibly helpful and will tell you everything you want to know about it.

PS, OSA I think the PSC triple play distro is designed to do what you’re trying to do but check with them on specifics.

Hey Rich, I did a similar thing by modifying a remote audio hot strip so that the two DC inputs are isolated by Schottky diodes. In my case I set the voltage of the mains PSU to about 16 volts and an NP1 goes into the other input. I assumed that once the voltage of the np 1 dropped below 15V this system would then only draw from the 16V PSU but in fact it still draws from both but not equally. It draws mostly from the PSU but not entirely. I never figured out at what point it stops drawing from the NP1 entirely. The setup works well regardless, providing a seamless battery backup. Do you notice a similar behavior with your setup?

Olle, you’re correct I see what Wyatt was talking about in the 2nd article from the protools expert site. My comment was in reference to just the original article being discussed here which glosses over production a bit if you ask me. Anyway, I suspect that if you were to compare two scenes one that had proper boom coverage with decent performance levels and one that had compromised Boom coverage and other issues there would be zero intelligibility issues with the first scene regardless of what unfortunate processing was done at the hands of the streaming service and despite the viewers crappy sound system. The second scene with the issues on set would be the problematic one.

Wyatt, this was the only mention of boom mics I could find in the article. Did I miss something?

This is probably the 3rd article I’ve read on this subject in the last 5 years and just about every one has been post centered. Maybe there’s some self bias where if you work in post you’re going to think it’s a post problem. No disrespect to the subjects in the article but I think the majority of the issue starts on set. The actors whisper and the directors think you’re joking if you suggest they speak up. Debilitating useage of multiple cameras on set. Poorly managed LED lighting setups that make boom coverage almost impossible. Sets that sound like crap. The false confidence of ‘everyone’s wired’. If you ask me.. the problem gets a big head start in production.

I’d say Gotham or location sound. The broadcast shop? In Chicago? Didn’t know that still existed.

For those who roll their own video BNC cables what parts do you like to use? I’m currently using Belden 1505F cable with Canare connectors. Pretty happy with this combo overall. But every once and awhile the BNC locking ring breaks off. Anyone try out Neutrik’s reartwist BNCs?

I agree that it’s annoying, maybe even close to being a bug. I understand why this problem exists but if I were Lectro I would have considered using the same pilot tone signal or whatever so that block 470 and 19 could tune each other’s overlapping frequencies without any extra steps for the user.

I say get the same system as your colleagues and crew you regularly work with have. For me that’s Ambient and they are durable and mostly trouble free. Good advice not to let it snap back to avoid lock ups.

I’m not sure you’ll get better answers here than you already did on Facebook but worth a try. My money is still on the HDMI connection having some unintended consequence.

I wonder if the batteries weren’t well balanced charge-wise if you’d have one starting to charge the other?

My gut feeling is that Jim Feely has the right idea. Verizon or T-Mobile can't send you a fine it has to come from the FCC and the FCC won't investigate anything unless there's a complaint from a license-holder. I think if we're strictly talking about operating in the block24/25 guard band or duplex gap then there is very little chance of getting a complaint directed at you. If you're out in the middle of block 27 or 28 or going rogue in 24/25 I'd be slightly more concerned.

Thanks Jon, do you know what band they were operating in?

Sure

I had RF issues (buzzing around certain set lighting rigs) on my brand new (2019) 50s and the problem resolved after I re-wired the female ends of the XLR shorty cables. All I did was solder pin 1 to the ground tab. I’d start there.

Did they receive a fine? Warning? Was this in the U.S.?