JonG Posted July 12, 2012 Report Share Posted July 12, 2012 Anyone ever work with one of these? The pdf is a bit vague and doesnt mention much in the way of I/Os for audio. Ive got a tech day tomorrow (yes they just sent me over this info!) and I am supposed to take live audio (mics and such), record it, while putting it through my 788t to this machine, so that the person at the other end can hear, and take a feed back from the machine to record that person's dialogue simultaneously. The best I can make out is that it outputs are RCA, but the inputs seem to just be a picture of a desk intercom of some sort, so I am not sure if I am going to be able to plug in a line level RCA cable, or an XLR, or what have you. Any notes/advice will be helpful. Thanks guys! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Vesterskov Posted July 12, 2012 Report Share Posted July 12, 2012 Wow, looks like you're in for a bit of fun. They're using a proprietary connector i've never seen before: http://skccom.com/Public-Skin/HDX-9000-Series-Port-Diagram Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundslikejustin Posted July 12, 2012 Report Share Posted July 12, 2012 Phoenix connectors: http://www.google.co...ed=0CIUBEPMCMAI Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart Posted July 12, 2012 Report Share Posted July 12, 2012 I'm not entirely sure on what you need to achieve but my inclination would be to just put a lav on or near the speaker on the unit. Of course mic your people as well if you need to. This way you don't need to get involved with trying to get sound in and out of the thing. The unit itself will pick up everyone's voices to be fed down the call as that is what it is designed to do and your recording will sound natural and have everything the room hears. As a geeky memory I think Polycom use DPA mics as their contact mics! Apologies if I have barked up the wrong tree. Stuart Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Vesterskov Posted July 12, 2012 Report Share Posted July 12, 2012 Interesting Justin - do you have an idea of the pin-out of one of those? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonG Posted July 12, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 12, 2012 They *should* be providing the breakout cables for this headache in a box. The way I described how I am to do the job is how they want it to be done for whatever reason. Oddly enough, they do not want me to use lavs, but rather two microphones on stands at either side of the small stage where the presenter will be, and then a wireless handheld mic for audience participation. I have no idea what this is about, but it will be a challenge to say the least. I am going to do my best to convince them to let me use lavs, but I still need to feed this devil box my audio, as well as record it's incoming audio from beyond. I have a feeling that the conference intercom thingy will not be available, since it would appear that we are in some sort of theatre. In any case, I'll let you know what I come up with. Fortunately this is a tech day, and I am happy to report that they ok-ed full pay for the day, and even took my "some big number" that I threw out there as my rate without haggling! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Vesterskov Posted July 12, 2012 Report Share Posted July 12, 2012 Sounds exciting! The high rate hopefully indicates that you know what you're doing Let us know how it goes! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mastermixaudiomedia Posted July 12, 2012 Report Share Posted July 12, 2012 "this devil box" Heh heh, love it! I don't have the HDX codecs(even though they are a necessary upgrade path, another story entirely) at my day job, but we have 12 of the older VS4000's. Polycoms can be their own little universe... Seen lots of those Phoenix connectors in various videoconferencing setups on various equipment(Crestrons, automatic mic mixers, etc>). You'll have to terminate your I/O to the "devil box" if the client's not supplying it. They are pretty easy connectors to work with. I am happy to report that they ok-ed full pay for the day, and even took my "some big number" that I threw out there as my rate without haggling! The awesomeness of this cannot be understated! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonG Posted July 13, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 13, 2012 ok, so I got to location (an exec screening room seeing little use in one of Los Angeles' major studios...), and they did not set me up with any way to drive up to the location to unload gear, and the production company that hired me said it was just a tech day to make sure that I can interface with the illusive machine. So I just grabbed my sound bag and a small bag of cables with various xlr-rca type things going on, went in and checked it out. Met up with the in house tech who worked with me on making sure things were good. Turns out that the input is super sensitive, so I had to take my output gain down to -45dB. The people presenting were really fighting me on using lavs, but it was either that or setting up mics on stands and running miles of cable, and this was deemed "impossible because it wouldnt look nice", so lavs it was. The client however, whom did not send ANY information on the gig at all, expected a full on run through rehearsal, including the video conference portion. Naturally I told them this wouldnt really work since they insisted that I leave all my equipment in the parking garage, so I had to pause everything to go and get it. Basically the production company that hired me had not been informed by the client what was actually going on, so once again, another simple case of no information given, problems arise because of it. Aside from that though, we got the devil box working with my 788t pretty easily, and could have been in and out in less than 20 min, until they decided to do a run through. Thats when they realized that the presenters were misinformed on their subject matter and ill prepared to give a speech. So they have to practice all weekend and the beginning of next week until the actual date of the presentation/conference. I have a feeling that they will soon find out that they can't do run throughs without me, and I dont do half day rates Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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