Jump to content

Update on the upcoming Tentacle Sync-E


Mark Farag

Recommended Posts

 

I have 2nd generation Tentacles - and they basically work like the 1st generation, but there are some features on top.
 

You can put one Tentacle in green mode and connect to another Tentacle (red mode) via 3,5 jack connector - so the formerly red flashing device starts to flash green, too. 
 
So after the flashing light has changed color to green, the Tentacle has “learned” TC and frame rate from the tentacle with wich it was connected. 
 
You can also jam the Tentacle boxes from the TC source in the recorder. The frame rate will be jammed, too. 
 
The 2nd generation Tentacles connect to a smartphone, too. They connect through Bluetooth. You can set parameters for the Tentacle boxes on the screen of your phone, if you wish you can set the box to phone time like you could with the first generation - just without a cable.
 
You can supervise the Tentacle boxes with your phone/smart device. Flawless operation and operator errors will be displayed on a screen within the app. When I played (messed) around today I found a warning for FPS (not matching) and cable (connection missing)
 
From my experience with the 1st generation Tentacles, they do not need supervision. The  only thing I got additionally was sleeves that clamped the mini jacks with the boxes. The new Tentacle boxes come with clamps.
 
The new boxes have USB A / USB C charging cables.
 
 
Link to comment
Share on other sites

No, I didn't check,  but one of the videos Matt Price uploaded on youtube deals with that https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdNLglzZzSc

 

The new Bluetooth technology goes beyond the 1:1 connection, so different Tentacles are displayed side by side on the screen in the app. Each of them has a Bluetooth connection to the phone / smart device at the same time. I am looking forward to more purposes of this new Bluetooth type!

 

Jule

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 28.11.2017 at 11:39 AM, Jule Buerjes said:

The new Bluetooth technology goes beyond the 1:1 connection, so different Tentacles are displayed side by side on the screen in the app. Each of them has a Bluetooth connection to the phone / smart device at the same time. I am looking forward to more purposes of this new Bluetooth type!

 

Jule

 

 

 

... and if one of the Tentacles is out of sync with the others, there‘ll be a warning sign. Just like the above warnings for fps and cable issues. 

 

I also did a quick test to switch between the Wingman app and the Tentacle app and all three devices in thos case (Tentacle, 633 and iphone) stayed paired and reconnected within a second after switching apps. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Constantin said:

 

... and if one of the Tentacles is out of sync with the others, there‘ll be a warning sign. Just like the above warnings for fps and cable issues. 

 

I also did a quick test to switch between the Wingman app and the Tentacle app and all three devices in thos case (Tentacle, 633 and iphone) stayed paired and reconnected within a second after switching apps. 

V good, tar. I have wondered how many different device apps ios could handle (is there a limit?). 

Androids?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, daniel said:

V good, tar. I have wondered how many different device apps ios could handle (is there a limit?). 

Androids?

 

That’s a good question. For me personally, I know of only one more Bluetooth app I ever use. That is ForScore (or 4score, not sure). I use the Bluetooth pedal to turn pages (sometimes). I can try that sometime, but I think it’s more likely to cause a conflict between 4score and Wingman rather than Tentacle. 

Android I don’t know

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Constantin said:

 

That’s a good question. For me personally, I know of only one more Bluetooth app I ever use. That is ForScore (or 4score, not sure). I use the Bluetooth pedal to turn pages (sometimes). I can try that sometime, but I think it’s more likely to cause a conflict between 4score and Wingman rather than Tentacle. 

Android I don’t know

The A10 system has an app. And the trend will continue. TRXs, Recorders, TC, script, sound report apps, video monitors. Who knows what next - anything now that has its own display and/or interfaces for multiple settings could go this way with the addition of a BT/Wifi chip? Eg. hardwired digital microphone settings.

 

Aside from above we may be using our ios/android devices to do other things as well. I'd like to see a way of using the siri to do live transcription (unless someone puts this function into a recorder - and even if this happened, we'd probably need a bigger screen to read on). But of course there are limits and 1 ios device may not be enough - although this may not be such an issue if we can repurpose our older handsets, it would be interesting to know what the current technologies allow.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, all of these are good point, you‘re right. 

The only pointer I have (and this is only from memory) is that TentacleSync said that you could connect up to 10 Sync E‘s to an iPhone.  

 

Anyway, all of this will be limited by the phone and not so much the individual apps. 

The good news is that the Tentacles will work just fine without any Bluetooth device in sight

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 2.12.2017 at 10:58 AM, Constantin said:

 

... and if one of the Tentacles is out of sync with the others, there‘ll be a warning sign. Just like the above warnings for fps and cable issues. 

 

Yes, you are right, I forgot to mention!

 

The boxes already have names (but can be changed), and the various devices are always shown in alphabetical order on the app's display. That is really helpful, because you can find an entry at first sight.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just did a two week job in which I used the new Tentacle E's for the first time.  As a Betso & Denecke user for years, I wanted something that was smaller and that I could periodically check on without having to get my hands on the camera.   We were doing some verite style shooting with an Amira so I'd run a UCR mono-hop mix and TC via the Tentacle E.  The shooter I was working with quickly realized the Amira was too large for the scenario and wanted to make a smaller footprint and decided to use a Sony A7S.   So I ran my second Tentacle into it and it worked perfectly the entire shoot.  

 

The app was perfect for checking each camera's timecode as I assigned a name and color to each one and would check periodically through the day especially before a critical interview.  I would do a half day re-jam for good measure and never had one slip.  

 

In my scenario I didn't find the onboard mic to be of any help.  All you can hear is the camera operator breathing, handling noise, and the delay when synced with my primary audio for the dailies.  

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

59 minutes ago, Richard Walters said:

The shooter I was working with quickly realized the Amira was too large for the scenario and wanted to make a smaller footprint and decided to use a Sony A7S.   So I ran my second Tentacle into it and it worked perfectly the entire shoot.  

 

Semi-OT: Did you hop a mix to the A7S or just rely on the Tentacle? If so, where did you stick the UCR (or other) receiver?

 

Thanks for the hands-on report!

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, Jim Feeley said:

Semi-OT: Did you hop a mix to the A7S or just rely on the Tentacle? If so, where did you stick the UCR (or other) receiver?

 

Thanks for the hands-on report!

Hi Jim:  No UCR on the A7S, just the Tentacle.  I thought about splitting the connection into the camera with option to add a mix from my bag or a better onboard mic to his camera rig.  But the TC signal to so strong I'm sure it would bleed into the audio track and would need to be padded down.  I chose not to mess around too much with onboard mics and focus on getting good primary audio.   With that said, there is a nice feature on the Tentacle App that allows you to change the TC signal from mic level to line level.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 8 months later...

New Tentacle features and the suite of apps looking good (an MP3 option in the recording app would be useful in some circumstances). Although not necessary for most productions, could Tentacles be synchronised using network time (available from the phone) to sync devices in remote places? Similarly (or perhaps differently :-), Is they any chance SD recorders could acquire or share TC through Wingman/Tentacle app?

 

Obviously not the way many of us would want to work but it would be interesting to a make multi camera, multi recorder experiment with smart phones. If I understand this correctly, with 1 Tentacle E, multiple smart phones could use TC shared by bluetooth to reference an audio or video recording with the appropriate apps?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just did a doco where the DOP swore by the tentacles and I was pretty impressed - jamming was quick and reliable. We checked sync at the end of each day (sometimes 12 hours) and drift with MixPre10T was 0 or very close to it.

 

He had his setup with velcro and attached to the side of his Helium and did the same for the FS7 the 2nd Camera was using. A short stand-up meeting at the beginning of each day and we were set.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 hours ago, gsmyth said:

Yeah, I've turned on a few operators to them. Love how tiny they are and being able to check up w my phone. 

 

Still haven't tried out syncing a DSLR with them, most folks I suggested it to had no idea what to do with TC on the audio track...

 

We had a guerilla scene that was shot on an A7S-II using audio TC - so there are still some out there willing to take the plunge. He had used it (tentacle/audio TC/DSLR) successfully in the past,

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, Petros Kolyvas said:

 

We had a guerilla scene that was shot on an A7S-II using audio TC - so there are still some out there willing to take the plunge. He had used it (tentacle/audio TC/DSLR) successfully in the past,

Nice.

12 hours ago, Constantin said:

You can use TentacleSync‘s Sync Studio software (or whatever it’s called), to sync audio TC. Supposedly it works really well and is easy to use, but I‘ve never tried it myself 

I think I honestly gotta try it out myself so I can explain it to producers/camera folks. I'm sure it's not that hard, it's just different.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't remember where I found the link to this article, but there is quite a lot of details on an example workflow with using tentacles and synching here :

http://www.fcp.co/final-cut-pro/articles/2101-editing-a-boxing-movie-on-fcpx-an-updated-journey

 

quite interesting, even if done on an oddball editing system

chris

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...