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Audio Limited A10 for talent.


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14 hours ago, Daniel Ignacio said:

 

Ah, I’m less enthusiastic about the A10 if that’s how it is. Forgot about the process of Bluetooth pairing.

 

To be fair, I should mention that I was not trying this with what is now the latest firmware and App version. It may work quicker now. At least pairing via the settings panel of your phone is not required - or only once

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Bluetooth connection with the A10-TX only needs Bluetooth to be active on the device, no other setting are done there. When the app opens it looks for devices in proximity and they appear in the device list, which you then select. This is very similar to how Wingman connects to the 633, 664, 688, MixPre-3, MixPre-6, and MixPre-10T. 

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I don't know if this is phone or firmware dependent, but when I was at IBC, I used the app at the Sound Devices/Audio Ltd. booth and it only took seconds to start. Bluetooth was off before that and the TX was already on the list once loading was finished. There was basically no pairing process and my phone (an old Galaxy Note 3) never connected to a TX before that.

 

Even if it's not an ideal solution in terms of range, I feel it's better to have that feature, than not have it at all. And you don't need any additional hardware for that, besides your phone.

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I got 2 channels of A10. Did some preliminary tests and I'm happy for now. I have only tested the bluetooth on transmitters I've worn myself, but as soon as I get someone to help me out, I'll be trying changing the settings in more real-world conditions, unless I get on a job first. The app feels like it benefits from the occasional reset. I'm using an iPhone SE. I did a couple of short range walks in my apartment and I was totally fine anywhere with medium power, the transmitter placed on a strap on my lower back. Also tried a front pocket placement I often use. Indoors, I got a few dropouts when there were more than 2 walls between the TX and the RX, but that just makes sense.

Outside, on a single transmitter, I got about 60m (~200ft) max reliable feeling range, line of sight on whips, high power, the TX antenna in a free field. The receiver was in a bag with an angled antenna and a straight antenna. Did the test by leaving the transmitter on a concrete planter and moving with my bag and the receiver in it, left my phone next to the TX playing music. On low power, I got as much as 30m (~100ft). I should try again with more realistic conditions. On short distances inside, the 400kHz spacing seems to work fine, but when I tried to go further away from the transmitters on the walk test outside, I got dropouts at about 10m. Gave them more spacing, got 60m again but with two transmitters. I didn't scan outside before running the test, so I'm not sure if I was on totally clean frequencies.

Since I'm in Europe, the recording works. Easy to activate via Bluetooth. Haven't managed to give the timecode stability a proper run yet, but converting .mic files to .wav files is relatively painless and jamming is not a huge chore. For the time being, I feel like I'd rather only engage recording when I'm pretty sure there are going to be dropouts. I feel like I'd also have to make a note about it to remember to empty and convert the cards later.

The preamps sound great with Core 4060s. The TX pack is nice and rounded, so it doesn't feel as uncomfortable worn as a G3/2000 Sennheiser, for example. Haven't managed to get the belt clips on, but haven't given it the total effort yet because I generally prefer straps and I got URSA Pouches as well. I've hidden clunkier packs without issue, I think they should be about the same to hide as SMQVs / SMDBs.

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Regarding the internal recording feature: Does it basically act like a second record button? Does it keep recording forever once the option is toggled via app? Is there any limit to the microSD card space? In a real world example, if I wasn't sure about range and dropouts, could I toggle the record option and keep it running the whole day for safety with a big enough sd card?

 

Would be interesting if you could auto-toggle internal recording everytime you hit record on the mixer. Like an impulse send from mixer/recorder to receiver to transmitter.

 

 

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The recording option is accessible both on the transmitters and via app. As far as I know, it keeps going until it needs to stop for some reason, like the battery running out or the card getting full. I think one of the reasons they're using a proprietary compressed format is precisely so that one could record all day.  The manual says the recording caps at six hours, after which it should start a new file with a sample-accurate split. Looking at what I've recorded, the .mic format compresses to about 1/3 of the output .wav's size. 6hrs would be about 2.9Gb, so I guess it would compress to about 1Gb, which means a 16Gb card would take you pretty far.

I've ordered some Sandisk Ultra Class 10 16Gb Micro SD cards that should work well according to info I found on Facebook, the person who mentioned them said that Audio Limited had vouched for those cards when asked about what would be good and they're cheap enough for me to try them out.

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5 hours ago, Ilari Sivil said:

I think one of the reasons they're using a proprietary compressed format is precisely so that one could record all day.  The manual says the recording caps at six hours, after which it should start a new file with a sample-accurate split. Looking at what I've recorded, the .mic format compresses to about 1/3 of the output .wav's size. 6hrs would be about 2.9Gb, so I guess it would compress to about 1Gb, which means a 16Gb card would take you pretty far

Actually it is not compressed (or proprietary I think). It is basically taking the qpsk, 8psk, FSK, or whatever form of frequency modulation to pack the pcm bitstream for transmission and record/store that. That explains the lower data rate of the .mic files but still claiming it is uncompressed, since it is phase shift keying, not compressing. A good benefit of this is that the potential loss of files with let's say an all of the sudden dead battery is practically zero, since it is storing a raw data stream, up until the sudden stop.

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i recently rented a pair of a10s for a job to go along with my zaxcom setup. i was very happy with the sound and range. i downloaded the app (iphone x here) and it worked much better than i expected. granted, its bluetooth and BT range is t great, but all i had to do is startup the app and it worked nicely. it’s nothing like zaxnet which i’ve grown accustomed to. i did have to go up to talent to make adjustments (gain, freq) but it worked. zaxnet is the bomb diggitty in that domain. 

 

i’m in the US, so didnt test out the record function. if jamming the TX is as easy as the bluetooth procedure it seems like a pretty solid system. again, nothing like zaxnet, where i dont have to do anything since it distributes TX commands along with TC. in the zax system you can configure the record function to do all sorts of things like start record upon power up, loop record etc etc. on a 4gig card i get 50some recording hours. 

 

overall i liked the a10s. 

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6 hours ago, ivanovich said:

i recently rented a pair of a10s for a job to go along with my zaxcom setup. i was very happy with the sound and range. i downloaded the app (iphone x here) and it worked much better than i expected. granted, its bluetooth and BT range is t great, but all i had to do is startup the app and it worked nicely. it’s nothing like zaxnet which i’ve grown accustomed to. i did have to go up to talent to make adjustments (gain, freq) but it worked. zaxnet is the bomb diggitty in that domain. 

 

i’m in the US, so didnt test out the record function. if jamming the TX is as easy as the bluetooth procedure it seems like a pretty solid system. again, nothing like zaxnet, where i dont have to do anything since it distributes TX commands along with TC. in the zax system you can configure the record function to do all sorts of things like start record upon power up, loop record etc etc. on a 4gig card i get 50some recording hours. 

 

overall i liked the a10s. 

 

I thought the life after ZaxMote was much easier for Zaxcom environment.

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  • 4 months later...
7 hours ago, Daniel Ignacio said:

Audio Limited vendors in the US (namely TAI Audio and Gotham Sound) are promoting instant rebate offers for A10 wireless, running through the end of May. Anyone taking advantage of it?

Some in the Audio Ltd user group on facebook yes.

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  • 1 month later...
On 9/12/2018 at 11:45 AM, Moesound said:

Regarding the Bluetooth feature of the A10’s, we use it all the time. It’s quite handy for all the obvious reasons, and yes, we’ve used it during shots. Mostly we use it to put the TX to sleep or adjust the LF without having to bother the talent. 

But while this feature is very cool, the range is not. Perhaps 10 to 15 feet. This has been my experience on my iPhone; other devices may improve distance. 

 

Regards,

Moe

I don't see how the Bluetooth  is useful when you have to walk in front of the camera to be in range. 

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14 hours ago, RadoStefanov said:

I don't see how the Bluetooth  is useful when you have to walk in front of the camera to be in range. 

 

So that you don't have to dig under three layers of costume to adjust gain between takes. So it takes a fee seconds instead of a minute. I wish I had this possibility in the last 40 days of shooting I just had ; but not on the wisy I was using. 

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 5/8/2019 at 1:54 PM, roubi said:

 

So that you don't have to dig under three layers of costume to adjust gain between takes. So it takes a fee seconds instead of a minute. I wish I had this possibility in the last 40 days of shooting I just had ; but not on the wisy I was using. 

Zaxnet does it from far far away without having to ask production to halt for you. Downside producers think you are not doing anything.

 

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10 hours ago, RadoStefanov said:

Downside producers think you are not doing anything.


It is a curious downside how a benefit of Zaxnet can actually be a "negative" vs the more apparent approach of say Lectrosonics tweddle tones for example as well 

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1 hour ago, IronFilm said:


It is a curious downside how a benefit of Zaxnet can actually be a "negative" vs the more apparent approach of say Lectrosonics tweddle tones for example as well 

Many times I had been told that I don’t so as much as other sound mixers because they don’t see how many problems I solve remotely without interrupting the shoot. 

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5 hours ago, RadoStefanov said:

Many times I had been told that I don’t so as much as other sound mixers because they don’t see how many problems I solve remotely without interrupting the shoot. 

So true. 

 

It's not an actual negative for the sound dept but a preception from other departments that I'm not doing anything and just sitting at the cart/bag when in fact I'm changing to a cleaner freq, adjusting gain. Doing things from the comfort of your chair can be perceived as being lazy.

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52 minutes ago, Nate C said:

So true. 

 

It's not an actual negative for the sound dept but a preception from other departments that I'm not doing anything and just sitting at the cart/bag when in fact I'm changing to a cleaner freq, adjusting gain. Doing things from the comfort of your chair can be perceived as being lazy.

Praps you guys could a spinning beach ball mounted on your cart or bag to indicate work in progress.

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