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Zaxcom Nova FAQ


Jeff Wexler

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4 hours ago, John Blankenship said:

 

I kind of see that as a "Is the rope twelve inches long or a foot long?" question.

 

Actually though, I would base my decision on what is comfortable physically.  i.e. If you're using a somewhat bulky BNC cable, maybe a short (6"-12") light weight male SMA to female BNC adapter cable at the Nova end to reduce torque on the Nova SMA connectors.

 

Haha for sure. That sounds like an elegant solution having a short adapter cable, and changing BNC lengths on the antenna end when necessary.

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On 11/2/2019 at 10:11 AM, Dave Pullmer said:

What is best practice for cabling antenna with the Nova? A SMA to BNC adaptor on the nova end? Or the antenna end?

 

What ever puts the least amount of strain on the SMA connectors on the receivers/Z-net.

 

For me, best practice is is what puts the essential parts of the gear at the least risk while still being able to preform at the optimum. That may not be best RF practice but we don't work in a theoretical best practice environment.

 

For my Nomad cart/bag rig I use short jumper SMA to BNC leads in a hobby box as a patch panel. On the cart bulky good quality coax run to the antenna mast. When I need to be more mobile I have short leads to attach to the patch box. Short SMA to BNC jumpers work well to SNA600 on my Maxx rig. 

 

As for the Nova, by all the positive reports, I believe I'll keep it simple and go with whips.

 

That said I am thinking of remoting the Z-net antenna by a several inches. This is more due to how I have conceived a bag design and reducing stress to that connector. 

 

Cheers Nate

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On 11/1/2019 at 7:11 PM, Dave Pullmer said:

What is best practice for cabling antenna with the Nova? A SMA to BNC adaptor on the nova end? Or the antenna end?

How long is your cable run - and what antennas are you using?

For bag work where I am using dipoles and the cable length is fairly short I personally like something like an RG-174 (or something similar) and terminate on one side to a BNC and the other to an SMA. For longer runs you may want a beefier coax which would be hard to terminate to a SMA so in which case you would need to terminate to BNC and adapt it to SMA.

As a general rule the shorter the cable run and the less adapters = less loss.

Also make sure you use 50 ohm coax and connectors.

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On 11/8/2019 at 12:44 PM, Jack Norflus said:

How long is your cable run - and what antennas are you using?

For bag work where I am using dipoles and the cable length is fairly short I personally like something like an RG-174 (or something similar) and terminate on one side to a BNC and the other to an SMA. For longer runs you may want a beefier coax which would be hard to terminate to a SMA so in which case you would need to terminate to BNC and adapt it to SMA.

As a general rule the shorter the cable run and the less adapters = less loss.

Also make sure you use 50 ohm coax and connectors.

Thanks Jack. I’m using RG8X with a 10ft length on a mast off the cart or a 50ft length if remoting a RF Venue diversity fin.

 

I saw on Facebook Glenn recommended not using active antennas with the Nova, so I would probably pair it with passive fins, and just use whips out the bag. Will look into RG 174, haven’t used that before.

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7 hours ago, glenn said:

I do not think that it can go on every home screen but I am sure we can put it somewhere else.



But please, try to come up with something that doesn't need so much space that could be used for other useful info on the screen
Something maybe like the picture or something like you have on the D24  is more than enough to have battery info on the screen

NOVA-BATTERY.jpg

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5 hours ago, Valentine said:

the screen seems to be the same size.

I'm surprised that Zaxcom (and Sound Devices!) didn't make their latest generation recorders with bigger screens, even if only by an inch or two. 

As with cellphones that has been the normal trend, to get bigger and bigger every year! As the screens become better and more affordable. 

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1 minute ago, IronFilm said:

I'm surprised that Zaxcom (and Sound Devices!) didn't make their latest generation recorders with bigger screens, even if only by an inch or two. 

As with cellphones that has been the normal trend, to get bigger and bigger every year! As the screens become better and more affordable. 

Frankly I'd rather have smaller screens with room for physical controls rather than have a huge screen and have to constantly be digging through menus for features.  I would prefer NOT to go down the road the automakers have where every damn feature has to be turned on by a touch screen while you drive down the road.

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1 hour ago, IronFilm said:

I'm surprised that Zaxcom (and Sound Devices!) didn't make their latest generation recorders with bigger screens, even if only by an inch or two. 

As with cellphones that has been the normal trend, to get bigger and bigger every year! As the screens become better and more affordable. 


Glenn was quite clear regarding this months ago when you complained about the Nova screen size. I’m pretty sure nothing has changed since then. 
 

Cheers,

Evan

D473B0D7-73C1-431C-887C-61490FA2634D.jpeg

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13 hours ago, hobbiesodd said:

Glenn was quite clear regarding this months ago when you complained about the Nova screen size. I’m pretty sure nothing has changed since then. 


Seems like a perfectly fair compromise to have a few extra grams/inches for greatly improved visibility and more information shared at a glance? (just look for instance the complaints today in the Zaxcom FB group about not being able to see the battery levels displayed in all views, would've not been a problem if there had been a bigger screen!)

The screen is the key point at which info is shared between the recorder and the operator, surely it is in everyone's best interest to make this flow of information as optimal as possible? Sticking with very small screens works against this goal. 

(note: I'm not specifically targeting Nova about this! I feel the same about the screen size decision in the 833 as well...  :-/ oh well)

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My reactions when I test ran a Nova for a few days:

 

-- Even though I'd laid my hands on one at NAB, when I opened the box my first reaction was how small it is. An interesting side note is that in any photo that I've seen, its small size does not come across.

 

-- My next reaction was how solid it feels.

 

-- Doing a setup, my reaction as a Nomad and Deva user was a bit of confusion with the menus. After becoming more acquainted with it my reaction was how well thought out everything is. Even with it this small, all the controls felt easy to access. Another sound mixer who was auditioning it with me commented, "They really listened to their users."

 

-- I missed having the battery level on the mix screen I prefer.  (Easily solvable going forward. Perhaps what efksound showed -- and it doesn't even need the E -- we know it's a battery symbol.)

 

-- I did not have a reaction that the screen was too small.

 

-- My overall reaction remains that the Nova is rather awesome -- Zaxcom has a winner here.
 

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3 hours ago, IronFilm said:


Seems like a perfectly fair compromise to have a few extra grams/inches for greatly improved visibility and more information shared at a glance? (just look for instance the complaints today in the Zaxcom FB group about not being able to see the battery levels displayed in all views, would've not been a problem if there had been a bigger screen!)

The screen is the key point at which info is shared between the recorder and the operator, surely it is in everyone's best interest to make this flow of information as optimal as possible? Sticking with very small screens works against this goal. 

(note: I'm not specifically targeting Nova about this! I feel the same about the screen size decision in the 833 as well...  😕 oh well)

 

 

 

 

f26.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi, used the Nova for the first time today on a shoot. A few questions came to mind:

 

How can I put the transmitters in record remotely? Not with the transport cmds option, because I’d like the transmitters to keep recording, also when the Nova’s not recording. 

 

As input-limiters are lacking, which dynamics settings are best to resemble the good old analogue input limiters. With the factory settings they were quite audible (pumping)

 

is it better to address the “card compressors” or the “input compressors” or both?

 

why is it that after each power cycle the compressors on the digital inputs and rx  inputs are reset to “off”? And why is it not possible to group the compressors on the digital I puts and rx -inputs?

 

why do I get an error message after trying to store the settings in memory 1, 2 or 3?

 

By the way, I tried the CF -> SD adapter. Seemed to work fine, but after a power cycle I got the message “unrecognized disk format”. Take out the CF card and re-insert the SD card seems to do the trick, untill the next power cycle...

 

also I missed one take today because I thought I was recording. From the corner of my eye I Sam the button light up red... appeared to be the “bank” button.  Some clever suggestions anyone?

 

thanks so much!

Sander, the Netherlands 

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 10/8/2019 at 11:07 PM, Jack Norflus said:

Oasis support is not currently in Nova - but it isnt that far away.

The next major feature that will be added will be MP3 support. Then the oasis support should come not to long after that.


fingers crossed for mp3 and oasis support soon and one more - keyboard text entry

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 11/29/2019 at 7:15 PM, Sander den Broeder said:

so I missed one take today because I thought I was recording. From the corner of my eye I Sam the button light up red... appeared to be the “bank” button.  Some clever suggestions anyone?


This got me twice now and i finally figured out my workaround- i start with bank 4 now as my bank 1 so it is blue. I am leaving bank 5 purple blank for now so i am following the semi standard blue is 1 and red is 2 when cycling through bank 4 and back to bank 1. I know not the same for everyone but it does now help me not seeing all red and staying with my familiar color patterns somewhat. Maybe color personalization could be an option in future firmware updates if such a thing may be in demand

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First experience with rerecord today. I mistakenly thought this feature only worked with trx’s slaved to recorder so i had never previously attempted. Had a one hit moment and some downtime in between takes to play with it. All the controls allow me to keep rolling trx’s all day. stop, Playback (rerecord) and re arm trx record from one screen. Whoa what a killer feature. Playing the rerecorded take back hearing it clean and seeing the tc offset..dolphins doing backflips in my head

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