COVID-19 disinfection: CINELA units

[cineli]

Dear Cinela users,

we really hope you are safe in this hard period !

For those who are in front of the virus during shootings, here is a simple advice for disinfection:

 

Simplest way: leave your units in quarantine ! two or three days may be enough.

 

Furs and fabrics: as heat is NOT acceptable (it can damage piles or synthetic fibers), a good solution is simply to wash it with a generous load of soap or washing powder in lukewarm water. The virus is known to "slide" in soapy water, then you hardly rinse the unit after washing !  Don't dry it with a hair dryer, except with a low temperature one.  Generally, a full drying night is enough. About fur, you'll also have to brush it gently !

 

Other elements like suspensions: to clean the unit with alcohol 90° seems to be the simplest solution. All parts will not suffer from "hard" alcohol.

 

COSI specific case: the whole "wind module" can be washed in soapy (lukewarm) water. Simply unmount it by unscrewing the bue knob. Then rinse. Anyway, you need to help the drying process with a fan, just to be sure that all parts are completely dry ! If you are in a hurry, you can also spray alcohol on piles !

 

Philippe Chenevez

[Bal Varga]

On 4/23/2020 at 2:13 PM, cineli said:

Dear Cinela users,

we really hope you are safe in this hard period !

For those who are in front of the virus during shootings, here is a simple advice for disinfection:

 

....

 

Philippe Chenevez

An update to this thread from a personal email exchange with Philippe:

 

"We also have made a full test with UVC on all plastics, fabrics and fur.
No pb.
Philippe"

 

 

 

[Constantin]

This comes up repeatedly here and on Facebook (understandably so). My personal opinion is that it is not necessary to clean these things, except maybe the fur in some circumstances. In my case only my boom-op touche booms, mic mounts, mics, furs, etc. Nobody else will touch these things. So there’s no need for disinfection. The only exception maybe if booming from below and fairly close to the mouth. The fur or other wind protection maybe cleaned then, although I still don’t see how anyone could get infected off of that. Even if an infected person were to throw virus off onto the fur, you‘d then have to get on your finger and then lick your fingers or rub your eyes. Not impossible, but highly unlikely. Especially as eye rubbing and finger licking are generally inadvisable during a pandemic anyway. 

[pindrop]

Yes I agree Constantin, but was just working on a production (exteriors) for days, where I was simply banned (no argument) from booming overhead, I had to boom from underneath! Such is the state of things in some quarters......!
Viruses or hairs dropping off furry wind protection? Don't ask me?

[ronmac]

That puts your gear in the drop zone. Low velocity breathes and vocalizatiobs will drop quickly, possibly a perfect arc towards your mic and boom.

 

Yuck

[Constantin]

22 hours ago, pindrop said:

Yes I agree Constantin, but was just working on a production (exteriors) for days, where I was simply banned (no argument) from booming overhead, I had to boom from underneath! Such is the state of things in some quarters......!
Viruses or hairs dropping off furry wind protection? Don't ask me?

That is very bizarre. Why were you not allowed to boom overhead? Surely for some reason other than corona?

Sure, I mean when booming from below it is possible. I never thought about this prior to Corona, so while I can see how the virus can get into the fur, I still can’t really see how it would get out of it. 
in fact, one of the higher profile virologists here in Germany explicitly stated that pur foamies act a bit like a sponge, soaking up moisture and thus virus, and will not release it. 
I will say though, I have bought five spare foamies so I can rotate them and have the others in quarantine for three/four days. However, I will not soap wash my Cinela fur every night. 
 

In any case, it’s good to know how to do it, for those who need or want to do it. 

[pindrop]

I was never told why, but it was a covid reason, as only recordists who were in the specific bubble of those specific contributors were allowed to boom them from overhead, quite bizarre, but we are all in new territory, and there's some making it up as we go along involved I guess....?....:)