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Lectro Venue2/A1 Design Anachronism and Random Venue2 Block Switching Halted Production


jawharp

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**EDIT** Since people seem to be confused about what my original question was, I've made it bold.  It's a question that has nothing to do with a lack of knowledge about the 470/19 overlap existing or backwards compatibility.  It's just me being pissed off and asking how this setting on my Venue2 changed without me voluntarily changing it, and how I can prevent it in the future.  That's it.******

 

This is absolutely unacceptable.  I've never changed any block settings on anything in my kit.  Production was behind and in full blown freak out mode, so I wired an actor in her dressing room.  They rushed her to set for her scene, and I got absolutely no audio from her receiver.  Full RF bars, no audio.  Double checked her pack's settings, verified that the pack itself was receiving audio, double checked receiver's frequency setting, switched out her pack.  Nothing.  Just full RF bars with no audio.

 

Finally tried a new receiver module after I held up production for 10 minutes and lo and behold it received the signal and audio no problem.  Took me another 10 minutes to notice that the non-working receiver was set to the correct frequency but the wrong block??

 

I've never changed anything like that anywhere on my gear.  ALL of my wireless is block A1.  How the hell did this happen?  If this is a software thing, it should be fixed in the next update.  This is the dumbest shit I've ever seen.  It was set to the right frequency and receiving signal.  The fact that that's not enough is mind blowing and ass backwards.

 

How do I make sure this never changes again?

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First off, production "freak-out" is not your problem.  Secondly, a ten minute sound delay is, what, ten minutes?  Tough for them.  How long did the gaffer take to light?

 

And third, I am guessing (and I could, maybe, be wrong), that Lectro unit did not change by itself.

 

Productions in "freak-out mode" is stressful but every department has the right to the time to do their job correctly.  Just remind the AD that having him looking over your shoulder will only make the trouble-shooting take longer; maybe a lot longer and he should walk away.  You'll let him know when your department is ready to roll.

D.

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16 minutes ago, jawharp said:

It is cause they're all dumb and will fire you even if you're right.  Came here for answers, not weird flexes.

 

Is there any way to disable this shit?

What is there to disable? You’re either on frequency x in block xa, or frequency x in block xb. It’s up to you to know about that and set things properly. 

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32 minutes ago, jawharp said:

It is cause they're all dumb and will fire you even if you're right.  Came here for answers, not weird flexes.

 

Is there any way to disable this shit?

In any moment did you use the lectro remote on any other transmitter that might caused that transmitter to be changed by accident?

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You made a mistake and now you won't make the same mistake again.  It's not "dumb shit", it's how it works and how frequency blocks work.  What you're feeling is stress and embarrassment because you were under pressure and didn't know that this was a thing.  Be thankful that you aren't working "back in the day" when you needed to use a screw driver to change frequencies and if you were kinda on the right "click" but not really on the right click, you were really scratching your head.

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I feel like maybe I'm not making myself clear enough and that's why people feel like they need to lecture me with their set stories.  I'll try to explain it better:

 

Lectrosonics's wideband gear is available on blocks A1 and B1.  These blocks are made up of many frequencies which encompass multiple old blocks that were used before blocks A1 and B1 were available.

 

Why does all of my new gear, all on block A1, give a shit about the old blocks?

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51 minutes ago, Axel Mishael said:

In any moment did you use the lectro remote on any other transmitter that might caused that transmitter to be changed by accident?

Not that I know of.  I don't use the remote and all my other transmitters are on block A1.

4 minutes ago, codyman said:

Because "A1" is just shorthand for Blocks 470, 19, 20.  They aren't "old blocks".  They literally are the blocks.

Eyyyyy!   An answer!   Thanks

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I still have no idea how it changed in the first place.  I've tried to manually recreate the problem, but it always defaults to the block 470 version of the frequency.  The frequency was selected using the "smart scan" feature.

 

So... back to my original question:

 

Is there any way I can make sure this doesn't happen again?

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57 minutes ago, thenannymoh said:

"Hey boom op... I not liking the lav on the number two.  No time to fix. So for her lines, it's all you." Not saying you had this option, but I've used this before. 

I’m the one that asked him to wire her because we were in a reflective bathroom with a huge mirror and they told me she was only going to be doing the dialogue in the wide. 

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27 minutes ago, Dalton Patterson said:

Print a label out of a P-touch label maker that says (486.400-495.600 don't use this shit on B470) 

Are you saying not to use those frequencies at all?  Cause those are the clearest in my area so I kind of have to.  

 

If you're saying not to set my receivers to use the block 470 versions of those frequencies, that's exactly what I've been asking how to do.  That was the original question before people started pandering me with stories where they call the mid-2000's the "old days."  If you know how to do that, I would love to know how to do it on a Venue2 with wideband receivers on A1.

 

 

 

 

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IR sync would solve this nicely.  I can't think of a reason it wouldn't be an option except in a few edge cases.

 

That way, even if the scan chooses a frequency in the overlap zone, the sync will ensure the Tx and Rx match.  Incidentally, the compatibility mode and tuning step size also will be set to match.  Since all your equipment is A1, it will not matter whether it is using 470 or 19 as long as both ends agree.  The only difference is which channel number is encoded in the pilot tone.  That has to match on both ends or the receiver will decide "not my transmitter" and will not unsquelch.

 

If setting frequencies manually or via dweedle tone, you will just have to check the block.

 

The whole 470/19 thing seems to me like the natural result of a series of decisions Lectro made over decades as technology advanced.  When they decided to make devices that operated below block 19, they could have chosen to make them block 18 without an overlap.  But then they still would not have been able to tune below 470.100MHz because of government regulations.

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I always make sure when I'm in that overlap range to check which block I'm in. Just one extra step but takes less than a second.

 

Also, A band is not a block and should not be referred to as such (makes things more confusing). It's a band, containing 3 blocks. ['the more you know' rainbow]

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1 hour ago, Johnny Karlsson said:

IIRC, if you are scrolling up the frequencies starting from B470, you will be in 470 until you get up to B19 only freqs. Likewise if you are scrolling down from B19, you will stay in 19 until you get low enough to hit freqs that are 470 only.

 

That's a super weird thing that I didn't know.  I'm not sure how it got set on mine since I used the smart scan feature.  Unless it matters which direction it's changing it?  Like if you start in a BLK 19 frequency and it selects one lower maybe it does the same thing as when you scroll it lower.  I'll check that out tomorrow.

 

1 hour ago, BAB414 said:

I always make sure when I'm in that overlap range to check which block I'm in. Just one extra step but takes less than a second.

 

Also, A band is not a block and should not be referred to as such (makes things more confusing). It's a band, containing 3 blocks. ['the more you know' rainbow]

 

In case anyone's wondering what an answer to a question looks like it's this. 

 

Notice how he's not wasting anyone's time with condescending remarks about people's feelings in situations they weren't involved in.  I guess the old timers lost their ability to answer questions back in the "old days" when T-Swift was breaking out.

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9 hours ago, jawharp said:

Why does all of my new gear, all on block A1, give a shit about the old blocks?

So what you want, is for Lectrosonics to stop caring about backwards compatibility?? 


I love that I can mix and match my Lectro C1 gear with my Lectro blk24/25/26 equipment. This is a strength of Lectrosonics, not a weakness. 

 

Just read the manuals (I'm not even an A1 user, and even I still knew about 470/19 overlapping), learn your gear, and understand it. All the info was right there in front of you on the display for you to immediately realize what was going on. This isn't Lectrosonics fault at all. 

 

9 hours ago, thenannymoh said:

"Hey boom op... I not liking the lav on the number two.  No time to fix. So for her lines, it's all you." Not saying you had this option, but I've used this before. 



Yup, I've done that too if I feel a gremlin is at work, and we've got to go immediately with no time to get to the bottom of it. I'll just tell the Boom Op to focus on that one actor and ignore all others just for that one take, so that we're 100% confident we still get all of their lines.

 

Another super quick solution is just grabbing a spare transmitter you've got ready to go, and swap it out for the dodgy one. No need to rerig the entire lav setup. That's very fast, won't hold you up for 10 minutes. 

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1 hour ago, jawharp said:

I guess the old timers lost their ability to answer questions back in the "old days" when T-Swift was breaking out.

Dude, calm down. I think everyone here has tried to help you. A simple “thank You “ would probably work better if you think you may ever need advice again. Keep in mind we’re a discussion group, nobody here works in customer service, nor does anyone here owe you anything. This kind of comment just makes people wanna say things like “do your own homework “ or “read the fabulous manual.”

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