johnpaul215 Posted September 30, 2010 Report Share Posted September 30, 2010 I start a film soon and I found out about half of it is going to be handheld.... and a good amount of that will be in the woods. The first AC told me the kit list includes a Modulus, though we don't know which model yet. They will be using that for the handheld days, so there are no cables coming off the camera. I know they broadcast over UHF (great for wireless mics!). I'm pretty sure I have worked with them with steadycam rigs where I just tuned in the station. I know one steadycam operator I have worked with had a sharkfin hooked up to his receiver and it worked well. Has anyone ever used (needed?) a sharkfin, or some other directional antenna, to get better reception from one of these? I'm talking about on my cart with my little 7" LCD monitors. I *probably* won't be as close to the action as the director, and as far as I know he might be using a handheld monitor and running behind the camera. Would a shark fin be worth it, or is there another option I'm not thinking of? (besides gobs of cable) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
studiomprd Posted September 30, 2010 Report Share Posted September 30, 2010 " a sharkfin, or some other directional antenna, to get better reception from one of these " antennae (sic) don't care what equipment they are connected to... although they work better when properly matched to the equipment, so you might need a balun, depending... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason porter Posted September 30, 2010 Report Share Posted September 30, 2010 I used my Lectro dipole antenna with a 7" lcd, it worked very well! I was setup in the basement of a house and I easily received the video signal from 2 floors up and anywhere else on the property the camera roamed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Izen Ears Posted October 1, 2010 Report Share Posted October 1, 2010 It totally works. Best picture is with helicals but you don't wanna drag one of those around in the woods! I use a PW sharkfin with that new mid-90s car tuner I got off ebay with a coax-to-bnc adaptor (sic)! I'm not even using a fancy BNC cable just a regular coax cable cable. Have fun in the woods, I know I wouldn't! At least not working, hey I like the woods! Dan Izen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPSharman Posted October 1, 2010 Report Share Posted October 1, 2010 Doing it right now! Have always carried a sharkfin, split to the antenna inputs on each of my monitors. Sometimes reception is just poor in general, but better than with telescoping antenna. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ve7kjr Posted October 1, 2010 Report Share Posted October 1, 2010 How many times,have you gone past or over to or stood next to the camera and their video transmitter is burried in a mess of cables,poor old Antenna,doesn't stand a chance,or they (camera) have a real shit transmitter. They don't understand the theory behind RF be it video or audio. So half the dam time, the shitty video reception that you are getting originates at the transmitter. Other times is is almost perfect. If the transmitter is at "DIT-VIL" chances are he the dit will set it up in a nice high place,away from bodies that are in the way of the RF comming from the transmitter, plus the transmitter is in one place and not moving, reception should be more stable,less ghosting,less drop outs etc. Some vodo thrown in will help as well. KJR( Phil) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnpaul215 Posted October 1, 2010 Author Report Share Posted October 1, 2010 Doing it right now! Have always carried a sharkfin, split to the antenna inputs on each of my monitors. Sometimes reception is just poor in general, but better than with telescoping antenna. Hmmm..... I wonder if I be asking for trouble if I used the passthrough antenna port on my Lectro Venue wideband? The problem is that I don't think I have anything that transmits UHF frequencies, and everything broadcast is digital now. Not the easiest thing to test before I'm on set. I won't see this Modulus till day 00 or day 01 of filming. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
studiomprd Posted October 1, 2010 Report Share Posted October 1, 2010 " I wonder if I be asking for trouble if I used the passthrough antenna port " it doesn't care what it is connected to either... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthias Richter Posted October 2, 2010 Report Share Posted October 2, 2010 at least with Zaxcom rx4900 it doesn´t work as the loop through output is filtered according to your choosen block. And the modulus shouldn´t be within that block. Matthias Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnpaul215 Posted October 2, 2010 Author Report Share Posted October 2, 2010 at least with Zaxcom rx4900 it doesn´t work as the loop through output is filtered according to your choosen block. And the modulus shouldn´t be within that block. Matthias I'll have to see what I can find in the manuals and probably just try it. My Venue is wideband, so it's not filtered. That way you can have 2 (or more) Venues running different blocks all sharing the same antennae. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPSharman Posted October 2, 2010 Report Share Posted October 2, 2010 I'll have to see what I can find in the manuals and probably just try it. My Venue is wideband, so it's not filtered. That way you can have 2 (or more) Venues running different blocks all sharing the same antennae. It ought to work. But wideband is still in a range of frequencies, if I am not mistaken. The last shoot I was on had their Modulus tuned at 21 and 45. Stedicam was at 69. That's a pretty wide range! Robert Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
studiomprd Posted October 2, 2010 Report Share Posted October 2, 2010 guess you have to <read my hat> to be sure... or maybe just try it and see.... or even use a splitter... BTW: TV channel 69 (at 794 MHz) is gone! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPSharman Posted October 2, 2010 Report Share Posted October 2, 2010 BTW: TV channel 69 (at 794 MHz) is gone! Yet miraculously they were able to broadcast at that frequency, and I was able to receive it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
studiomprd Posted October 3, 2010 Report Share Posted October 3, 2010 and you weren't bothered by the 'frequency police' ?? WOW! amazing... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPSharman Posted October 3, 2010 Report Share Posted October 3, 2010 and you weren't bothered by the 'frequency police' ?? WOW! amazing... But we felt dirty all day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnpaul215 Posted October 3, 2010 Author Report Share Posted October 3, 2010 I have run scans on Block 28 and 29. Block 28 is *usually* clean except something big at the lower end of the range. My limited scanning on 29 has been about the cleanest I have ever seen on any block (as it should be!). I used hand sanitizer when I was done, so I didn't catch any 4G flu. I can't find the chart on wikipedia right now, but it had the 700 MHz allocation on it. I *think* verizon was in the Lectro block 27 range, and they are the first ones to build their LTE network. They have an active network in something like a dozen cities already. There seemed to be a lot on spectrum on that chart that was not anywhere near being used. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
studiomprd Posted October 4, 2010 Report Share Posted October 4, 2010 as the new licensees bring up their systems in the 700 MHz band, it will be like the good old days! a scan will reveal what is available at any given place and time. it may be crowded, but it will not be wall-to-wall, and several systems will always be able to work well... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wolfvid Posted October 4, 2010 Report Share Posted October 4, 2010 I have a freq chart with open freqs in LA that I can send to anybody who wants it. just write to me, its too big for this board. also: How to find good free channels anywhere? Switch your analog TV tuner thru all channels, cross out the ones with analog TV stations on them on the list. Don’t even try to use those. There is no way to recognize a digital channel with an analog tuner. The painful way to find digital channels on the air: Take the UHF transmitter close to end of range and have someone switch thru all channels while you watch tuner on matching channel. You will find some that are just bad. You may have a digital TV stations on those channels. Avoid those. Digital TV on your channel will not kill your transmission it just cuts your range in half. It’s not approved to use those channels. The smart way: Tune your digital TV through all used digital TV channels one by one, go to the TVs Properties and the menu will tell you the on-air channel they are transmitting on. Cross those off the list. Ch 37 is reserved worldwide for scientific astronomy. Not used. There are some channels in the big cities that have low power NTSC stations on them. These are not always on the air. 09/05/10 G Legal Newsflash: There is provision in the federal regulations now to use Video Assist transmitters with some restrictions with permission in the USA. Look at: Federal Communications Commission §74.870 47 CFR Ch. I (10-1-04 Edition) They ask the manufacturer to: include with a wireless assist video device information regarding the requirement for users to obtain an FCC license, the requirement that stations must locate at least 129 kilometers away from a co-channel TV station, the limited class of users that may operate these devices, the authorized uses, the need for users to obtain a license, and the requirement that a local coordinator (or adjacent channel TV stations, if there is no local coordinator) must be notified prior to operation. [68 FR 12772, Mar. 17, 2003, as amended at 68 FR 69331, Dec, 12, 2003] You may read the details regarding above at: http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/cfr_2004/octqtr/pdf/47cfr74.870.pdf http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/cfr_2008/octqtr/47cfr74.870.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
studiomprd Posted October 4, 2010 Report Share Posted October 4, 2010 certainly checking charts, and other lists can be helpful, however, the actual interference situation varies considerably from place to place (even by a few blocks), and from time to time. The nice thing about "frequency agility" is that we can usually scan, and in any case move our frequency to a clear one. Given 25 or more MHz of spectrum, I have never failed to find a few usable frequencies at any location, anywhere, on any of the blocks. The folks who have issues are the "power users", like big shows, sporting events, etc. they usually end up needing to spread their many channels over several "blocks"... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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