New Lectrosonics SM Remote App, "LectroRM"

[Solid Goldberger]

Exciting news for those who have been waiting for a fully functional Lectrosonics RM Remote App. $20, for iOS and Android.

LectroRM for iPhone

LectroRM for Android

Built by James LaFarge, a soundie here in NYC.

Hope you find this useful.

e.

[jason porter]

Soooooo effin' awesome! I hope it works as advertised.

[Michael McQueen]

just bought an smv this week, stoked to get this!

[RPSharman]

My boom op downloaded the App today. Worked perfectly. I'll buy a copy for my other boom op once he returns from a quad extraction of his wisdom teeth!

[Marc Wielage]

RAVE REVIEW from me!

Works great -- does everything the $600 Lectro RM remote will do. And unlike the Ambient app, this one actually works for me.

Best $20 I spent today.

--Marc W.

[MT Groove]

Excellent. Can't wait to try it out!!

[Boomboom]

Good news ! Just bought two SMVs :-)

[Chris Durfy]

It doesn't appear to have functionality for blocks 470, 19 or 944.

[ChrisH]

Lol I went through and recorded all the frequency tones into my voice recorder app on my iPhone. It was free and it works flawlessly, ironic this just came out now.

[jason porter]

You recorded ALL of the tones...that must have taken hours! days!

[ChrisH]

The blocks are irrelevant. It will change to whatever hexadecimal frequency is on that block so the dweedle tone for FF is the same for all blocks even though they are different frequencies.

[ChrisH]

No it's 256 frequencies sleep un slp loc and unloc plus I skipped some of the volumes. I did the important ones (5,7,10,12,15,17). 99% of the time these cover every thing I need. As I said before the blocks are irrelevant.

[LarryF]

Posted in different thread, but I wanted to make sure everyone reading the threads saw it.

LF

Hi Jeff,

The DSP filters and volume levelers for the Dweedle tone chain in the transmitter, reject ambient noise pretty well. We tried the system in noisy bars and found it worked surprising well. If we'd been sober it might have worked better. The RM has an output level adjustment to pump out more Dweedle tone in noisy environments, i.e., the equivalent is to turn up your iPhone. At about a 3 to 4 foot distance, the remote ceases to work, no matter the volume, due to audio multipath causing interference in the received Dweedle tone. This "drawback" has the more important benefit of not resetting every SM transmitter in a quarter mile radius. We didn't design this in; we just lucked out.

As to your other question, yes, the Dweedle tone must be heard by the lavaliere mic. The theory is that the mic element has to be exposed to the world to pick up the talent while the transmitter may be hidden in surprising places. We will be adding more functions to the RM and will make these available to app writers as we introduce them.

The RM is too expensive even though we never made it for big profit but to help sell SM transmitters. There are huge economies of scale between items made 25 at a time (RM) and items made 25 million at a time (iPhones). Some editorial exaggeration there, but mostly true.

One more quick hint. We send the Dweedle tone 5 times per button press and the transmitter has to get identical settings each time before it changes. However, it never hurts to move the RM or iPhone sender a few inches and to send the info again just to take advantage of the scientifically proven, belt and suspenders effect. I assume the various apps also send the info multiple times like our RM and RM2.

Best Regards,

Larry F

Lectro

[Jeff Wexler]

Thanks, Larry, now I know how it all works. Pretty neat system and now even more accessible with the mobile phone apps.

[RPSharman]

LarryF,

I would like to point out that I know the price point on the RM was fair in terms of build cost and such, but it was still way too expensive for what it did.

A strategy of offering it at a financial loss to encourage more people to choose the SM over other choices (with the added functionality of the remote), might have been a way to go.

Promoting this App, and perhaps officially endorsing it, might steer more customers your way.

Robert

[LarryF]

That was the strategy all along; it's the multiple SM's that go with it that make it worthwhile.

There are several people that had been working on apps. We didn't want to endorse one of our friends over the others. We'll certainly try any supplied apps and be willing critique them. We consider the Dweedle tones "open source" and will supply support.

Cheers,to

LarryF

LarryF,

I would like to point out that I know the price point on the RM was fair in terms of build cost and such, but it was still way too expensive for what it did.

A strategy of offering it at a financial loss to encourage more people to choose the SM over other choices (with the added functionality of the remote), might have been a way to go.

Promoting this App, and perhaps officially endorsing it, might steer more customers your way.

Robert

[NewEndian]

RP,

I appreciate very much your support for my app, but I don't disagree with the price of the RM. Of course Larry is right about the manufacturing costs, but what about also the cost of R&D for the DSP and filtering in the transmitter itself? Charging for the RM is a good way to disperse the cost of that feature in the transmitter amongst the people who actually want that feature. And now enough time had passed, it can be enjoyed by a larger base through the use of the app.

That said, I go with lectrosonics for the quality and reliability of their audio transmission.

Then again, my opinion, one might say, is a little bit biased.

James

[johnpaul215]

Yes! I downloaded the Droid version, but haven't tested it.

Initially I wasn't sure how much we would use this feature of the SM series, but my boom op and I got a fair amount of use from the MP3s on our last feature (mostly going in and out of sleep). The gain and frequency adjustments make this easily worth $20. Thanks for the app!

[Michael McQueen]

uploading a little video over view i did with SMV and iPhone. i'll post it up in a bit.

[RPSharman]

For the record, I own 6 x SM - 2 x UM400 - 2 x UH400 - 4 x UCR411 - and a Venue full of VRTs.

I am a big fan of Lectrosonics products and customer service. And coincidentally, I'm wearing their T-Shirt right now!

My support of a strategy to promote the functionality of the units with a less expensive remote solution in order to increase their already substantial customer base, was not a criticism of any kind.

Now, with the App, that functionality can be accessed by everyone using the units (who might not own them) and increase their functionality and popularity.

That's all I was saying.

Robert

[LarryF]

Hi RP,

It was taken as a friendly critique and I agreed with it, 110%.

Best Regards,

LarryF

[Michael McQueen]

here's a little video overview i did this afternoon. nothing fancy.

[JonG]

Very cool! And thanks for the video! I just purchased my first SMQV a few days ago, so this is something that I am sure I will get a lot of use out of!

[Marc Wielage]

It doesn't appear to have functionality for blocks 470, 19 or 944.

Small correction: Blocks 19-28 are definitely there; no 470 or 944, but I think the hex frequency can still be changed that way. Level, lock, and sleep are still the same.

Note that Lectro still has the "economy-style" RM2, which I think is about $350 less than the original RM, but lacks frequency-changing. I used those for several years just to sleep the transmitters inbetween takes (and lock them after wiring the actor). As far as I'm concerned, they've paid for themselves just in extending battery life. I won't throw those away just yet, but it's great to have all the tones on my phone for $20.

Major props to Mr. LaForge for building a great app at a decent price!

--Marc W.

[NewEndian]

Blocks 19, 944, & 470 have been added to the android app. I will add 944 & 470 to the iphone app soon. It takes longer to post updates to the apple app store. In the meantime, the block and frequency don't affect the control signal. Those blocks should respond to the hex codes of any other block.

James LaFarge