tally lights

[Geoff Owen]

Hi all,

after 20 plus years doing steadicam work I have recently been doing some live television work, with this came a new issue for me. 'Tally lights', after a trip to the local electronics shop I found a circuit that I could modify to do the job, it isn't pretty but it did the job. I realise that some LCD monitors have a 'tally Light' built into them but not ever having the need to use 'tally lights' I don't know much about them.

From what I have read, these 'tally Lights operate via a multi pin plug on the monitor. As I don't have a monitor with this facility I don't have the need to know where to plug this multi pin lead into the camera but it would be good to know. However there must be other folks out there that have had to deal with this issue besides me, I am keen to know what other operators are doing regarding this situation.

I know 'Jimmy Jib' make a device for this but are there other options? The device I made up cost a lot less than the 'JJ' are selling, I think the list price was $150 US. After speaking about this to an electronics friend of mine we thought that we could build a nicer alturnative, perhaps it could be wirelessly linked but this is still in the think tank, but we believe that we can build a sensor and circuit about the size of a 'USB plug' that would run off a AA or AAA battery.

Do you think that the light has to be mounted on the monitor or could it be suspended a few inches below the front 'stage'?

I found with the device I made that the cable running to the LED (mounted on the monitor) was a bit untidy. If I made the LED wirelessly linked to the sensor this would not be an issue but it does complicate the whole device.

If I built a sensor would anyone be interested in buying one, how much would you be willing to pay for this device? Interested in any thoughts you guys have on this issue. I am happy to get comments sent directly to my email address, geoffowen1@bigpond.com .

many thanks

Geoff Owen

Steadicam Op in Australia