rf hd

[mark morgan]

did anybody check out the microlite hd system at nab

[Wolf Seeberg]

From the video assist board on Yahoo:

http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/VideoAssist/message/6268

 

Gaylen :

I did Second Unit on Spiderman.

 

Noodles (RF Films) was providing the transmitters. They Used both the IMT CAMPAC'S and there own version. Neither are ZERO Latency. They are darn close at about 40ms delay. These solutions are around $40-80K It worked quite well in general. They Used AJA HI-5 3D to mux and sent a single line transmission. It was not without it's issues and Noodles had alot of issues. Some were "RED Ache's" and some related to his transmitters.. Although Red Epic will Genlock they are very sensitive to anything from physical connection problems to Voltage variation to unknown strangeness. Any loss if sync is a problem for us in 3D. Qtake can easily fix many sync glitches by re-syncing during playback but it the transmitter takes a hit it's done. There were a few takes that we had to go without the signal and watch back from the camera. 3Ality has nothing to do with video transmission.

 

There will be other lower cost systems for this longer range transmission in HD.

I have tested a system that worked quite well at 1500 feet with 4 frames of delay. Microlite Hd is also made by IMT but sells for $18,500 tx and rx. Directly after NAB I had two Beta transmitters that I tested for them. They have to do quite a bit of revision for Hd framerate and signal compatibility but they are getting much closer and I will update the group as soon as I have tested it again.

 

Boxx is the System for 0 Latency! The range is only about 500 feet. It is good enough for many applications. ( it does timecode if the signal is good. ed.)

 

Gaylen

 

Re: HD Transmitters used on Spiderman for 3D links

 

Gaylen, regarding the Boxx system, didn't you find it a bit big? Or did I see

the wrong system at NAB?

 

What were the issues you had with the MicroLite HD? I liked it, but the issues

I had were the channel selector on the Rx, in that you cannot go in reverse,

i.e. channel 3 to 2 without going through the full channel sequence. Directors

would have a fit with that on a hand-held monitor. The other thing was the :30

second diagnostic it performs every time it powers up. Not a good thing when a

sudden battery swap has to be done. We need near instant on.

 

-Pete

 

You are correct Pete. The Boxx is big. It is also the best on the Non delay systems out there.

IDX, Boxx,Transvideo, intervideo, and J Labs all use the Amimon chipset.

 

http://www.amimon.com/

30 meter range, no line of sight required Less than 1 millisecond latency.

 

They are made to throw a picture across your living room. The question is who is best at making it go farther. So far that is the Boxx using the Full 5.2-5.8 Wi-Fi Bandwidth with spread spectrum technology. They are fully FCC approved because they detect anyone else on the frequency and automatically hop off the channel allowing them find a clear channel and to use more power legally.

 

The systems come in two flavors. One (15.5K) uses a 4 patch "antenna farm" . The bigger and more expensive system uses 7 patch antennas.(22K). They have recently started to take off with more and more shows turning to this solution. The steadicam ops seem to like these the best.

 

All wireless systems are trouble at some point!

 

I really cannot comment on the issues with MicroliteHD.

(not really ready yet)

 

Gaylen

 

The Boxx system was used on Pirates of the Caribbean when they were shooting

here in the UK but it had it's problems. I'm trying to gather as many systems

together as I can for some comparative tests and make the decision from there.

 

Cheers

 

Bob