Tally Question

[Alan Rencher]

I talked with a couple people about this already (thanks Will and Terry), but I have a question for the TV ops out there: how does your tally signal come to you? It seems that the photo sensor is pretty common, but does anyone send you a tally signal from the board? If so, how do you get that signal into your monitor? Thanks!

[Alex Kolb]

Triax is all-inclusive, and will bring tally to the camera. The fiber setups I've worked with have been the same. Wireless is a different story. Older transmitters didn't have integrated telemetry, so there are small separate systems that can be used. Most transmitters designed for broadcast have full telemetry these days, but that's something you'll want to figure out with the video engineers before you get to set.

[Kris Torch Wilson]

Alan,

In a multi camera situation using a switcher (board in your words) the tally signal is generated by the switcher. Engineering patches (wires) the corresponding tally outputs of the switcher to the camera base stations (ccu) The signal gets to your camera as Alex stated.

 

I have an ultra2 and use two tally lights. One photo cell that plugs into my top stage is wired down the post and into my monitor via the multi pin. The 2nd was custom wired by our maintenance engineer. Most broadcast cameras have connectors on the side or rear that can serve several functions. Powering a led for tally is one of those. It was a very simple soldering job, just need the connector, led and a hunk of two strand wire. Our engineer looked up the pin out on line and five minutes later we were done. I use the second tally for talent, velcroed to my lens shade. Obviously you wouldn't need to do this if you kept the camera's viewfinder on the camera as it has a front tally, but I didn't want the weight.

 

Hope this helps

Torch

[jay kilroy]

Torch,

 

I like that idea, I'm going to have a quick chat with some of my ENG guys. They love projects like this.

 

Hope all is well.

 

Jay

[Rob Vuona SOC]

Also On a side note the Sony 1500 and 2500 have a a tally out on the back of the camera ,Out of multipin remote connector, if you didn't want to use a sensor

[Mike Germond SOC]

I use the above mentioned Tracker connector on Sony cameras when I can. Otherwise the photo sensor works just fine for quick jobs. For longer term studio work, I daisy chain the tally signal through a AutoScript TallyPlus number and into the rig for the monitor.

 

Gallery of wiring and bracketry:

http://orlandosteadicam.com/photos/index.php/prompter

 

I worked out this idea for both our Fiber 1500 and Wireless 2400 INCAM-S at NBC Sports Golf Channel. It is rigid and works brilliantly. It's all custom machined. Of course if you don't need a prompter, the mounting is overkill. There's a photo or 2 in there with Brant Fagan's low mode bracket and I firmed it up with a Viewfinder bracket. That bracket works great for mounting all sorts of stuff off the VF mount.