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Flying Wireless in TV land


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Steadicam Brethren,

 

Hello all! I just finished shooting a big live show and was flying a Sony D35 with the Total RF system. This was my first experience flying a wireless system.

I loved the freedom of flying RF, however my biggest challenge with the system itself was that my Tally indicator was incredibly inconsistent.....there was always a different delay time for tally on/off...anywhere between 10 frames and 6 full seconds. Needless to say this was a major pain because I couldn't fully rely on either my tally or the AD (who was very busy verbally readying scripted shots) to let me know when I was up/off.

My question is: Have any of you had a similar challenge? ...and if so, were you able to have the tally fixed so that it's accurate?

I'm also wondering if there's another RF system any of you have used besides Total RF that was solid and didn't have this challenge of inconsistent tally delay.

 

Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

Bryan

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Peter,

 

I'm curious to know which camera it was you were flying with the Total RF system. I was told by the technician that it might be the type of camera to which the RF system is attached that might be the issue....he had not hooked up his system to a Sony D35 before...so I'm wondering if the type of camera may indeed be a factor.

I'm not trying to project "blame"....simply trying to not have that tally delay experience in the future as I have a few gigs coming up on which I'd love to fly wireless again...and I'd really like to have a challenge-free experience in terms of the tally.

 

I would also like to hear from anyone who has used a different brand name of RF transmission WITH video/paint control....

...just trying to educate myself with the intention of finding the ideal combination of camera/RF system so that I can make specific requests for future shows.

 

Any further advice is much appreciated!

 

Bryan

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As a witness to Bryan's operating on this shoot, I have to say he did an incredible job and was a major contributor to a very successful event. He ran between three stages with long, challenging shots and next to no rest time. Despite the bummed talley light and headsets that were down for at least half the show, Bryan was as big a performer as the show's stars: Alanis, Avril Lavigne, Sarah Maclachlan, Nelly Furtado, Barenaked Ladies, and Nickelback.

 

Nice workin' with ya, Bryan...

 

Brett Manyluk

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Brett...

 

Thanks dude...much appreciate the kind words and it was a pleasure working with you. It was cool to have a team of three steadicam ops on the show.

 

So about the RF...any more suggestions/advice? ...I'm quite interested to hear about it!!!

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Bryan,

Thomson Grass Valley makes a great wireless camera system. Its camera is a LDK 200 with a Thomson "Digital Wireless Triax back".

 

I flew this camera for Thanksgiving last year and it worked great and its video looked good too according to the video operator. Check out the archives from Nov. 2003 and you will see my original post on this wireless camera system.

 

In brief... it was light, used low power... and yes, it had a Tally that worked great all day long.

 

rich

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