Powering Production Monitors on Ext. Shoots

LighthouseMedia

LighthouseMedia

Well-known member
Okay,
I'm new to the HD scene and looking to learn more I have done a few shoots with the HVX and learned how invaluable a quality production monitor is for shooting HD. I have seen a number of different options here on how to monitor which isn't really the purpose of this post. What I want to know is on exteriors what is the best way to power these monitors? Should I be looking for something battery operated...like the Marshall. I really like the Panasonic 17" but am unsure of the best way to power this in the field. Do you guys just use generators and if so do you use any tipe of AC conditioner to clean up the voltage or what? Just curious how everyone else was handling this.
 
LighthouseMedia said:
Okay,
I'm new to the HD scene and looking to learn more I have done a few shoots with the HVX and learned how invaluable a quality production monitor is for shooting HD. I have seen a number of different options here on how to monitor which isn't really the purpose of this post. What I want to know is on exteriors what is the best way to power these monitors? Should I be looking for something battery operated...like the Marshall. I really like the Panasonic 17" but am unsure of the best way to power this in the field. Do you guys just use generators and if so do you use any tipe of AC conditioner to clean up the voltage or what? Just curious how everyone else was handling this.
Click to expand...

You mght want to consider a battery pack like this:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/con...655&is=REG&addedTroughType=categoryNavigation
Sealed lead acid batteries don't suffer from the memory problems that NiCads do and are usually less expensive. I've also built my own battery backs using sealed lead acid (or gel cell) batteries, but you need a little soldering experience.
 
The Panasonic 17" has a 4-pin XLR connector for 12V DC. I don't know what kind of power it draws, but a decent battery belt or "booster pac" type of car battery should be able to power it for hours and hours.
 
WOW...That is incredible you guys are truly great, I had no idea you could power an LCD that size from battery, that makes going to one of those size monitors much more appealing to me.
 
if you can get a car close to the shoot you can run a power convertor and power it that way. I recently did that for a shoot in november.
 
From the Panasonic specs, the BT-LH1700W uses 4.5a @ 12v DC (11v-17v operating range)

So it's going to use 55 to 60 watts per hour for those trying to figure out how long their big camera bricks might last...
 
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