New Way To Send Audio to Cam/Receive Video Back

P

ptalsky

Veteran
Hey all,

Just wanted to post a link to a product I'm going to try out in the next few weeks (as soon as it arrives). Scott Farr posted this on Jeff Wexler's site, and it looks like a great way to send audio to the camera when you're cart-based (especially if the cart is really far from the set).

http://www.directproaudio.com/product.cfm?directid=58323

As far as I can tell, I can send one or two channels of audio to the camera, and pull a video return from the camera for my cart monitor. I may even be able to send one channel of audio and pull a return from the headphone jack or the RCA outs on the DVX/HVX.

And, the really nice thing is Cat 5 cable is much cheaper than XLR (a 100' cat5e cable at Fry's is $29.99, vs. a 100' XLR that would be double that (at least) for a cheap cable, and much more for a good cable.

I'll keep you posted. If anyone has thoughts, please post.

Thanks!

Phil
 
I don't know for sure, but it looks like a pricey way to just run cables. If it were wireless, I could see getting excited. But all this does is take the audio and video out via RCA, and run longer RCA cables to your station? Can't you cut out the middleman, and just run the cables straight from your camera?
 
Currently, what I have generally done is run an XLR back to camera, and a long RCA cable from camera to feed my monitor with no way for me to monitor camera audio. If I had an extra Lectro set I would consider going wireless to camera, but I don't (and that is a REALLY pricey way to go to camera vs. this option). So, I'm saving myself one cable to pull, and cutting my cable costs down plus adding the ability to monitor camera audio. Plus, it is much easier for camera to unplug the cat5 to disconnect on moves than to unplug the XLR and RCA video send. And finally, it makes it easier for me to ensure that everything is re-connected and isn't pulled out "accidentally". If I don't have video, I know the camera isn't hooked up.

Phil
 
I am very interested to know how the tests turn out phil, thanks!

It says powering isn't required, are these passive devices?
 
Looks interesting. It's replacing four cables with one cheap one. Convenience alone would make me interested. I'm curious what kind of cross talk issues come up since everything is going in twisted pairs next to each other. In a wired building you wouldn't even need to be on the same floor!
 
Here's an interesting thought - get a phantom power supply and hang both this little device and the phantom box on the boom op's belt - no more long XLR runs, just a cat5. :-) And, get the boom op some of those video glasses and send video down to the boom op too and they can monitor the frameline themselves. :-) :-)
 
The headphone monitoring system I use in my studio essentially does the same thing (audio over twisted pair ethernet). It does not seem to suffer from any sort of crosstalk. I can't really say what it does to the quality of the audio.

Ethernet cables aren't going to be as robust as an XLR in terms or connectors, or handling but they are cheap and seem to take a decent amount of abuse.
 
I just find it strange that a twisted pair sending an unbalanced signal would be very RFI immune. On the other hand they are talking about sending line level signals and above not mic level. I doubt that a mic level would hold up for any distance.
So Phil, the fix for the boom scenario might be to have the boom op with a MixPre and the level fixed (taped or whatever) and have them send you a line level. You could send a line level back and set the MixPre to monitor that (it has a switch so you can switch from source to tape). That would give the boom the ability to send tone also which might help with some trouble shooting of connections, and of course they could listen to the mic direct. A little pricey unless you already own one but kinda cool.
 
I was kidding about actually doing this, but not kidding about their existence. Sharper Image and other sell them - they have small LCD screens built in that supposedly trick the eye into thinking it is looking at a 6' screen. I've never used them myself, but they sound cool. And it would be nice to provide the boom op a way to monitor frame line him/her self. :-)

Phil
 
They look mad!

would be far mor useful for what we're talking about if it had one eye free though. ..could snap em in half i suppose ;)
 
After reading about using Cat5e in Jay Rose's book I started using it to send line signals solely because I have a ton of it. It's worked great for me so far and I haven't had any problems with crosstalk.
 
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