Digital Lav Systems

egproductions

egproductions

Veteran
I want a very straight forward wireless lav system. Price is not so much a concern but rather something that is hard to mess up for someone who is not too familiar with the system. This has sort of led me to digital transmission options. The 3 I'm seeing are as follows:

Sennheiser AVX

Audio Technica System 10

Marants PMD-750


Are there others I should be considering? I like the AVX receiver form factor the most.

They all seem like they would be simple to use, Which system will yeild the best results?

Please note that I'm planning on going into a professional camera XLR (c200 or FS7) or I might go through a Mix-Pre-D first...not sure at this point.
 
Only heard bad things about the AVX, the Marantz is new to me! Only just released.
Thus while Marantz is a well known brand, I'd still want to wait for some product reviews to come out first before recommending it.

Personally I still feel a Sony UWP-D11 is the clear winner as the best low budget wireless for now. (basically the same low price as the classic Sennheiser G3, but a bit improved/refined over the old G3)
 
Massive delay and no manual controls, those are deal breakers on a serious production.

For run and gun single man crews, then perhaps not such a big deal in the overall scheme of everything else they've got to deal with.
 
Networker said:
I've got the Rode Rodelink Filmmaker kit and I've been very happy with it.
Click to expand...

I've also got the RODE Link kit and I'm very happy with it: low cost digital solution, great audio, zero setup and RODE's boost function to bypass internal amps of DSLRs like on my Canon 1DX mkII.

But I think the OP here might be looking for a more flexible solution, seeing that you can only have one transmitter connected to the receiver on RODE Link at the same time. You can pair many transmitters, but you can't have 2 persons hooked up going to the same receiver. That said, with a price of around $399 you could pick up two or three before hitting the price of more expensive systems. But if you do that, you start introducing more gear and it's no longer the small efficient solution I think was the idea behind it (getting the lav recorded directly into the camera).
 
I bought one of the Sennheiser's to test for live use - but the latency was fine with the audience, but noticeable in the monitors - the by-product was very good resistance to feedback. 50% of the people using it didn't notice, the others who recognised the problem hated it.
 
So I went ahead and bought a pair and the first thing I testes was the delay. I recorded clapping on the internal FS7 mics and with the AVX system and brought it into editing (premiere pro). The lav and camera mics were equidistant and I measured a .00717 second delay (1/139th of a second) or about 1/6th of a frame (24P). For my purposes, it's pretty acceptable.
 
I bought the avx, also owning several G3 and other wireless systems. I love the AVX. Yes you are limited in controls but also limited in messing it up. So far for me it's been as simple as test a little before hand, and from that point onward it's just been turn it on and that's it. If you use it with analog systems or with digital recorders (such as avx on 1 person and non-avx on a 2nd person located very close to the 1st person) there will be a delay / echo but it can be easily fixed in post. I plan on buying another avx if they go on sale again and just using them for most jobs.
 
We use the sennheiser 6000 and 9000 digital systems at work and they are quite superb so here's hoping that in time they will make an ENG system that uses the same technology as latency is just not a problem.

You can also fit a lot more frequencies in the spectrum as the digital companding mean little fringing and harmonic wave interaction.
 
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I started with G3s but have added a couple of AVX sets. I wanted to try them since I frequently run and gun solo and monitor my own sound. I've had issues with sudden RF hits in the past, and I don't always have the luxury of being able to stop and switch frequencies. I shoot news and doc, by the way. AVX has worked out pretty well so far. On top of automatic spectrum scanning and hopping, the receivers just plug right into my camera XLR ports or recorder. A bit less bulk than G3 packs. You can hear the slight delay while monitoring but recorders like my Mixpre6 has delay compensation. It hasn't been an issue with my producer, so I don't bother adjusting it. You probably wouldn't notice it unless you mixed AVX feeds with an analog system. One issue is that the receiver battery is pretty small so you might need an extra battery. I've gotten over 3 - 4 hours of run time. Would have been nice if Sennheiser made it so that you could actually recharge with phantom but it doesn't. You can recharge with a USB battery to the receiver's USB port. Of course, that defeats the compact size. It doesn't have the range of analog systems and the signal can be blocked by being behind a lot of metal like trying to pick up a signal in a car from another car. G3s work better in that case. You also can't feed two receivers from the same transmitter like you can with G3s.
 
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I've had the AT System 10 for a few years now. Ty Ford reviewed them, and I thought- that would work for me. Very reliable, haven't had a problem with delay when mixing with a shotgun. The biggest drawbacks are: lav connector- kinda unique to AT. But shops like Gotham Sound can easily wire a Sanken COS11D for AT. Always thought the AT899 was decent for the price too. Power on the receiver- internal battery. Because I only use the System 10 for quick interviews, as opposed to all day use, the power issue hasn't been a problem. I did plan on plugging in a power bank to the receivers if I ever had that issue. Last I looked AT didn't have an XLR plugin transmitter to use with shotguns. Haven't had an interference issue yet- but I don't use them all that often.

One client I have bought a pair of AVX's and on the first shoot the audio mixer had to deal with a significant delay (ie: noticeable) so they returned the AVX's.
 
I believe that the delay is due to the encryption that the AVX does. I wish Sennheiser would allow that feature to be turned off to reduce the latency since I don't care about anybody eavesdropping. I read that Ty Ford post and considered the AT system as well. But all of my lav mics have 1/8" connectors and I still use my G3s when the occasion requires. Overall, wi-fi of some sort will probably end up being the only game in town if and when the FCC gets around to selling off the 500 - 600 block. That's probably years away but who knows.
 
I bought an AVX lav to use with my Bolex. At 24fps latency is not noticeable. From my typical camera position, live sound arrival at camera is delayed a few milliseconds anyway. Human senses are used to sound arriving after visual. So i would say it depends on shot perspective. If you are in extreme closeup it might be more of an issue than a wide shot. But less than a frame delay isn't significant. 24fps frame dwell is 41+ ms. At 60fps you might have a different perception.
Biggest objection I've heard from soiund guys is lack of control over the AGC. But for solo run and gun it is a blessing. Works seamlessly and you never hear it pumping.
 
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