Do people still use Duplex Cable?

V

Victor Nhat Nguyen

Well-known member
Do people prefer to use Duplex cable anymore for Boom op feed? Or do they go wireless like Comtek or Lectro IFB. Maybe even still hard line but using MM1 instead.
 
Who is "they"?
Depends on your budget and location needs. A fully wireless send/return is expensive. A hard-wired system is more reliable.. except maybe when when someone trips over the cable.
 
Rick R said:
Who is "they"?
Depends on your budget and location needs. A fully wireless send/return is expensive. A hard-wired system is more reliable.. except maybe when when someone trips over the cable.
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Sorry for not being specific. They as in professionals mixer like yourself. What I'm most worried about is a good feed for the boom op.
 
I use both, depends on the location/scene. A line driver / HP amp is the easiest with the dual cable. OTOH, I use a Phantom Pwr. butt plug transmitter on the boom exit and a Comtek receiver for the op. The line driver / HP amp can be integrated into this set-up as well. A Zaxcom system with the integrated IFB would is nice, but that's over many of my clients' budget. I'm not independently wealthy so I can't afford to subsidize projects.
 
I know that there are a number of mixers that prefer to use a cable, but it does depend on the kind of shoot. For a slow paced fictional piece it works fine, but for anything fast paced I would really hate to be tied to the camera/mixer. My impression is that most tend to go wireless nowadays (assuming that they have good gear for it).
 
I was assumeing we're talking feature film production?
For run & gun ENG and doc type work, a camera hop is SOP for me. A return is usually not an option in that scenario so a back-up recorder is running as well. Sit-down interviews are hard-wired to the camera with an ENG (break away) snake.
 
Victor Nhat Nguyen said:
What I'm most worried about is a good feed for the boom op.
Click to expand...
Whether for the microphone feed, or the monitor return, or the camera link, hard-wired is ALWAYS better than wireless.
Certainly there are many cases where it is impractical, uneconomic, or even unsafe to use wires, so wireless is an OPTION.
 
Richard Crowley said:
Whether for the microphone feed, or the monitor return, or the camera link, hard-wired is ALWAYS better than wireless.
Certainly there are many cases where it is impractical, uneconomic, or even unsafe to use wires, so wireless is an OPTION.
Click to expand...

Related to this what have people experienced with Lectro's digital Hybrid and or Zaxcom's digital systems?

A cable doesn't get RF hits etc so it will always have that but as I understand it the digital and digital hybrid systems are doing a A/d conversion at the transmitter and sending a digital stream to the receiver with no commanding. If so the "quality" of the sound ought to be essentially the same as a wire.

Till your signal gets stepped on of course. I'm curious mostly for FX work. The commanding of the signal has made wireless not very usable for FX recording, but if the signal was not getting mucked with by the wireless hop there are a number of situations where wireless would be great (and in some cases a LOT safer) than a wire. The Zaxcom stuff is pretty $$$ but the "digital hybrid" systems are not bad.
 
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