NAB 2026

DustinSchmidt

DustinSchmidt

Well-known member
Anyone on here attending NAB or looking forward to anything coming out?

I've actually never gone myself, and I am not attending this year either, but I'm still excited to see what comes out.

Primarily I'm looking forward to the release of the Deity PR-4. They've been teasing it for what seems like almost a year already, but if it ends up being as good as the specs seem to be then that's probably a purchase for me. My main use case for it is actually as an on-camera pre-amp/recorder for some cameras that don't have good audio built-in. (Alexa Mini, Red Komodo).

At the moment I have a MixPre-6 II for that use case, which is great, but a bit too large and unwieldy for my liking. I think the PR-4 could be a nice upgrade in the portability area and would probably live on-camera 99% of the time.
 
I’ll be there. Not sure what I’m hoping to see as I’m not sure what all’s coming out. I know Lectro is likely to have a little something there (I can’t say more).

Hoping against hope that Sound Devices reveal a successor to the 970, but I know that’s not going to happen.

Not really interested in what Deity will be showing. They were talking up the PR-4 and PR-8 last year as if those were going to be the death of the MixPre, which I just don’t see coming anywhere close to happening. And with the other compact mixer-recorder offerings that have come out recently, that market is getting saturated again.
 
I'll tune in out of habit, but not excited at all like I used to be. I'm pretty happy to just make the tools work at this point, but will still pay attention to tools that make life easier.
 
I'm now probably not going to make it to NAB. Been going since 95, only skipping a few years. But at this point, I mainly want to say hi to friends. That's totally great, but alas/hooray I'm kind of busy right now. Still, it is a pretty fun hang.

As for what I want to see: new radio mics from Zaxcom, Sound Devices, Lectro, Wisy, etc. Some camera stuff (eg- new cams in Sony's FX line?)...I can learn a lot online, but it is nice to touch and talk.

Like Alex, I'm off the Deity train for now. They hit good price points, but I naively bought a Deity Theos system to use as a camera hop and perhaps to use with small cameras for solo doc stuff. I wasn't expecting Lectro et al performance, but my Theos is just not that great. And I'm just not sure I trust the reliability of their stuff in general.

But that's just me. Are other people here having good experiences with Deity, esp their products beyond microphones (slate, recorders, wireless, etc).

The Deity PR-4 looks good, but I'd put the MixPre II series way ahead of it (even with the reports of the screen sometimes failing), and I'd probably consider the Tascam FR-AV2, Zoom F3 and F6 ahead of the Deity units. And maybe the $300 not-yet-released Behringer Flow 4V...though I'm not a Behringer fan on several fronts (ethics and reliability). https://www.behringer.com/product.html?modelCode=0603-AFE

But for all of those, I'd want to wait a few months to see how they hold up in the field after lots of use...
 
Last edited:
Well, Lectro caught me off-guard and announced a successor to the IFB-T4. This has my attention. No 941 block yet, but they say it will happen.
 
Jim Feeley said:
I'm now probably not going to make it to NAB.
Click to expand...

Boo.

Jim Feeley said:
Like Alex, I'm off the Deity train for now. They hit good price points, but I naively bought a Deity Theos system to use as a camera hop and perhaps to use with small cameras for solo doc stuff. I wasn't expecting Lectro et al performance, but my Theos is just not that great. And I'm just not sure I trust the reliability of their stuff in general.
Click to expand...

Theos just doesn’t sound good to me. At all. That, and they’re not allowed in some events and venues because they have very bad RF spray and can interfere with things well outside their tuned freqs.
 
Ya, I don't know what to do with my Theos set. I guess I could sell it, but I feel like I should give a warning to any buyer. What was I thinking?

My Lectro stuff is getting old.
 
Alex H. said:
Not really interested in what Deity will be showing. They were talking up the PR-4 and PR-8 last year as if those were going to be the death of the MixPre, which I just don’t see coming anywhere close to happening. And with the other compact mixer-recorder offerings that have come out recently, that market is getting saturated again.
Click to expand...
Jim Feeley said:
Like Alex, I'm off the Deity train for now. They hit good price points, but I naively bought a Deity Theos system to use as a camera hop and perhaps to use with small cameras for solo doc stuff. I wasn't expecting Lectro et al performance, but my Theos is just not that great. And I'm just not sure I trust the reliability of their stuff in general.
Click to expand...
Thanks for those comments and feedback. I think if you're coming at things from more of a sound person's perspective I'm sure you're both right.

My main goal is just to reduce and simplify my current setup and the PR-4 would seem to be a nice solution, at least on paper.

At the moment I'm running my MixPre6-II roughly as seen below when I need on camera sound with my Mini. At lot has changed on my rig since I took these photos awhile back. But the concept of attaching the MixPre to the side of the camera and running all of the relevant cables still stands.

mixer1.jpg
mixer2.jpg
mixer3.jpg
mixer4.jpg

Power for the mixer comes from the Arri Power Splitting Box Mark II. It has a USB A output that will power the MixPre6-II. However, I like the idea of the PR-4's battery that supposedly will run it for nearly 8 hours. So I can eliminate at least one cable there.

Also the smaller size of the PR-4 is really all I need. The MixPre6 is a bit overkill for what is essentially an on-camera pre-amp (well, duh, right?).

I know there are a lot of other small mixers that are better suited than the MixPre6-II. I've just been making it work since it's what I already have. I'm open to other suggestions though if people have thoughts?
 
I guess it depends on how your want to record audio. Like do you want to record two channels directly to your ARRI, or do you want double-system sound, with the mix of flexibility and hassle that comes with that approach.

Considering you're recording for/to an ARRI Mini, I'd think I'd consider these, kind of in this order:

Convince SONOSAX/ARRI to create an AEM-1 module that works with the Mini. The AEM-1 is made for the Alexa 35, and it's really nice (I've worked with a camera with one). Alas, that's unlikely to happen (especially if you have the original S35 Mini rather than the FF Mini. https://www.arri.com/en/camera-systems/camera-components/aem-1

SONOSAX SX-M2D2 is a really nice compact mixer that fits on cameras. https://sonosax.ch/product/sx-m2d2/

Sound Devices MixPre-3 II. It's about one-inch shorter than your MixPre-6 II...not really a big savings, but something.

Then I think there will be a noticeable, though perhaps minor, drop in audio quality....Perhaps most significantly, if you're recording 24-bit audio, I think the limiters (when there are any) in the products below won't be as good.

Beachtek DXA-Alexa. Worked with one a couple of times (as in: it was on the camera; I was doing sound). Actually seemed pretty decent and well thought out. Note that was for on-camera and scratch audio. Not careful music or anything. But for dialog and some doc natsound, this might be a good way to go, if you want to record audio to camera. https://beachtek.com/product/dxa-alexa/
I see that Lens Rentals has a used one for sale: https://www.lensrentals.com/buy/root/products/audio/beachtek-dxa-alexa-preamplifier

And then the Tascam and Zoom units I mentioned earlier. That Deity PR-4 might end up being OK. But like I said, I'm currently shying away from Deity equipment.

Too bad MozeGear stopped production. Their Papi preamps were really good and really really small. And decently priced. Here's a few of their products: https://www.gothamsound.com/manufacturer/mozegear

Happy to hear what's working (or not working) for others!
 
Last edited:
Jim Feeley said:
I guess it depends on how your want to record audio. Like do you want to record two channels directly to your ARRI, or do you want double-system sound, with the mix of flexibility and hassle that comes with that approach.

Considering you're recording for/to an ARRI Mini, I'd think I'd consider these, kind of in this order:

Convince SONOSAX/ARRI to create an AEM-1 module that works with the Mini. The AEM-1 is made for the Alexa 35, and it's really nice (I've worked with a camera with one). Alas, that's unlikely to happen (especially if you have the original S35 Mini rather than the FF Mini. https://www.arri.com/en/camera-systems/camera-components/aem-1

SONOSAX SX-M2D2 is a really nice compact mixer that fits on cameras. https://sonosax.ch/product/sx-m2d2/

Sound Devices MixPre-3 II. It's about one-inch shorter than your MixPre-6 II...not really a big savings, but something.

Then I think there will be a noticeable, though perhaps minor, drop in audio quality....Perhaps most significantly, if you're recording 24-bit audio, I think the limiters (when there are any) in the products below won't be as good.

Beachtek DXA-Alexa. Worked with one a couple of times (as in: it was on the camera; I was doing sound). Actually seemed pretty decent and well thought out. Note that was for on-camera and scratch audio. Not careful music or anything. But for dialog and some doc natsound, this might be a good way to go, if you want to record audio to camera. https://beachtek.com/product/dxa-alexa/
I see that Lens Rentals has a used one for sale: https://www.lensrentals.com/buy/root/products/audio/beachtek-dxa-alexa-preamplifier

And then the Tascam and Zoom units I mentioned earlier. That Deity PR-4 might end up being OK. But like I said, I'm currently shying away from Deity equipment.

Too bad MozeGear stopped production. Their Papi preamps were really good and really really small. And decently priced. Here's a few of their products: https://www.gothamsound.com/manufacturer/mozegear

Happy to hear what's working (or not working) for others!
Click to expand...
Thanks for those additional notes Jim, appreciate you taking the time to put all of that together. Those are some great options!

I'd actually considered some of those awhile back, but it may be time to revisit once I see where the DR-4 is priced.

The Sonosax SX-M2D2 is actually something I'd looked at while back when I first got my Komodo. I'd seen a couple of other Komodo shooters using it as an on-camera pre-amp. I know the quality is very high on it...as is the price. And yet another item to power via cable, although there are plenty of ports on the Arri Power Splitting Box to make it happen.

MixPre3-II is certainly high quality, as I know from owning the 6. It's wild how it's only barely smaller for the tradeoff. Kind of the same problems/issues as I'm trying to move away from on my 6. I do wish the MixPre series had better powering options. I don't really care for the power sled's for those to get hirose power input. They seem unnecessarily large. The usb-c works just fine, but isn't the most robust. Oh well, trade-offs I guess.

The DXA-Alexa is kind of the standard, so not a bad option at all. I do wish it was smaller. It seems like if the Mozegear can be as small as it is/was then surely Beachtek could have sized theirs down at least a little.I wasn't aware that Lensrentals had a used one for sale, so thanks for bringing that to my attention. The price is right on that unit as well.

The MozeGear Papi came to my attention after I first got my Mini and I started looking for audio options. As I understand it they're no longer in business I thought?Perhaps Gotham Sound has a few of their other units still in stock which is why they're still selling them? Unfortunately the Papi seems to be sold out. That was my pick based on the small size and I'd been searching for a used one for just a bit. I ran across one on the REDUSER forums awhile back that was part of a full Mini kit someone was selling but they didn't want to split it off to sell solo. Oh well, them's the breaks.

I should look back at what Tascam and Zoom has to offer. If they can be small, provide phantom power to mics, timecode sync with Tentacle units and be easy to power then perhaps they could be a good option.
 
I know [SONOSAX] quality is very high on it...as is the price.
Click to expand...

But since sound is at least 50% of the story, it makes sense to spend as much on audio equipment as camera equipment. ;)

And to be clear, as far as anyone knows, MozeGear is out of business. Bummer.

Good luck!
 
This year, I’ve noticed that none of the companies seem to be teasing anything. It’s weird!

I’m curious to know if the current show even has the same footprint as in years past. Or is it significantly smaller?
 
DustinSchmidt said:
Haha, touché! It's good to be reminded of this more often I think.
Click to expand...

:) No worries. Hope something good comes out at NAB... And will be interesting to see what ends up working for you.

But really, you should use a Nagra SN. Pretty easy to strap to a camera, according to those direct cinema guys and gals...

full.jpg
 
Things have largely settled down, so I don't see a motivation to go. We don't see the plethora of new camera announcements. The LED light market has matured. There are new devices in the audio market, but while Deity has made good progress in making better products, I'm not interested in their stuff.
 
I just registered, but have pretty much no plans to go unless someone invites me to jump in their car last minute and we have a place to stay already (i.e., minimum spend). I have nothing much to anticipate at the show itself and the parties...well, I get enough of those during Cinegear week without having to travel to Vegas (hardly my favorite place). I used to go annually starting around '99, when I had every intention of buying a Media 100 and then Final Cut Pro was announced at the show (what a stunner that was), saving me $25K or so. Haven't been back since well before pandemic.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top