Remote audio cable for SD 633

It is a (very expensive) piece of wire and such looms have been available for mixer hook up to std ENG style cameras for some time.

Adding the timecode hook up makes it even more expensive but if you need to be tethered to the camera it makes sense but I would imagine that a jam sync of pro systems and some audio radio links would be a far neater system to work with these days.

P.S the description is incorrect as it looks like it has a stereo return and not mono as stated.
 
Thanks. The producer believes this will help in faster turn around as he wants tethered shooting for majority of the times. I have never done this and am trying to visualise how it will impact the shooting ie. whether it will hinder the camera. Obviously when the camera is on a three axis gimbal for handheld shots, we can't have a cable tethered to the camera. Other times I guess it can be managed.

I got shocked by the price of this cable and had never seen one cable with everything built in. The Sound Devices cables are shorter and each has different function rather than all in one. So I thought better to ask if this expensive piece of cable is of use, so that I can learn from your experiences.
 
You can also get them with a 10 pin hirose connector that plugs straight into certain mixers and they can be very useful for quick release etc.

I have several looms that I have made up myself for working on sports presentation etc where I have to rig and de-rig quickly, you can get four way multicore and the connectors for quite low cost!

I would question that the timecode needs to be constantly fed and for doco work these days a mixer recorder such as the sound devices combined with a radio hop for a guide audio to the camera is a far more flexible solution.
 
I certainly don't like being tethered to a camera, and most cam ops I've worked withdon't much like it either. I usually jam sync the TC an send audio via a hop for reference. I sometimes send LTC via wireless but most prefer an audio track if both isn't an option.
 
10 years ago going wireless to camera was not all that common, so these types of cables were ubiquitous. They go by various names, but I've always called them breakaway cables because they have a "break away" built in them in line that is a sort of "in case of emergency" type of thing where the cable has enough tension pulling on it it will automatically disconnect. There is some sort of multi-pin hirose cable in line. Yes, they are expensive, but they take a lot of labor to make properly, so they are worth it.

BUT..you have to remember these were very popular before things like the Sound Devices 664 or Zaxcom Nomad came into being, and most guys were just running a mixer with no recorder in their bag and tethered to camera for ENG stuff. This was back when there were actually real production crews on ENG stuff. Now it's just one person doing everything, and that's the on air "talent". Having one of these is nice, though, as your audio and timecode are hardlined right into the camera, but as soon as people start moving around it can get dicey.

You can get the same thing accomplished with good quality wireless systems and lockit boxes for timecode, or a Zaxcom ERX. Tons of guys use that. It has an audio scratch track and outputs timecode.

If it were me, I'd only use one of these if I was stationary and camera were stationary. The nature of shooting has changed a lot over the past decade, and isn't as "hardlined" friendly as it used to be.
 
If you have it in your budget just buy an inexpensive lockit box (time code generator) and slap it on the camera. This is whether you are hard line audio wise or not.

First, I wouldn't want my time code running that close perpendicular for 20 ft. It might be fine but just not worth the hassle to me.
2nd, because the snake cable has only so many pairs in it, it looks like they made the return mono to use that wire for time code.
I wouldn't want only a mono return 100% of the time.
3rd, you disconnect for half a day because they are doing MOS, well they no longer have on going time code for the day.
etc.
 
The 633 cable has 2 BNC ends, one for TC in, one for TC out. The other end lemo is the same connector. I use the Sound Devices cable sometimes with the 633 with the advantage that with TC out from camera will trigger the 633 recorder to start and stop automatically. I also have XLR cables between the 2 for "scratch track" although the sound is really pretty good and usable hard wired from the mixer. When in the field, I use wireless links, and this is nice to free up the 633 from the camera, but the sound quality is not as good and you really need to use the sound from the 633 (it is always better actually). I would not buy that cable.
 
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