The ultimate dream rig....What's yours?

I used the Cantar some years ago and it is the only product I have ever touched that deserves the description "built like a tank", without being nearly as heavy as a baby tank. It made me understand how people would fall in love with an object.

I already have a suggestion for a follow up to the helium boom - the oxygen boom. With the helium boom users will realize that trying to pull down a boom from the air is almost as tiring as pushing one up. Estimate the weight of your arms. That's a lot of weight to push up for some minutes...

We need a boom that stays in the air instead of rising up. Like zero gravity.
 
..but with a cable and a microphone and suspension that will make up the difference in weight for the helium pole.
It is shear perfection.
The only way it could be better is if it dispensed candy out the end.

Hmmmm Dave can you make this happen? :D

I call it "Candium"
 
sonidista said:
I used the Cantar some years ago and it is the only product I have ever touched that deserves the description "built like a tank", without being nearly as heavy as a baby tank. It made me understand how people would fall in love with an object.
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Wait until you see the new AETA 4MinX....... :thumbsup:

A friend had one of their mixers for assessment - it had a heavy pallet dropped on it during transit - he received it damaged and dented, but it still worked perfectly.

So, yes, AETA built better than a tank - and very high spec. from what I hear.
 
Rippie said:
..but with a cable and a microphone and suspension that will make up the difference in weight for the helium pole.
It is shear perfection.
The only way it could be better is if it dispensed candy out the end.

Hmmmm Dave can you make this happen? :D

I call it "Candium"
Click to expand...

well, the problem with a helium filled boom pole is that you would need to carry around a helium tank. If you have your pole at it's maximum length, and it's weight, or acceleration due to gravity, is neutral, and it would just float there, and when you needed to shorten the pole up, the helium needs somewhere to go, so you would need a release valve in order to not have the helium get too compressed, and potentially have your pole explode in your hands. Then there is the problem of making a boom pole completely air tight. I guess one way around this is to find a material that has the pole's weight be gravitationally neutral when it is fully collapsed, so you don't have to deal with compression issues, but making an extendable pole air tight is the hard part. It can be done, but it would probably get to the point where it would be cost prohibitive. If we stayed with graphite, we'd have to make the walls of the tubes thicker in order to withstand the internal pressure of the helium, because it will take a lot of helium to make any boom pole just float there. And THEN you have to factor in the fact that people use different microphones with different shock mounts and different kinds of wind protection, making it all moot. What really causes the most stress and fatigue on a boom operator is the torque due to the weight that is at the end of the pole, which is why Manfred came out with the "Hodges Effect" brass weights for the K-Tek Klassic poles. It's basically a brass weight that goes on the back of the pole that helps reduce the amount of torque. Yes, it makes the overall setup heavier, but the amount of physical work to keep the mic in place is less. I know it sounds weird, but I've tried it, and it is true.

Don't think I haven't thought about this at length. Seriously.
 
davefisk said:
well, the problem with a helium filled boom pole is that you would need to carry around a helium tank. If you have your pole at it's maximum length, and it's weight, or acceleration due to gravity, is neutral, and it would just float there, and when you needed to shorten the pole up, the helium needs somewhere to go, so you would need a release valve in order to not have the helium get too compressed, and potentially have your pole explode in your hands. Then there is the problem of making a boom pole completely air tight. I guess one way around this is to find a material that has the pole's weight be gravitationally neutral when it is fully collapsed, so you don't have to deal with compression issues, but making an extendable pole air tight is the hard part. It can be done, but it would probably get to the point where it would be cost prohibitive. If we stayed with graphite, we'd have to make the walls of the tubes thicker in order to withstand the internal pressure of the helium, because it will take a lot of helium to make any boom pole just float there. And THEN you have to factor in the fact that people use different microphones with different shock mounts and different kinds of wind protection, making it all moot. What really causes the most stress and fatigue on a boom operator is the torque due to the weight that is at the end of the pole, which is why Manfred came out with the "Hodges Effect" brass weights for the K-Tek Klassic poles. It's basically a brass weight that goes on the back of the pole that helps reduce the amount of torque. Yes, it makes the overall setup heavier, but the amount of physical work to keep the mic in place is less. I know it sounds weird, but I've tried it, and it is true.

Don't think I haven't thought about this at length. Seriously.
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haha nice Dave ;)

We just have to figure out how to mantain a solid form of helium and actually make the pole out of that so it's the same weight collapsed or extended.
(i'm sure mathmatically thats incorrect but work with me here!)
Hmm better yet can you get your hands on any black hole material?

Ok back on topic ;)
 
davefisk said:
well, the problem with a helium filled boom pole is that you would need to carry around a helium tank. If you have your pole at it's maximum length, and it's weight, or acceleration due to gravity, is neutral, and it would just float there, and when you needed to shorten the pole up...
(Snip)
Don't think I haven't thought about this at length. Seriously.
Click to expand...

Ahh, these are all just engineering problems. And all engineering problems can be solved by throwing money at them. Sometimes a lot of money.

I do like the idea of solid Helium, though. Whoever can pull that off got themselves a money maker :)
 
Rippie said:
haha nice Dave ;)

We just have to figure out how to mantain a solid form of helium and actually make the pole out of that so it's the same weight collapsed or extended.
(
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I heard of it in a movie once. It's called "unobtainium".
 
Now wait a minute here. What would be the downside of tying a simple toy helium balloon to the end of your boom pole?
Assuming a reasonably sturdy "string" sufficiently long to stay out of the lights and a clear balloon to minimize the possibility of shadows.
 
You would have to either use a really big balloon, or a lot of regular size ones. If you used a lot of regular sized ones, they would make noise when you move the pole.
 
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