Wireless Feeds

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drdimento

Well-known member
Hey, anyone have any experience with a sure fire "excellent quality" audio feed from a mixer to the camera wirelessly at a reasonable price. I've tried the Audio-Technica U100/U100X kit and that was terrible. Lots of interference and sounded like a cell phone with all the . . shhhh . . shhhh . . shhh . . you get the picture:crybaby: . . even when I tried numberous frequencies :furious3: Please help if you've tried something and it most certainly works.

Thanks in advance for your help.
 
Well the sennheiser ew100 g2 isnt bad and will do what you want. Wireless will always have the potential for interferrance. What is the cost of a cable? $30? Get a 100' xlr and run that. If they are on stedicam or cabling isnt an option, record double system and use a slate to sync. The Zaxcom system is around $3300 or so and probably is out of your range - but rental is another option.
 
Thanks "soarprod" So, your experience is that wireless is always at risk of dropout? Audio-Technica said that it could always be worked out somehow, but the result of the three program test was unfortunately . . NOT SO! We lost audio on three programs and varying levels of drop out occurred. Because of the cost of a days production, we cannot afford to have such a failure occur. Our budget for wireless audio is limited to about $600 per channel and we want two channels.

Thus, unless there is a solution, we're on wires . . that's how we did it before and if we have to that's how we'll stay. However, I've read on websites of videographers that they're doing wireless and they won't seem to disclose how, so I just figured that somehow we're not picking the right solution. We've looked at Sony's wireless and Azden, but somehow it all just looks like the same gear in a different package and if the system isn't a wrap, then we need to just turn and run from it. Know what I mean?

Thanks again and if anyone else has any suggestions, we're open
 
Use the money for the wireless to get a recorder like the Tascam HD-P2. The only way to get decent audio on wireless is to up to Zaxcam or to a lessor degree Lectro 400.

Good luck
 
The best way to go is go double system then you can send wireless to the camera from the mixer and not worry if you get drop outs or interference. You're just sending a reference track, not your final audio. You can use a Comtek or a lower end wireless for the reference track (I have a low end AKG that I use).

But, your best bet is hire a sound guy/gal to manage this whole process for you, and provide you with the equipment you need. (I think this is going to be my standard answer from now on.) Depending on the number of days, the $1,200 you have allocated for wireless could be applied to bringing someone in with experience, expertise and the necessary equipment to do the job right.

BTW, the Zaxcom will actually set you back more like $6k for the new Tx/Rx combo (and another $1-2K for the plug on for wireless boom).

Phil
 
WoW! I'm getting a message here and it's audible (pun) and it sounds like, don't use wireless unless you don't depend on it. The thing that's absolutely amazing, is that we use this wireless lavalier mic that's cheap as cheap can get and use up to 6 of them flawlessly without a single loss of signal. Oh well, if I could figure out how to input those little mini XLR's with the appropriate signal, I swear I'd try one of them :)

Thanks all for the help. I'm just gonna get me a couple 100' cables and put the $1200 budget back toward three (3) of those firestore drives (or whatever is better) :D Thanks again.
 
drdimento,

I think we didn't quite communicate the full message. So let me extend and revise my remarks (yes, I've been watching C-SPAN again... ;-)

I use wireless on every shoot I do. Probably 70-80% of the final dialogue in any project I mix comes from the wireless. But, there is always a boom and a shotgun or hyper mic in the mix too. Why? Simply because wireless is subject to drop outs and interference. So why bother with wireless? Because, as a mixer, I can better control the audio quality and positioning than I can when I'm using a novice boom op (as is the case in probably 90% of the projects I've worked on). No matter how much you work with a new boom op to teach them how to boom, inevitably they miss things (I'm sure there are experienced boom ops that miss things too, but I'm guessing not as much).

So, wireless does have an important place in sound work. To your specific question, running a cable is far more reliable, but it is also not out of the question to run wireless into the camera, with the right kit.

Phil
 
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