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 LECTROSONICS HELPS CAPTURE THE QUIRKY
ON LES PIEDS DANS LA MARGE
Comedy show sound relies on pristine, lightweight wireless performance
 

Pascal Van Strydonck with his Lectrosonics
SR Dual-Channel Slot Mount ENG Receiver.

Prévost, Quebec, Canada… Capturing the crazy things kids do can be a daunting task for TV and film production crews, and this was very much the case recently with Les pieds dans la marge, a French language comedy show for teenagers in the 14 to 17-year-old range that airs on Canada's CBC broadcast system. With the action, so to speak, taking place entirely in an Olympic-size pool, capturing location sound required the expertise of Pascal Van Strydonck and his Lectrosonics wireless equipment.

"Les pieds dans la marge is a mix of sketches, reporting, parodies of TV shows, false advertisements, and bizarre television of all sorts," notes Van Strydonck. For a recent show, the contestants had to, or at least try to, remain afloat for twelve hours. Everything that happened on this shoot occurred in the water. This required capturing the sound with boom mics from all areas of the pool. Since the cameraman needed the freedom to move around without wires getting in the way, all sound had to be wireless."

In addition to requiring a wireless camera hop, Martin Rioux, the show’s Director of Photography (DOP), was very concerned about the weight that a wireless receiver would add to the camera during this long session. "Nobody wants to carry a camera for twelve hours," laughs Van Strydonck, "and the prospect of shouldering the additional weight of a camera mounted audio receiver made this task even more challenging. For this very reason, I knew that Lectrosonics' new SR Dual-Channel Slot Mount ENG receiver was the perfect piece for this project. It’s small, lightweight, and delivers extremely high quality sound."

Van Strydonck mounted the SR receiver onto the camera using a tiny pouch and a wiring harness, with power for the receiver supplied by the camera. The entire project was miked via a boom using two Lectrosonics LMa Digital Hybrid™ UHF belt pack transmitters. "When I brought the receiver to the job," said Van Strydonck," the DOP discovered that the cables to connect it were actually heavier than the unit itself. He was positively thrilled."

"The sound quality of this system is terrific," continued Van Strydonck. "This setup enabled me to boom from the 3 meter diving board so as to get deeper into various areas of the pool without being tied to the camera. Even with a distance of as much as 100 feet away, the system's performance was flawless. Not once did I experience any dropout."

When queried about those qualities of the Lectrosonics system that were most important on this project, Van Strydonck offered the following assessment. “The SR receiver and the LMa transmitters deliver impeccable sound quality,” said Van Strydonck. “Further, the gear is really easy to learn and its operation is intuitive. It’s very reassuring to know that I can strap the receiver to a camera, switch it on, check my frequency, and know it’s all going to work without fail. I’ve used quite a bit of Lectrosonics gear over the years and every piece is tough and built like a tank.” Van Strydonck reports that his SR receiver and LMa transmitters were a big hit with the entire production crew. “Everyone involved in this project was delighted with both the sound quality and the light weight of the system,” Van Strydonck said. “I’ve since been called back to do more work on this show. For me, that says it all!”
 

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Taught by Professional Sound Services, our workshops cover the tools, techniques, and procedures used in the professional sound business. Students gain an appreciation of the aesthetic aspects of sound recording, learn tricks for creating an audio design and explore how to manipulate room tone, dialogue, and effects tracks for a realistic sound presence. Pre-production planning, boom and wireless microphone operation, microphone planting, tape-deck signal setup, and other techniques are also addressed. In addition, students are introduced to the latest DAT and analog systems, inter-format recording for music videos and commercial production, time code and other management tools for post production.

Call us today 212.586.1033
to find out more about PSS's unlimited sound
knowledge they can share with you!

NYC Production is 'BOOMING'

When In Rome Company: Grizzly Productions, Inc. Address: 15 Washington Avenue, Suite 3300, Brooklyn, NY 11205 Contact: Leda Nornang Scout: 3/19/08-6/19/08 Shoot: 4/14/08-6/28/08

Shure Calls on FCC to Reject Motorola, Google “White Spaces” Plans

Company Says New Proposals Do Not Protect Wireless Microphones
FCC Should Focus on Plans for Fixed Services  

NILES, IL, May 6, 2008 — Shure Incorporated, the nation’s leading wireless microphone manufacturer, today said recent “white spaces” plans offered by major technology companies will create overwhelming havoc for users and audiences of wireless microphones, and the company urged the Federal Communications Commission not to be “distracted” by efforts by Microsoft, Google, Motorola, and others to downplay the role of continued FCC technical testing as an important input to the Commission’s policy decisions.  If reliable interference protection cannot be demonstrated in the FCC spectrum sensing tests, the Commission should once and for all state that it will not approve new portable devices in the television band, Shure’s filing states. 

“Neither the beacon plan proposed by Google, nor the one submitted by Motorola will provide solid protection for wireless microphone users,” said Mark Brunner, Shure’s Senior Director, Global Public Relations.  “These unacceptable proposals would pull the plug on wireless microphone users everywhere.” 

In its filing, Shure asserts that Motorola would have the FCC believe that its combined geo-location, disabling beacon, and spectrum sensing plan “is a comprehensive approach” that would protect white space incumbents like wireless microphone users.  “But that couldn’t be further from the truth,” said Brunner, “none of these approaches is a practical or currently technically feasible solution to reliably protect wireless microphone users from damaging interference.”  

“Wireless microphones are vital to broadcast, news, sports, music, theater, and many religious services – if the FCC fails to protect wireless microphones, news broadcasting will be hampered, modern sports coverage will suffer and live music and theater will take a giant step backwards,” he added. 

Noting that the Google beacon plan before the Commission isn’t “fleshed out,” Shure’s filing focused on the Motorola proposal, stating that the plan suffers from a host of unresolved technical issues. According to Shure, the FCC must recognize that the proposed beacon is just a concept and must be fully tested. In addition, the filing points out that the beacon system relies on spectrum sensing technology, which has encountered significant problems in the FCC’s labs.  If devices that rely on spectrum sensing cannot detect a wireless microphone, then they won’t be able to detect a beacon, the filing states.  

“The plan is completely impractical – it requires wireless microphone users to purchase and deploy disabling beacons, then access a database and enter in a litany of information in order to be ‘legitimate’ in a given geographic location,” Brunner explained.  “This would be the kiss of death for news teams covering breaking stories who have only minutes to deploy their cameras and microphones. Users would also be required to install a beacon for each TV channel used, a requirement that would actually result in a waste of significant spectrum when multiple different operators are covering the same event.” 

Instead, Shure recommended that the FCC focus on evaluating the prospects of new fixed services in the TV band.  Specifically, Shure asked the FCC to give serious consideration to the fixed service/adjacent channel protection plan proposed by FiberTower and Rural Telecom Group, and supported by Sprint and T-Mobile.  “With appropriate power limits, this fixed/adjacent channel approach could go far toward providing increased broadband access for Americans while maintaining much needed protections for wireless microphone services,” the filing asserts.

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Rich's Recommendations & Product Highlights

Zaxcom Fusion

The Zaxcom Fusion is a high resolution audio mixer and recorder for reality television, surround recording and ENG. Lightweight and power efficient, it replaces multiple mixers and portable recorders that are currently used to mix audio for recording to camera via RF link or hardwired cable.

Building on the DEVA location recorder, the Fusion has an extensive software and hardware history based on the continuous refinement of Zaxcom's location recording technology.

The functions of mixing, recording and audio effects are seamlessly integrated providing features, functionality and audio quality unobtainable with separate solutions. Fusions eight mix busses are a perfect match for the new generation of ENG cameras that record four to eight tracts of audio.

Edirol R-44 by Roland

The Compact, Solid State, 4-Channel Field Recorder

The R-44 is a compact, four channel, solid-state field recorder that uses SD or large capacity SDHC cards as the storage media enabling quiet and reliable recording for a variety of professional audio needs. Capture up to 4 channels of uncompressed audio with selectable bit depths (16-bit or 24-bit) and sampling frequencies (44.1kHz/48kHz/88.2kHz/96kHz/192kHz). Onboard effects include limiter, low cut filter, 3-band EQ, 6-band GEQ, Enhancer, and DeEsser.

Weighing in at just less than 3 lbs including batteries makes the R-44 a perfect high quality recording solution for videographers, musicians, teachers, and sound designers to take anywhere.

SAE Institute of Technology - New York

SAE NY occupies over 15,000 sq. feet with over 30 studios and workstations including SSL 4000G+ and Neve 88R control rooms, a 5.1 surround studio as well as Mackie analog and digital control rooms. With exclusive AMS-NEVE & SSL training, as well as an included Apple laptop for every student in the Audio Technology Program, SAE NY is the clear choice to jump start your career in the audio industry.

Studying at SAE is the first step towards starting a career in the Audio Industry. Working as a Sound Engineer, Live Engineer, Producer and numerous other jobs in the audio and music industry require practical experience, combined with a strong technical knowledge. Training at SAE is highly practical, with an intense amount of practical studio time to perfect the craft.

Theory lectures delivered by experienced sound engineers and music industry professionals provide the basis for preparing students for work in recording studios, at live sound venues, in post-production studios and broadcast facilities.

SAE's Audio Technology Program has received industry and academic acclaim for over 25 years across the globe. This intensive program is the foundation of every SAE qualification and offer high-level, hands-on practical training in combination with advanced theoretical study. This powerful combination provides our students with the skills and knowledge necessary for success in the competitive creative media industries as well as equipping graduates for further study towards the degree level.

Pro Tools class taught by Michael White;
Students are using their Apple laptops
 

Would you like more information about:

SAE School of Audio Engineering
1293 Broadway - Herald Square
New York, NY 1001
212.944.9121
 

NAGRAS, DIGITAL AUDIO, WIRELESS MICS, WALKIE TALKIES, Q SYSTEMS, MICROPHONES, SPEAKERS, PLAYBACK SYSTEMS, SOUNDCARTS, SIGNAL PROCESSING, FISHPOLES & BOOMS, INFRARED TRANSLATION SYSTEMS, MIXERS, TIMECODE SLATES, CELLULAR PHONES and now VIDEO EQUIPMENT AND LIGHTING!
 

PSS SERVICE DEPARTMENT

Do you have equipment that just sits in the corner of your room that is collecting dust due to the fact that it's broken? Say no more, here at Professional Sound Services not only do we rent and sell  equipment but we also repair equipment. Plus, if you bring any of your equipment to Professional Sound Services and you need to rent that same item while it's in Service we will give you a 50% discount on that item. We fix anything from Transmitters, Receivers, Mixers, Recorders, Microphones, Wires and etc...at incredible rates. Let our highly trained Service Technicians help you out by fixing your equipment at a very low rate!