Matt Townley
Forum Replies Created
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I just took delivery this week of my new 15″ MBP. I maxed out everything possible on it – quad core 2.8 i7, 16GB RAM and the NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M with 2GB v-RAM. I really wish you could take it up to 32GB RAM, but even with 16, this machine kicks. I’m cutting a project today that was shot in 4K on a GH4, so not exactly super high bit-rate, but I can work with the native files right out of the camera on the timeline in Premiere and it has no problem down-converting them or cropping them and keeps up with my pace quite nicely.
As a general sentiment, Walter is spot on. Spend the money on the best/most you possibly can. The difference between the absolute best and saving a little bit isn’t that much these days and it’s paid for after a job or two and every spec bump will make it easier for you to focus on the creative side of your work and not the technical side.
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I used the daylight models for many shoots between January and July this year and finally decided that I really wanted the bicolor. I sold the daylight kit last month and got the bicolor and love them even more than the daylight kit.
They have also upgraded to a new method to attach the milk diffuser, which solves my complaint about them and now makes them useable. I think all the new kits are shipping with them now.
The luminance of the bicolor is slightly lower than the daylight when on either side of the spectrum, but if you are at full tungsten it’s a higher luminance that what you would have with a gel’ed daylight. I also mix color temps a lot for indoor shoots in office interiors where lighting is all over the place.
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“Block” refers to the block of frequencies the device can operate in. The frequency spectrum is broken up into “blocks.” The blocks available for wireless mic usage varies region by region. For instance, blocks that are open and work well in City A might be restricted in City B. Fortunately, this information is pretty well documented for most major markets so it makes planning and coordinating pretty straight forward.
Something new on the market is called “wideband” wireless, where one device can operate in a significantly larger range of the frequency spectrum. These have been out for a while on lower end gear, but higher end gear is just starting to merge in the wideband space. Wisycom is one brand that just came into North America from Europe. Gotham Sound is their N.A. dealer. Their TX have only been approved by the FCC up to 100 mw, so not quite as much output power as the Lectro SMQV, but they are wideband, which is nice if you are traveling a lot. Give Gotham a call and they will be able to help you with a lot more specifics.
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If you can get your budget up a bit, a Lectrosonics SMQV transmitter can be set to 150 mw output, which with a 411a RX will give you tremendous range. Search around for used gear in the block you need for your area.
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Sync first. I have two workflows depending on the size of the project.
If there are only a handful of clips, I’ll just use the built-in sync tool in Premiere. It works fine but can only do one clip at a time and you have to know which ones match up. Good for simple/small projects.
For larger projects, throw everything into PluralEyes and let it sync for you. Then export an XML for Premiere and open that up in Premiere. There are probably lots of ways to go from here, but I like to create my sequence with the settings I want and then copy and paste the synced clips into that sequence. Lots of variations, so play around a bit and find what feels/works best for you.
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Some newer TVs have functionality built in to play/loop videos from connected USB drives, but it’s not a given. Even different models from the same manufacturer vary significantly. Some can do it pretty well while others have such terrible software that it takes a LOT of effort to navigate the menus and get it working right. It’s also pretty important to make sure you have it encoded exactly how it wants it for best performance without stuttering playback. It’s a more elegant and dependable solution to use an external player connected via HDMI. This way you have more control and can guarantee compatibility and quality. There are a lot of options for external players that can loop from an SD card or USB drive.
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I second the nod to BrightSign. I have a handful of their HD220 units that I use when clients need to loop videos at conferences and tradeshows. I have only used them for looping a video and never gotten into the actual digital signage aspect of them, but I know they are incredibly powerful and very flexible with what they can do.
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Hi Scott – Up until (apparently VERY) recently, you could still download Premiere CS6, which included Encore as part of the installer. I did it just a few weeks ago without any problems. I would talk to Adobe and see if they will still let you download it as part of a CC subscription. This will probably be your best bet for what you are looking for.
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We have several Rimage systems (Producer 7100 and Protege II) but have never used them for authoring before. We always author/encode using other tools and then use the Rimage systems to burn/print the discs. From my experience, Rimage is not very helpful. They were at one point many years ago, but they have since been bought and sold and are now part of a much larger company that has their focus on other things. The disc publishing business is no longer their focus (obviously).
I found a great local VAR many years ago and have relied on them for service, sales and support. I would see if you can find a local dealer and talk to them. They normally know their stuff really well.
I’m in the SF Bay Area if you need a recommendation for this area. Good luck!
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I have tried using the built in USB drive for looping and it works fine sometimes, but can be unreliable and varies greatly from TV to TV. I have had numerous occasions that my client said they were using “XYZ” model and I ensured it would work, but they they made a last minute substitution and the model they ended up with on the show floor, in the meeting or at the conference with doesn’t work. The solution I found was to get a bunch of Bright Sign HD220s. I can pre-program they to play and look a designated video form an SD card as soon as the device is plugged in. The only thing my client has to do is plug in the power and HDMI and it’s set to go until they tear down. Works brilliantly and has all but stopped the frantic calls from clients trying to make it work. These devices can do MUCH more complex tasks, which I have not ventured into yet, but even a base model like this is handy. Just another approach to look at.