Nightdesigns
Forum Replies Created
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There was an article on CC in this month’s Broadcast Engineering. Haven’t gotten a chance to read it yet, but might be worth a look.
In the past when I’ve worked on a live job that involved CC, the company that they’ve used downlinks our uplink and then dials back into a piece of equipment that encodes it into the video signal. Rather simple setup and doesn’t involve bringing an outside person in to the production.
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I work at a city based channel and I research/recommend most of our equipment purchsaes, so I know the boat that you’re in.
We currently run a D-35 w/ a DSR-1 back. It’s a beautiful camera, but I know this will be out of your league. We’re just about to purchase a DSR-400. We originally wanted a 570 (or was it a 540) either way it was discontinued, so this was our alternative. Everything we’ve researched on it looks good.
However, list is about $10k. After we speced our out to the way we wanted it, our total was closer to $25k. We wanted a different lens (Fujinon 5.5mm wide, strongly recommended if you do a lot of interviews or close-up B-roll, but pricy), Anton bauer pro-pack battery set, vinten tripod, lights, wireless mics, carrying bags/cases, overhead viewfinder and rear controls.
As for SD vs HD, stick to SD, that is what you’re currently running in the studio. I Don’t see a point in having a mis-matched format. Figure in the next 10 years, the format standard will change a dozen or so more times. DVCAM seems to have stuck around for the time being, I figure you’ll have several more years of it. HD is nice, but you’d have to sell that new city hall to pay for it.
If you want to contact me directly with any other questions, feel free to e-mail me at nightdesigns at yahoo dot com. I could probably recommend some other setups that will help you save money, but not skimp on the quality.
Look at the Leightronix TCD/IP system paired with a DoReMi with 1TB+ of storage. It is a 1 Channel record, 1 channel playback, fully digital. It holds about 120 hours of footage at 25 Mbps. We’ve been very happy with it, and use it to fully automate all of our routing (automatically does all needed routing for our council meetings, and then with the push of a single button, creates our council file, starts recording, inserts our LIVE bug, and rolls an open. Another push of the button, ends the recording, routes the channel back to our bulletin board system. It’s a rather powerful system.
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Could you please claify your question? Are you trying to schedule video or content (on the SCALA).
If you describe your situation, I can help you better. SCALA can schedule events days or years out. It is just a matter of what you need it to do.
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One of the areas I see a lot of people have difficulty is tracking a subject and retaining focus.
As always, teach them about Depth of field (how lighting, zoom, filters affect DOF) and tricks on how to do it in the field (my favorite is to throw in my doubler, switch to filter 4 (1/64nd) and zoom in. It’s quick, but it works!
Teach them how to use zebra, never to use “auto iris.” I’ve fired an op because he always used auto, wouldn’t use manual. His shots suffered dearly for it.
Teach them about what color temperature means on a white balance. Explain why getting a 4000k outdoors isn’t good. Make them guess what the color temp of a room/outdoors is. See how close they are. After a few tries they should be pretty close at guessing the temp and should get a reading close to that number.
Natural Lighting situaions, why an overcast day is your best friend. Even though the talent will want to be in the shade, show them how a bright background screws up your shot.
In Field audio into the camera, dif between Mic, Mic +48, Line iputs. Auto/manual audio settings. where to set your audio level too.
Little more advanced.
One of the lessons that I valued the most was basic trouble shooting. Take the camera, flip a few switches, change the filter, put a dead battery in, protect the tape, and then give it to a student to use. Have them figure out what error messages and blinking lights mean, why it’s doing that, and how to remedy. I hate it when I send a cam-op out and I get a phone call “I can’t record, what does tape protect mean?” -
Forgot: Encore 1.5
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Have each camera op keep a white card near by. When you go to a break, have each point at the card, do a quick auto-white for all and continue on.
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We have 5 Panasonic DMR-T3040’s that we use for DVD duplication.
As far as I can tell the only way to get something on the HDD is to record it in real time. I can’t see a way to transfer files directly to it.
I DO NOT recommend getting these DVD Recorders. They are extrememly slow and picky in use. They barely qualify as consumer level products.
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YES get one! I was in your situation last year, made a boat load of money untaxed. I’ve always had an accountant and she took care of me again this year. I only ended up owing about $1700 in taxes compared to the $10k I had estimated. I do my own stuff on the side, but still made a fair amount of money. I use quicken and print out all the categories and bring them along with me. I just go down the list, she tells me if i can or cannot deduct this and that, and how much. I deducated everything from rent, to power, to cell phones, to equipment purchsaes, to my car/service/toll roads.
Total cost of accountant, $100, total saved, $9000
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If you’re going to be doing a lot of archiving that needs to go to different companies, check out a service provided by Granicus (granicus.com). Let them know Jake sent you.
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Might want to give windows media encoder a shot, it’s free.