[Roger Van duyn]

The power plant shoot was unique. I never, ever, had anything like that happen before or since. Entire buildings at the plant were metal. Huge equipment, all metal, all over the place. Move a few feet and signal would come back. Distance didn’t matter. The talent would sometimes be moving toward me and I’d suddenly lose the signal. It would stay gone until he or I moved. That seemed strange, so I became very curious to find out what could cause a strong signal to drop out when talent got closer. So I started reading online. Then upgraded to diversity systems.

Good to know about the wifi routers. Once had a shoot out of town and there was an FM radio station around the corner, unknown to me. Was having interference, so switched to cabled microphone. Heading back home, saw the radio station not fifty yards from the gig.

Roger

[Roger Van duyn]

Wasn’t sure of his particular model. Noticed all the flat metal surfaces and remembered that power plant gig. Because I could hear the audio dropping out through my headphones, I tried to get the client to switch to a cabled microphone, but wasn’t able to convince him. Plus, was wondering about magnetic fields too. When I worked in health care, cell phones would drop out near the NMR scanners.

Still, I wonder if enough metal could overpower even diversity receivers. Some environments just cry out for cabled microphones.

Roger

[Roger Van duyn]

While not exactly the same as phase problems that can make audio go silent, the physics is similar. The reflected radio wave bouncing off the metal surface is picked up simultaneously by the receiver with the signal coming from the transmitter. This, as best I understand the phenomena, the reflected signal cancels out the transmitted signal. The diversity antenna receivers compensate for this.

Roger

[Roger Van duyn]

Yes, watching the video clip in it’s entirety I see many large, flat, metal surfaces. Just as sound waves can bounce, so can radio waves.

Roger

[Roger Van duyn]

Hey Ryan,

I notice a lot of metal present in the area where you are shooting that video. There is a phenomena called reflectance with wireless that can cause dropouts if the receiver is NOT a true diversity receiver. I experienced this once filming at a power plant in Orlando. Metal everywhere. Had to do a lot of online searching to figure out what happened on that shoot. Since then, I always use a receiver that is true diversity. They will lessen reflectance problems. Read up on the receiver you’re using and see if it is diversity or not.

Here’s one brief article: https://www.audio-technica.com/cms/site/b952cb131b9c2d54/

Hope this helps.

Roger

[Roger Van duyn]

Hey Roy,

Not much I can say to advise. It seems to me you were doing great pleasing the one guy client but have run into the problem of trying to please a “committee.” It’s a small committee, just two people. But how often do committees easily agree on anything, especially matters of taste?

I feel your pain.

Roger

[Roger Van duyn]

I’d been using what had been one of the largest web hosting companies for my little WordPress based site. But as this big company (YAH–!) began breaking apart, and apparent security issues (at least alerts-which may have been glitches on their end) started happening I knew I needed to make a change.

After quite a bit of asking around to my IT friends, I decided to go with a managed WordPress site, eventually choosing a company called SiteGround. Whenever I’ve called, I’ve always reached a real live person in seconds, that actually knew their job. Usually, the first person is able to help, but if not, they’ve always known exactly who to transfer me to who also picks up within seconds and has solved my issue 100% of the time. So far, at least.

The service seems excellent. At least the attitudes are always excellent. And competency seems to match the excellent attitudes. I only understand part of what they are doing for me and saying to me. But through the years, I’ve been pretty good at recognizing competency vs. incompetency. And people who genuinely have a good attitude vs. those just faking it.

And as far as I know, not a second of down time. Regular security checks and notifications of the excellent results…

They manage other kinds of sites besides WordPress. Not a huge company, but not tiny either. Seem good to me.

Roger

Roger

[Roger Van duyn]

Don’t know which version of Avid you’re using. I’m using an older version, version 6. Link and Transcode iswhat I do for AVCHD files. You can probably do a search on the Avid forums for “Link and Transcode” to get more information.

In version 6, I use “AMA Link to Volume”. The other choice is AMA link to individual files. I choose Link to Volume because that way, MC will automatically join any spanned clips.

Hopefully, the person giving you the files maintained the structure, all the way down to STREAM, which is where you would go to link to individual files. In your case, the volume would be Day 1. Next volume Day 2 etc.

So, AMA Link to your first volume of AVCHD files. You should see them in a new bin. What I do, is choose all the linked files, then Transcode (be careful not to choose Consolidate) them to the format I want, usually DNxHD 145. Then I create another new bin named “Camera Files Day 1”. Next, move the Transcoded files to Camera Files Day 1.

AMA link to your next volume. Repeat the Transcode process. New bin “Camera Files Day 2”

I used to rename imported files. I avoid renaming AVCHD files. Ran into trouble when going back to old projects. Instead, I name the bins, leaving original file names intact. But I do add a column in my bins for Shoot Date or put the date in the Comments field.

I also leave directory structures intact on my original media drives (separate from my Avid Media Drives).

The Link to Volume and Transcode process will become clear to you once you do it a few times. It’s much faster than trying to import files and avoids spanned clip issues.

I transcode before starting editing. Some people edit then Transcode an edited sequence later. It’s quicker for me to just let the PC transcode everything first while I go get a cup of coffee, or lunch, if it’s a lot of files.

Hope this helps.

Roger

Roger

[Roger Van duyn]

But I don’t think there is any software made by anyone, certainly not Avid, that will control the HV-30 should have “other than by firewire” at the end of the sentence.

I repeat, the HDMI ports on laptops are video OUT only.

Roger

[Roger Van duyn]

The HDMI ports on the laptop are out, like for attaching to a television, only. There are some HDMI to USB3 converters that will allow plugging HDMI port from a camera into a USB3 port on the computer. But I don’t think there is any software made by anyone, certainly not Avid, that will control the HV-30.

The other option is firewire cards for the expansion port on the laptop. You can probably find a few still for sale online. Might work, but might not.

By the way, great little camera, used to have two of them with two XH-A1 cameras. Always used HDV Split to capture from cameras then fast imported into Avid.

Have since upgraded to card based cameras.

Roger