We had a major client that played a DVD of ours at a huge conference. I got a call from the client screaming that the voice was out of sync with the video. The hotel AV manager had explained how we probably transcoded the disc improperly and that the client needed to ask for their money back ($35k by the way). Hmmmm! I guess we screwed up. Or did we?
I asked the client, once she calmed down, if she had played the DVD in her office before leaving on the trip and was it OK at that time. Answer: Yes, it was fine.
I then asked if they were showing the DVD on multiple large screens. Answer: Yes they are.
The problem: The hotel AV crew had never even heard of an “audio delay” device and certainly didn’t have one on site. When you send a VGA signal through a distribution amp to go to multiple devices, that audio can be delayed by up to a half second.
Not that this has anything to do with the situation at hand, I just wanted to tell this story.
Steve Wargo
Tempe, Arizona
It’s a dry heat!
Sony HDCAM F-900 & HDW-2000/1 deck
5 Final Cut Pro systems
Sony HVR-M25 HDV deck