Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1197255
22 W I N T E R 2 0 2 0 C A S Q U A R T E R L Y If I could find a magic lantern with a genie inside to grant me three wishes for products we do not currently have in our market, I would probably go with something like a shotgun mic with a "zoom" feature just like a camera lens, invisible lav mics, and probably that recorder I mentioned earlier that makes lattes. But until that happens, I am pretty happy with the way things are developing. Manufacturers have been very accessible to us and are always listening to what our needs are. If you would have asked me a year ago, I would have said a mixer-recorder with built-in wireless, and here we are! THE OFFLINE BRAIN TRUST Sometimes, outside of social media, there is a brain trust of sound mixer colleagues who have continuous, yearslong text message threads where gear purchasing decisions are discussed and influenced. Often, this is the most potent action that solidifies the trajectory of equipment purchases. This also diminishes some of the FOMO, especially if you gain a consensus among a group of colleagues on what direction to go. Danny is someone I like to think I'm mentoring, but he also teaches me and he has earned his place in my offline brain trust, along with my own mentors—and I have several mentors and people I consider legends in production sound. As this group influences my own decisions, it can also be the group that my influential input can affect. So many of my mentors are active practitioners who upgrade their equipment packages regularly. So, conferring with them on buying decisions can be a fun and productive endeavor. It's very broad and can affect the buying decisions of a myriad of items. Thinking about buying a new IFB system? I keep a mental tally of who uses what brands and frequency ranges because you never know when you might need some supplemental We sometimes see this with our wireless equipment. Indeed. I've heard many actors say, "Why does this transmitter have to be so big?"— even when using the super small ones. Or "Why can't you just clip on something that looks like a button or a necklace and have it take care of the whole thing?" I've thought this same thing many times to myself. Clearly, this smartphone that I keep tucked away in my pocket has more computing power than the first rocket to the moon. I'm sure it can handle the DSP to process 32 channels. Why doesn't my phone need a big antenna? And why do my antennas have to be so close when the nearest cell tower is a mile away? But we have to remind ourselves that this is what naturally happens with an economy of scale. Of course. In all seriousness, the options in our market have never been so good. We have more options than we've had in the last decade, and I'm sure that number will continue to grow. I'm glad to see companies innovating with new ideas and pushing things forward. However, I would really like to see what all of our current manufacturers could come up with if there wasn't such a "walled garden" mentality and there was more collaboration and/or integration between them. Certainly. Can you give me the two most relevant reasons for your own purchasing decisions? The two most relevant reasons for my own purchasing decisions are probably future-proofness and workflow adaptability/versatility. I'll happily pay much more up front for equipment that can be incrementally upgraded (rather than just simply replaced) and for something that can handle many different workflow scenarios. That is the exact mentality that I was hoping this conversation would go to. Do you feel like you have been "chasing the dragon" with the "version 2s" always coming out just when you've purchased? I used to work at the Apple Store, and the number one thing people would ask me before making a huge purchase was "How do I know the new one won't come out next week?" And, unfortunately, due to the nature of any competitive market, that uncertainty is unlikely to ever go away. Manufacturers have too much to lose to expose their whole product road map for the next several years to us. So, we're left just jumping in the cycle whenever it seems right for us and hoping that we fall somewhere in- between adopting too early and being the one who finds the bug that sets your whole system on fire. (No one wants to be) the last to the party just before the new one comes out that's a tenth of the weight, uses half the power, and makes you lattes. I want to be able to replace parts as they wear and upgrade things as they become available. Not just throw the whole thing away and start from scratch every time a new shiny thing comes out. How do you feel about where the equipment evolution has brought us to today going into 2020 as compared to 2010? I think one of the biggest differences in equipment from 2010 to 2020 is the integrated mixer-recorder. We now have a single machine that does the job of what two used to do. Although this adds up to a simpler setup with fewer cables, less weight and mass, it does however, contradict my feelings about having equipment that is modular with upgradeable parts. We're starting to put more and more eggs in one basket. This is a great thing for many reasons, as long as manufacturers continue to create robust hardware that is very flexible from the start, and continue to support and enhance the product with software updates for many years to come. I know you as a talented technician and also as an extremely creative and innovative thinker. What does not exist that you feel should?