Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1335010
HARDWARE These real-time software solutions work great and vary in ways that will appeal to different workflows. The costs considering the technology are quite affordable. The one big drawback for any of these is that an engineer is needed on both sides of the session. The lack of an engineer on the talent's end can create frustration and slow down production. Two systems, Todd-AO's "Remote Controlled ADR" and my company's own "Stickman Remote Record," help address this problem. These are two very different systems in design, but they both accomplish the same goal. These systems are a complete solution to be installed wherever the talent may be, are on secure networks, and are operated remotely by an engineer. While Todd-AO created the very cool "Actors Mobile ADR" app for recording ADR at an actor's leisure (not real-time or directly supervised), they offer a couple options where rigs with scalable features and prices are available. The most versatile, dubbed "Remote Controlled ADR," is a kit that's sent to the talent and has a Todd-AO sound editor on the receiving end to help with setup. The kit comes with a Sennheiser MKH8050 shotgun, Sanken COS 11-D lav, headphones, and a remotely controlled Pro Tools session loaded (using Source-Connect). Directors and supervisors are able to, well, direct the sessions via a high-quality audio meeting. If in the L.A. area, a sound technician can even set the system up at the talent's location. In location recording, it seems we're always having to come up with a solution for a new situation. I love this type of problem-solving. The Zoom chat mentioned in the first paragraph, along with further research, got me to thinking of developing my own solution. So, I called Michael Orlowski MPSE, who is one of the smartest engineers I know. I asked Mike if he would help me build a plug-and-play remote recording system that allows us to control both sides of a remote session while still sounding great. After a couple months of hashing out the details, we had a system. From top: SessionLinkPRO software; Source-Connect software by Source Elements; Todd-AO's Remote Controlled ADR kit