Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1500728
44 PRODUCTION SOUND & VIDEO – Summer 2023 We also switched the step size on all channels to 25KHz, which helps fine-tune the coordination—100KHz steps are too far apart when coordinating that many channels. For scanning and coordinating, we used Wireless Designer. It's quite powerful and has many useful features. Besides the talent wires, we had a handful of earwig and comms channels which we had to coordinate as well. My receivers are mounted on the back of my cart, so I keep Wireless Designer open on my laptop at all times. This allows me to check the signal strength and battery health on each channel regularly. An old dog learns new tricks Many of my colleagues have been using Dante for years. In case you're not familiar, Dante is an AOE (Audio Over Internet) protocol that allows you to transmit full bandwidth audio over long distances, as well as routing signals to multiple devices. It requires Dante-enabled devices, a laptop that can run Audinate's Dante Controller, and an Ethernet switch. Before this project, I simply did not have a reason to use Dante. But when we looked at this project's needs, it was obvious we'd have no choice recording upward of twenty tracks at a time, without counting comms and other inputs. We chose the Sound Devices Scorpio recorder. It has sixteen physical inputs, but with Dante, you can access all thirty-two inputs. We started looking for a rack-mounted, DC-powered 16x16 Dante interface to feed the analog inputs from my two Lectrosonics Venue VRM's into the recorder. Unfortunately, there weren't many options. Worse yet, availability in late 2021 was very limited, thanks to the pervasive COVID-related parts shortage. We settled on the Audio Science Iyo Dante 16.16MD. I ordered it in early November, and kept my fingers crossed. The expected delivery date stretched into December, then January. I was getting nervous as we still had to install the unit, program the network, and test routing. Fortunately, Aaron "Cujo" Cooley in Atlanta had an Iyo Dante 8.8MD, which he kindly rented to me for the duration of the show. It wasn't a permanent solution, but it got us through. The Scorpio, the DSQD, the Iyo interface, and my MacBook Pro laptop were all connected via Dante, while the two Lectrosonics Venue VRM's were connected to the Iyo. Besides running the network via Dante Controller, the laptop would also run Boom Recorder by Pokitec, which would serve as our backup recorder. We recorded a mono mix, the first thirteen ISO tracks, plus a sub-mix of all the plants in the courtroom. Once we completed the initial test/prep period, all our inputs and routing were pretty much set, and there would be no need to fiddle with anything. It proved to be a reliable, solid Dante system, and it gave us zero problems through the run of the show. people, one of whom, of course, would be the Hero. Ultimately, our EPs decided the risk of the recorder being noticed was too high, and we shelved it. The park was a couple of miles from the hotel. It had plenty of trees and a nearby parking lot, where a video village van could be staged relatively inconspicuously. Two "porta-potties" were set up very close to the set, one was occupied by yours truly, operating the Super Zuca, and the other by Steve Canas, our Video Tech Supervisor. We'll always look back at this shoot as the time when our careers literally, ended up in the toilet… Digital wireless—a steep learning curve We needed more RF channels to cover the show's needs. I briefly debated whether to get a third venue VRM, but I also realized that having digital channels in such a hostile RF environment would help our reliability. I chose Lectrosonics products, a DSQD receiver and DBSM transmitters. Dan had already worked with DSQD's and DBSM's, and he had learned a couple of valuable tips, contrary to what we're used to with hybrid wireless devices. The DSQD tends to react poorly when digital signals are received by a powered antenna at full strength; there's intermittent garbling in the dialogue. We spent some time adjusting the antenna bias power to keep them at around 75%-80%. We tested extensively and played with the antenna bias gain to optimize the signal quality. Perhaps more important, reducing noise is far more effective than boosting the TX signal. We scanned several times, reducing the bias power to the antennas, until the histogram looked pristine. Once the noise detected was minimal or nonexistent, coordinating frequencies became much easier. Considering that the wires would be in close proximity most of the time, we decided to keep all analog TX's at 50mW, and the four digital TX's at 25mW.