Tag: Location Sound Mixer Savannah georgia

I-Power New Product Release

whitneyince

I-power has just announced a new professional grade rechargeable battery the “Ipower 520 Pro” which will have higher quality control and longer life. According to Richard from I-Power USA, The biggest difference is that the 520 Pro consists of the best possible grade of Lithium and certain raw materials, and the cells are precision balanced. This also give a higher capacity, so the cells don’t work as hard, discharge less and should yield better.  The existing DC-9V500 will range in actual capacity from 470mAh to 510mAh. The DC-9V520 batteries will yield 510 to 550 mAhs. Over all it equates to around a 10% increase in capacity in the 520 Pro, over the 500. Also the 520 will shut off closer to 6 volts than the 500. Tests have shown that the known problems have been overcome, but  we need “real world” comfirmation, thanks Larry. This is a special order, battery, targeted at professional applications. The iPower 520 Pro will be available at participating Pro Audio dealers, in limited supply. We have an iPower Pro info site starting up, www.ipoweruspro.com.

The MSRP of the 520 will be $22.00 while the 500 will stay at $19.00. The same I-power charger will work for both batteries. I am excited and hope these new batteries will last longer. I still wish they would make a pro level charger

I-Power Battery Kit A follow up

whitneyince

On RAMPS there have been many conflicting reports and statements regarding how effective the Ipower Batteries are. I have owned 12 batteries and 2 chargers since June of 2007 and have nothing but positive things to still report about them. All of them have preformed perfectly with no issues except occasionally suffering a sudden drop in voltage and dying quickly and have allowed me to cut down on Lithium 9v usage by 80% I only use them on a P.A feeds or in other situations where I will not be able to get to the tx if the I-Power takes a dump suddenly. Overall though they are a great product and I hope they will produce a more professional charger in the near future

I often wonder why I don’t become a producer

whitneyince

First off, I have been extremely busy traveling and shooting, which has let me to neglect my blog  but my new goal is to post  at least  4 times a week.  I will discuss my trip in Paris  tomorrow or later in the week but first I want to discuss the project I was working on most recently this last week a reality show about real estate.  This job was a last minute hire when discussing the job with the producer (who turned out to be the production coordinator more on that later). I explained in the price they were paying they would get 2 wireless 3 channel mixer and boom. I explained to them for most reality shows a 4 channel mixer and 3 wireless should be used since there is normally more than two talent on camera at any given time. She explained to me that this was simple shoot and the 3 channel package was enough. I asked her if I could speak with the producer and she said she was. So I show up at the job and find out that we are covering 5-7 people with two camera and they want to know how  I am going to do this I explained that they needed a 2nd sound person and I really needed a 3rd wireless and my 4 channel mixer. When they told me what they wanted to pay for  a 2nd sound person I told them it was to low for me to call anyone I knew.

Fortunately the 1st day was mostly sitdown interviews with all the talent so i was able to handle it. About midway through the day they tell me that they found a sound person at there price willing to work as a local who was from out of town with a 3 channel package just like mine. When they told me this I knew it was going to be a interesting 2nd day of shooting.

Day 2: I go out with my crew to shoot a bunch of short quick scenes with each talent talking on the phone. All these scenes took place inside or outdoors in very quiet locations. The producer told me that we had to move fast so I told him, “I can boom each of these 5 scene easily and we can save time because I won’t have to lav the talent I explained to him that it would take me 3-5min to lav each of the talent and that it doesn’t matter if we are shooting for 15 min or 15 hours to get the lav to sound correct and be hidden. He bit my head off and told me, “We must lav everyone all the time no exceptions!!!!” So I did even though the Boom sounded better for everyone of those scenes and will be used. I don’t understand why people won’t let me do my job the way I wanna do it. I know when I can boom a shoot correctly and when I cannot. So after these scene we meet up with the 2nd crew and I meet the other “Sound Person” and it gets interesting.

The second I saw the other sound guy I knew it was going to be a long day. He was 18 right out of high-school and had never done any sound outside of a news studio before and had the following equipment package:

Shure fp31

3 Sony ECM hardwired lav’s

1 Azden shotgun microphone

Boompole

So we set up for this complicated table scene I tell the producer that I can cover the whole table with the boom pole and it will be easier if the other sound guy just takes a break. He then responses :” I don’t believe you can” I respond it is a scripted scene as long as they don’t go off script I can. So after the producer talked they made me lav half of the table and then complained when I couldn’t hide the Sony ECM lav’s as well as my Countryman EMW. We shot the scene and I covered it all successfully with the boom. The rest of the day was an uphill battle with me trying to make up for the other sound guys shortcomings. That evening at dinner the producers complained to me about him and I told them they got what they paid for. What I really wanted to tell them was I told you so.

I just don’t understand producers and production companies sometimes. They had planned this shoot out in advance but didn’t bother to try and book me till 1 week before. Why do companies always think good sound will just come naturally? Why do producers think that a lav is the only way to get good sound? I am hired to be a sound mixer let me do my job correctly and get you the best possible sound and stop making my job more difficult than it needs to be. I often think “Why don’t I become a producer?” I know I can do it better!