34 l May 2012
www.prosoundnewseurope.com
broadcastfeature AT A GLANCE
During IBC Cinedeck introduced the RX unit for mobile and OB work
Sound Devices’ 7 Series includes the 788T
The Aeta 4MinX was shown during NAB, after two years in development
and the Olympus LS100 are really good machines.” Film and TV production mixer
John Rodda bought one of the first Zaxcom Deva II digital recorders in the UK over 10 years ago and still uses a Deva V, along with a Fusion 12. He also has a Zoom H2 and Olympus LS10 for recording atmospheres. Sound Devices is the main
offering of UK rental company Richmond Film Services, which stocks 788s and 744s, as well as the Nagra VI. Also in the
portfolio are Nagra’s smaller machines – the LD, SD and ARES-M – and the Zoom H4, Tascam HSP82s, Roland R-26s and the JoeCo BlackBox multitrack USB2 recorder, which is used on a trolley in the same way DA88s were 10-15 years ago. Company director Nigel
Woodford adds that the Zoom tends to be used as a back-up but also as the main recorder for shoots using DSLR (digital single lens reflex) cameras like
the Canon 5D. The main drawback of machines like the Zoom, he adds, is their lack of robustness. “They don’t tend to stand up to being knocked around,” he says. Glenn Sanders, president of
Zaxcom, says what digital did for the recorder market was “change the measure of quality”, moving on from analogue tape, as personified by Nagra, and then DAT. “The cheaper handheld digital recorders have moved up the definition of what is professional,” he comments,
Jerry Ibbotson recording the servos of a Tucano training aircraft at RAF Linton on a Marantz PMD671
“but what determines whether something is pro goes beyond the number of tracks. There are considerations like proper inputs and outputs, file types, battery life and if it can work with AE42 mics or just analogue consumer mics.” Zaxcom’s recorder range comprises the Deva, a multitrack device designed to be mounted on a trolley; the Fusion solid state mixer/recorder; and the Nomad, which was developed to be carried in a shoulder bag and features NeverClip, a dual A-D preamp system giving a dynamic range of 127dB. There is now a wide range of
devices that can record audio; not just the handheld units like those made by Zoom, Tascam and Olympus but also iPhones, iPads, iPods and other smartphones and tablets. Because of this, says Jon Tatooles, managing director of Sound Devices, people can find a product that suits their recording needs and budget. But, he stresses, this has further opened
up the need for specific recorders: “You can have a recorder with full bandwidth and low noise but everything depends on the specific application.” While Tatooles is in no doubt
there is still a need for standalone recorders like the 7 Series, with “sound people doing what they do”, Sound Devices is now also addressing the combined audio-video recorder market with its PIX range. This was established with the PIX 220 and 240; during NAB it was extended with the launch of the PIX 260, a rack-mounted, file-based 32-track recorder- player with 16 channels of SDI embedded sound and eight channels of HDMI audio. Much of this ground was laid
by another American company, Cinedeck, which established the approach with the EX on-camera touchscreen display recording unit. During IBC Cinedeck introduced the RX unit for mobile and OB work and at NAB launched the 4RU rack-mountable MX.
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