36 l May 2012 broadcastfeature The single acquisition unit
for sound and picture is an extension of the practice, common in television and documentary making, of recording audio directly on to the stereo tracks of the camera. With the new generation of digital media cameras film production is now moving towards laying the location sound mix straight to the camera but still recording individual tracks on a standalone recorder, making them available for later post production if necessary. While this approach is seen as
sensible, there is still resistance to the combined video-audio method. “I don’t care who it is doing double systems,” comments Glenn Sanders at Zaxcom, “my opinion is it is absolute nonsense. Why would anyone spend a lot of money inventing something that didn’t need inventing?” Tatooles of Sound Devices counters that the PIX was conceived from the audio perspective as much as the visual, with good sound quality and
John Rodda on the set ofThe Scapegoat
professional, flexible inputs. “We’re also not talking about combining the two very distinct jobs,” he adds. “We don’t want the camera operator having to think about setting high pass filters or the sound mixer going into the camera to set levels. And there can’t be one person doing both photography and sound.” Audio and picture on film and TV shoots have long been connected by timecode synchronisation, which was pioneered in this field by Nagra.
The Swiss company has sustained in the location recording market, making the transition from analogue 1/4-inch tape to digital through a succession of models, culminating in today’s Nagra VI. It has also produced handheld digital devices, including the SD and the now discontinued ARES. Another change for the company came in January when Nagra Audio was moved from the parent Kudelski Group into a new company called Audio Technology Switzerland. This is
still controlled by the Kudelski family but the intention is to give it “a more focused framework” for audio development. During February Sennheiser announced it had taken on exclusive UK distribution for the Nagra range. Alan March, business development specialist with Sennheiser UK, observes that the Nagra IV continues to be the “flagship” for location work, with ENG catered for by the smaller recorders. He adds that the ARES will be replaced at some point but what the machine will be and whether or not it will be in the Zoom/Tascam price bracket is still under wraps. Sonosax is another Swiss company active in the market. This year it has introduced firmware version 4.2 for the SX-ST integrated recorder and is set to move into two new buildings south of Lausanne near the banks of Lake Geneva. Over the border in France,
Aaton has built up a domestic clientele for its Cantar machine, which is often used in conjunction
with the company’s film and digital file cinematography cameras. At IBC 2011, Aaton announced that it will be replacing the DVD RAM drive on the Cantar that has been used for backing up files with a CompactFlash reader and writer. The Cantar does not have a
high profile outside of its home market but a new French location mixer will probably have to look more internationally. The Aeta 4MinX was shown during NAB after two years in development. With four mic/line inputs, two stereo line inputs, two stereo line outputs and two auxiliary outputs, two AES3/AES42 inputs, three AES3 outputs and a DSP-based mixer with flexible routing, the unit is aimed at music recording and radio reporting as well as location sync sound for TV production. In the UK the 4MinX is
distributed by Aspen Media, which also handles Aeta’s Scoopy+ recorder-editor-codec. Aspen MD, Chris Collings, says a large batch of these units has