Sync Options for Multi-Camera HD Video Shoot

[Drzayuss]

Hello everyone,

Perhaps some of you with more experience can help me out. . . I am recording a live concert/ video shoot for DVD. I will be tracking everything to a 24trk hard disc recorder. There will be 5 cameras, all of them Canon XL H-1. We will be filming at 24p in HD. The concert is an hour and a half long. There will also be a program edit (though each camera will be recording to tape for a formal edit in post . . . the program edit will provide a reference and safety for switching tapes etc.)

Now for the questions:

Should the time code come from my recorder? I was going to stripe a track and feed it to the cameras. If so, should I use 29.97 NDF, or 29.97 DF. The Canon website says to use the latter, but I thought I would ask here.

or

Should a camera generate the time code that I then record onto a track in sync with the audio?

also,

Should the cameras be Gen-locked to one another for the switcher to work effectively (the Canon website says yes . . . but the video guy says the switcher is a new digital one, and gen lock is not required for it to work effectively)?

I have searched the internet and read Geo's Post Sound Sticky . . . but I feel the need for some specifics with regards to my situation.

I would really appreciate any help you all can give me . . .

Thanks,

Justin

[danijel]

If it's not a boring TV-style shoot, some of the camera guys (those who do close-ups) will want to be free and not wired, so if you want to genlock them as well, consider this: Ambient Products Timecode Lockit

But in reality, all you need to do is provide a live mixdown and feed the audio to the closest camera (or the one that shoots the widest). Then sync to their edit at the beginning of each song by matching waveforms. It won't take you more than 10 minutes to sync the entire concert, and there won't be any noticeable drift during the songs (it will be much less than a frame).

[philper]

Originally Posted by Drzayuss

Hello everyone,

Perhaps some of you with more experience can help me out. . . I am recording a live concert/ video shoot for DVD. I will be tracking everything to a 24trk hard disc recorder. There will be 5 cameras, all of them Canon XL H-1. We will be filming at 24p in HD. The concert is an hour and a half long. There will also be a program edit (though each camera will be recording to tape for a formal edit in post . . . the program edit will provide a reference and safety for switching tapes etc.)

Now for the questions:

Should the time code come from my recorder? I was going to stripe a track and feed it to the cameras. If so, should I use 29.97 NDF, or 29.97 DF. The Canon website says to use the latter, but I thought I would ask here.

or

Should a camera generate the time code that I then record onto a track in sync with the audio?

also,

Should the cameras be Gen-locked to one another for the switcher to work effectively (the Canon website says yes . . . but the video guy says the switcher is a new digital one, and gen lock is not required for it to work effectively)?

I have searched the internet and read Geo's Post Sound Sticky . . . but I feel the need for some specifics with regards to my situation.

I would really appreciate any help you all can give me . . .

Thanks,

Justin

The clocking of the recorders is actually much more important than the TC. If you are using a prosumer recorder like the Alesis machines then you need to send it a stable word clock signal in order to hold sync for 1.5 hrs. One way to do this is to derive a clock from a stable TC generator using an interface box like a MOTU Traveler or its competitors-- I did this for a 3 hr concert w/ an HD24 and it worked well (recorded TC to an audio track as well). Another clock source is a professional recorder like a Sound Devices 744 or 702, which has a clock output and a very accurate internal crystal (and good TC as well). It is up to the editor how much TC sync they want to deal with--whether it is recording the TC on an audio track of the cams or having them shoot a TC slate at every roll up or doing the full genlock thing--if the cameras you are using will support it and you have the manpower to lace it all up. (For the TC on a cam audio track thing to work the edit system has to be set up for that.) These days it seems like all the concert work I do has the cams on their own clock and TC (sometimes jam synced to my TC generator) and me on my own (stable) clock (recording on a laptop via interface or something like an HD24), and it seems to work well enough with MUCH less setup than a full wired genlock/TC deal and much freer cameras. I think that the advances in Final Cuts ability to easily assemble multicamera multiclips and then edit them has also really freed up this whole type of video shoot from the kind of TC slavery we used to do.

I would vote for 29.97 NDF, but whatever you do try to get all the cams and recorders on THE SAME flavor of TC. If you can get a reliable TC feed from a camera AND you can derive Word Clock from it for your recorder that will work fine.

Philip Perkins

[jacobfarron]

Don't use 29.97DF with 23.98 - it won't line up later. You must be using the Tascam MX2424? The Alesis has no timecode abilities.

[Jazzpunk]

Originally Posted by danijel

If it's not a boring TV-style shoot, some of the camera guys (those who do close-ups) will want to be free and not wired, so if you want to genlock them as well, consider this: Ambient Products Timecode Lockit

Excellent recommendation D. I ran the 'clockit lockit' set up during a 13 episode series to jamsync 3 HD cameras and a DA-98. Worked like a charm and had zero issues when it came time to post the show.