The system's new internal recording capability is particularly useful for reality television productions or other programming where ad lib dialogue is used frequently. Because the audio is recorded directly to the body pack, there's no chance of missing anything, even if the sound mixer wasn't expecting dialogue from a given actor or reality show participant. The sound mixer's job is further simplified by the fact that perfect reception is no longer a concern - he or she can focus solely on sound mixing rather than trying to figure out the best place for an antenna or spending time installing a lengthy multicable run.
"We are very excited by the deployment of our internal recording feature in the TRX900," said Glenn Sanders, president and founder of Zaxcom. "For the first time ever, we're able to fully guarantee first-rate audio quality while using wireless mics for film and TV production. In many cases, this translates into direct savings for the production. For example, automated dialogue replacement is never needed now that our TRX900 takes care of the recording. This means that regardless of interference or overbearing background noise, the audio crew can come in and quickly get the job done - without the hassle and expense of bringing actors back to the studio to re-record their lines."
The TRX900 system features an ultra-compact design and will operate for up to five hours on a single battery. The units are completely remote controllable, allowing production staff to stop recording, replay audio, or begin recording all while the actor is wearing the body pack.
Each TRX900 system has a timecode receiver to ensure that all units are precisely synchronized with each other and with the cameras. This functionality creates a virtual multitrack recording system, allowing post-production teams to work independently with the audio from each unit while knowing they will easily synchronize with the master audio track and camera footage.
The Zaxcom Recording Wireless feature uses a mobile audio recording format developed by Zaxcom that prevents the burnout of memory cards typically experienced with other computer-based file systems. This unique file format also ensures that the system is fault tolerant, allowing users to recover audio from the memory card even when recording is stopped abruptly due to power loss.
Zaxcom is available in the UK through Orbital Sound.
(Lee Baldock)The Zaxcom TRX900.
