Zaxcom stereo wireless 1st impressions.

I received a demo of the new Zaxcom stereo wireless this week and had a
little test gathering yesterday with Bob Marts CAS, Dave Ruddick, and
myself. We fed the transmitter from the XLR outputs of a Sound Devices 442
and monitored the receiver via a Sound Devices 302.

Here's the good:

We were all extremely impressed with the sound quality, very low noise
floor, and range. This unit performs as the advance information has promised
sounding very similar to a hard wire. We had the transmitter in my kitchen
and ran the receiver outside of the house and down the block Zaxcom has
installed an external power input (no battery eliminator needed) on the
transmitter and also installed a small physical slider on the top which
turns the unit on external or internal power input (2-AA's). We didn't have
any documentation and are not current Zaxcom wireless users so we were not
able to make any comparisons with the internal software functions of this
transmitter and the current production line mono transmitters but I assume
it does everything the mono one does and more, with the addition of left and
right input adjustments. The units look nice with good fit and finish and
should work well in an ENG setting with the appropriate cabling in place.

Here's the bad:

According to Glenn this is a problem that is endemic with digital RF in
general, but you cannot use the Zaxcom wireless systems in close proximity
to Schoeps, Sanken or other microphones with similar susceptibility to RF.
They worked fine with Dave Ruddick's MKH 30/50 stereo rig but we had
interference problems with my Schoeps CMC6/MK41 and with both my Sanken
CSS3e and CSS5 microphones. Glenn says he is going to try to work on a way
minimize the issue with chokes and filters of some sort, but as it stands
now...if you are a Schoeps and Sanken user the Zaxcom wireless are probably
not a viable solution unless you lower the output power and keep the unit a
few feet from your microphone. According to Glenn you are in the clear with
Sennheiser, Neumann and other such mics that are less susceptible to this
type of RF interference.

Battery life on the receiver when powered by 4 AA alkalines seemed a bit
short at under 2 hours, but as I've been working with external-only powered
receivers on cameras for quite a few years now, even having a short internal
battery life for special uses is not a problem for me and an added bonus.
Glenn says to expect 4+ hours with Lithium or newer high AH rechargeables.


Charles Tomaras
Seattle, WA

Thanks Charlie-
My notes from a demo last week in New York...did not try out Schoeps
and sanken booms...

Finally witnessed the mysterious ENG dual channel receiver. It seems
it is everything it was supposed to be. Did a test between several
floors of a midtown Manhattan office building without a hit. pretty
remarkable considering everything from automatic key fob door lockers
to my Cooper CS104 is susceptible to bizzare RF near the Empire State
building...

Quick observations...

It is extremely lightweight, a little smaller than a 211 receiver but
fits in the Lectro sized single holders and saddlebags. The
transmitter inputs are balanced so there won't be a problem powering
it through the transmitter' s 12v input from a BDS box. Limiters are
separate for each of the channels but Glenn says they can also be
ganged for stereo operation. of course no need to use the wireless
limiter if you've got the Sound Devices' already engaged.

2 lemos balanced input to transmitter, one 5pin XLR output to a custom
cable to make two 3 pin XLRs.

Incredibly clean low end, no pumping, no hiss, now we just have to
wait for the networks to switch to something better than betaSP to
record it to a camera.

Easy to change frequencies on the fly, but no spectrum analyzer like
Lectro. has software that samples audio and "fills in" to prevent the
dreaded "pffft" sound we get on other radios. Worked very well to
mask dropouts.

It has a diagnostic menu that allows you to keep track of how many
"hits" it gets when you are away from the receiver, an excellent
feature if you have it mounted on the back of the camera on a
steadicam and want to verify signal solidity after a take.

Peter and Jim at Gotham Sound hooked it up to the Sennheiser stereo
418 and it sounded great and we talked to Glenn about powering a
wireless stereo microphone through the Zaxcom buttplug.

Now all these observations are in store only. I can't vouch for how
it holds up in the real world, hanging on the back of a camera, but
from what I saw, pretty frickin' cool. between the cameramen bitchin'
about the weight and the worries of RF around the country I've lost a
lot of hair over the years thinking about the links, this seems a step
in the right direction to alleviate these concerns. Thanks to Jim and
Peter at Gotham Sound for setting up the demo and Glenn for coming in
Holiday week.
I get mine in mid january so hope to follow with real world reports
from NYC.

Matthew