View Full Version : Timecode/ Jam Sync


Aaron Leahy
June 9th, 2007, 11:26 PM
Hey everyone. I am a student film maker going to an art's school wtih access to 3+ Canon Gl2's as well as my own Sony VX-2100
When i film movies i normally use atleast two cameras. i wanted to know if there was any way to jam sync time code between cameras (sony to sony or canon to canon) using the lanc terminal. Midi as well as SMTPE timecode can be extracted through the lanc terminal but i have no idea how to use that to sync together multiple cameras. (http://www.zeitx.com/site3/lanclump.htm and http://www.avitresearch.co.uk/lancmtc.htm)
Also i own Adobe Audition and an Alesis Multimix 16 Firewire (http://www.alesis.com/product.php?id=94) and i know that adobe audtion has both midi and smtpe capibilities.
How can i sync the cameras and if possible adobe audition along with that?
My other thought (much simpler i might add) would be to take a single lanc controller and build a small distribution box that essentially duplicates the lanc signal 3x and sends it over 3 cables soildered to the original one.
This woudant be quite as frame accurate but should keep all cameras with a reasonably close time code
Thanks for any help in advance.

Greg Hartzell
June 11th, 2007, 04:19 PM
I think your overcomplicating, and creating workflow issues for yourself here. I think it would be best to either do a head or tail slate, or to synch manually in post. DV audio isn't locked to timecode, so there wouldn't be much of a benifit to the way you want to do this. You should post the implications of the project you want to tackle and maybe you will garner more informative responses.

Dan Keaton
June 11th, 2007, 06:35 PM
Dear Aaron,

I do not know of a method which allows a GL2 to read or set its timecode via LANC.

I recommend that you use a slate. A timecode slate would be nice, but not really necssary.

If possible slate at the start of a take and at the end if the take is long.

Canon XL2's can be started simulaneously so that they have the same timecode. I have not heard of this technique for the Canon GL2's.