How to make lanc cable run a long distance?

[Kenny Shem]

thanks allan for advise. I have been doing these kind of coverage for years and will want to have more automation rather than 100% depend on man labor. It's tough and expensive to get labor over here sometimes.

I will be using a video switcher. No problem on the storage as I will be recording direct into a centralized system with ample harddisk space. Each of these cam video stream will also be recorded separately on an external recorder or on their own CF/SD card as a backup. Audio signal will be coming from the venue sound mixer to my switcher/mixer. Therefore I don't foresee any big problem unless I miss out something?

[Allan Black]

Good to hear Kenny. Back to square one eh, the LANC controller.

Cheers.

[Dave Blackhurst]

Should be NO problem running a multicam like this (lots of us in the wedding/event forum doing it without remote control), the one thing you need to make sure of is that the cables are well protected against "human interaction".

And yes, LANC controls can be different - I can vouch for the ones on the Sony controllers being pretty certain to work, but for a time I was fiddling with hacking the LANC port on the A/V socket... and some functions on non-Sony controllers were a "tad" unpredictable for whatever reason - my suspicion is there is some "varaiblity" in LANC protocol implementation, but I
don't know for sure.

Depending on your situation, auto focus or setting a fixed focus should be sufficient in most cases, the little Sonys do fairly well in "auto".

[Steven Digges]

I have done several shoots like this and never by choice. My first choice is always to use competent camera operators. I realize not every budget can afford broadcast cameras, CCUs, and a video technician to shade and switch. So, by the time you get down to handycams and LANC controllers you are asking for trouble. I am not knocking it, I have done it, I don’t like it. There are just too many things standing in the way of producing a quality product.

Kenny, you have done this many times yourself. So I will only ad my two cents worth to say focus is the least efficient of all LANC control functions. You mentioned auto focus. Many camcorders can be set up to achieve tremendous DOF. Manual focus would be my first choice if it can work for the shot in your situation. As far as a crew goes…do you have at least one good assistant or are you going completely solo? Having a runner that can communicate remotely with you is a bare bones minimum for muti-camera remote set ups. To me, it is not a set it, and forget situation. Unforeseen things WILL happen that require human intervention. It is a plan for the worst and hope for the best scenario.

Steve

[Jeff Pulera]

Source for LANC adapter cable, with listing of some compatible Sony cameras. I've not seen this cable anywhere else.

Sony LANC Adapter Cable - AV/R Pro LANC 10 pin Adapter Cable 2.5 mm to D connector Video Audio

Jeff

[Kenny Shem]

Originally Posted by Steven Digges

I have done several shoots like this and never by choice. My first choice is always to use competent camera operators. I realize not every budget can afford broadcast cameras, CCUs, and a video technician to shade and switch. So, by the time you get down to handycams and LANC controllers you are asking for trouble. I am not knocking it, I have done it, I don’t like it. There are just too many things standing in the way of producing a quality product.

Kenny, you have done this many times yourself. So I will only ad my two cents worth to say focus is the least efficient of all LANC control functions. You mentioned auto focus. Many camcorders can be set up to achieve tremendous DOF. Manual focus would be my first choice if it can work for the shot in your situation. As far as a crew goes…do you have at least one good assistant or are you going completely solo? Having a runner that can communicate remotely with you is a bare bones minimum for muti-camera remote set ups. To me, it is not a set it, and forget situation. Unforeseen things WILL happen that require human intervention. It is a plan for the worst and hope for the best scenario.

Steve

Hi Steven, yes I agree that human operator works best for unforeseen circumstances. I will not be going 100% without human as that is too risky. Other than the switcher guy, there will be 1-2 other crews who will man the lanc control and of course if anything went wrong, such as blocked view, sudden power off etc, the assistants will run to it to man it. The key objective is not to have a man for every cam as that is too costly in terms of manpower. If I can achieve a 1 man to 2 or 3 cams ratio, that will greatly help.

[Tim Snyder]

I have a similar situation. We have a camera that is un-manned at an event and we have to run up steps to start and stop it. I already have an audio snake running to it, so I thought that if I bought the right adapters, I could run the lanc through the xlr snake. I got everything in this morning and after an quick test, it doesn't work. I tried it at both 3ft and 100ft.

Any suggestions?

[Steven Digges]

MY guess is the pin config is off. You will need to find a schematic for the LANC TRS and get an adapter to match. Do all your testing at 3 feet then move on after it works.

Steve