MD, RemoteMix 3 as a Team
Reprinted from Radio World, April 14, 1999
Buyers Guide - Special Report
By Paul Kaminski
I cover major-league auto racing and am sometimes asked to contribute reports, features
and actualities to other broadcast outlets.
Most of them accept submissions through the easiest and most readily available medium:
the plain old dial-up telephone system.
In 1998, I added two new tools to the arsenal: the JK Audio RemoteMix 3 and Sony MZR-30
MiniDisc recorder/player.
The RemoteMix 3 is a road warrior’s dream. It replaces the telephone and plugs into
any analog RJ-11 jack. Though it has only tone dialing capability, the RemoteMix 3 can connect
to those rare pulse dial lines with a parallel jack and inexpensive tone-pulse phone.
If you are in a situation where the only line available is a digital PBX line, the RemoteMix
3 allows you to connect to the line through the handset on the telephone. If you have a
cell phone with the ability to accept an RJ-11 device, you can also connect.
This JK Audio box has a three-input mixer, two stereo headphone outputs and two line outputs.
The RemoteMix 3 has RCA and XLR output plugs for a mix of the telephone Send and Receive
audio, which lets you record interviews in the field. The base model RemoteMix 3 has solid
telephone quality audio.
On the road again...
We used it literally from coast to coast, hooking up to telephone lines in press rooms,
hotel rooms and any RJ-11 jack we could use. Hooked to those jacks, we had fewer complaints
about lines than usual. One set of two 9-volt batteries lasted most of the season. That
probably happened because we used regular AC wall-wart power most of the time.
The line input had more than enough gain and headroom to accept the line output of a Marantz
PMD222 and Sony MZR-30 MiniDisc recorder. With our Shure SM-77 mic connected to one channel,
the feeding of wraparound reports, voice reports and actuality were no problem.
The price tag of $895 is reasonable, when you consider that JK President Joe Klinger combined
an FCC-registered telephone, handset interface and three input mixer into a box that will
fit comfortably into a soft-sided briefcase.
It is simple to use. With the 3.m edition, you get a mixer that will let you feed 80 Hz
to 15 kHz audio from the XLR jack. That will sound fine on an ISDN, RPU or POTS codec, and
lets you use a dial-up line as a hot backup. This is a serious tool for broadcast newspeople
the real deal. I couldn’t find a minus with the RemoteMix 3, because the 3.m edition
solves the only note on that wish list.
The fun begins
The addition of the MZR-30 MiniDisc recorder made sending wraparound reports and actualities
even easier. It also added field editing and recording capabilities that were once only
available to me in the studio.
Here is what the fidelity, flexibility, and portability of the MiniDisc format mean for
the field reporter and studio producer in a news or sports situation: Simple wraps don’t
need to be done live with the MZR-30. Once a clip of actuality is found, and marked as a
separate track, the fun begins.
The countdown and introduction can be done as a separate track, the end and lockout can
be done as another. Once you are satisfied with both, you can move the clip of actuality
between the narration and end. Place the unit in pause, call the studio, and when they are
ready, the MZR-30 plays back the tracks seamlessly with no further editing. This will endear
you to the producer or editor at the studio end.
Sending cuts of actuality back to the studio is no problem. Once you find the right cuts,
you separate them into tracks, make a note of the track number and outcues, and then call
the studio. You can access the cuts with the MZR-30 thumbwheel.
Example: If you want to play Cuts 1, 20 and 5 in that order, you can turn the thumbwheel
to Cut 20, while Cut 1 is playing. Once you stop at the end of Cut 1, hit Play and Cut 20
will play. While Cut 20 is playing, you can dial up Cut 5, and it will play in the same
manner. This too will endear you to the producer or editor back at the studio.
Connecting a mono microphone will require using a 1/8-inch TRS plug. I stumbled onto a
solution by wiring the tip and ring connectors to the XLR Pin 2 lead, and the XLR Pins 1
and 3 to the sleeve. I have used both my Shure mics and an AKG D-3800 dynamic with good
results.
The MZR-30 has a mic sensitivity control for the Auto Level feature. I leave the switch
in the high sensitivity position and get good quality audio with an omni mic: in this case,
a Shure SM-63.
Battery life has not been a great concern. With lithium-ion batteries and rechargeable
Ray-O-Vac alkaline Renewal AA cells, I can record for two weekends before recharging both
sets of batteries on the MZR-30.
As we go up
The only problems I have experienced with the MZR-30 are the Pause button working intermittently
(a warranty problem) and some cosmetic damage caused by me dropping the unit. Thankfully,
it was a lot sturdier than I anticipated.
Because of the random-access capabilities of the MiniDisc, it takes me less time to feed
actuality. What once took 10 minutes now takes three.
I have never had a complaint with sound quality from a MiniDisc recording played through
the RemoteMix 3. Even when the mic sensitivity on the MZR-30 was set to low, the RemoteMix
3 had enough gain to send a clear and loud signal.
I also like the light weight and small size of the MZR-30. It slips easily into a pocket.
The MZR-30 is now an older model: at press time, the MZR-50 was the most recent model from
Sony.
Wish upon a jack
As for my wish list for the MiniDisc field recorder/player: Instead of the mini-jack, I
would like to see a tiny Switchcraft-type XLR connector used as the mic jack. But if you
can find a hank of thin lavalier cord, and make your connections that way with the 1/8-inch
TRS mini-plug, it won’t put as much strain on the mini-jack.
The MZR-50 has the Pause button on the top of the machine. Not the side, as does the MZR-30,
which makes pausing easier and aswers one of my wishes.
More and more broadcast reporters are using MiniDiscs. At the Indy Racing League season
opener at Walt Disney World Speedway near Orlando in January, there were more Sony MiniDisc
units connected to the multibox than regular cassette machines.
It only makes sense to send the best quality signal you can through a bandwidth limited
medium such as a dial-up POTS phone line. The Sony MiniDisc and JK Audio RemoteMix 3 help
me do this quickly and easily.
Paul Kaminski is the news director for the Motor Sports Radio Network, host of "Race-Talk"
and "Radio Road Test" programs. |
