Office Hours | Friday | October 23, 2026

0:00 Morning, happy Friday. Welcome to Office Hours. We're going to answer your media production Q&A questions, and we're very excited to have you here today. If you were here for the pre-show, you already know that this panel is just teaming, chomping at the bit, or as some might say, champing at the bit. There's conflict in my old newsroom about this. Nobody says that.

0:20 To talk about, no, I know no one says that, except that one guy. Champing is the proper word. Ed! this panel's excited to answer your questions we're gonna get into the iphone duo uh stuff right off the bat because we couldn't help ourselves even in the pre-show because it is iphone duo launch day so we're gonna have some stuff to talk about that but then we're gonna

0:41 quickly get into our regular production q a questions right after that so let's dive right in mr knight what's the first question all right robert green in los angeles california iphone duo Your reviews are out. What are your thoughts? What? Jason? Haven't looked at any of the reviews. I'm going to restate briefly what I've said in the past. I chose an 18, and today is going to be a hard day for me because, of course, I want to play with it.

1:05 But at the same time, I just, you know, I'd rather spend my money elsewhere. I'm a photographer first, and until the camera is up to snuff, uh-uh. Courtney? uh i did see the marquez brownlee review uh which was quite good um he was kind of lamenting the thickness uh of this particular you know he compared it to the samsung um dual screen display which is almost identical in size and it's basically two

1:37 Two iPhone Airs, right? It is thicker than the Samsung. And he bemoaned that probably because running their processor probably consumes more power. So they had to make a little thicker batteries in it. So they had to go with a little thicker and they wanted to put a little better camera in there. So they had to go a little thicker. And they will never get it thick enough to use the same camera as the iPhone 18.

2:03 But the good one, you know. But he commented on the dearth, as we were mentioning in the pre-show, of software available for it because of its strange aspect ratio. The developers haven't had a chance to figure out how to put something that's either 16x9 or 9x16 into a strange aspect ratio on all the screens on this particular phone. So there's that problem.

2:29 But other than that, he seemed to like it very much. I don't know if I'd go as far as to just outright say the aspect ratio is a deal breaker. I know it's different, but so are a lot of devices the first time. Then they figure it out. I think it's up to what libraries and software, what tools are they putting around it to say,

2:53 okay, this is the home for your 16 by 9 content, and this is how it's going to look nice on the screen. I was able to watch a couple of the getting your iPhone apps ready for Duo sessions that were on the Apple YouTube channel. And it was pretty cool to see the accommodations that they're using to make the bars transfer. And it hopefully will not be a complete uphill battle.

3:14 Alexander? Yeah, I'm very excited about the device. I think the form factor is cool. I think that having all that extra screen real estate is really cool. I think what Apple did with the implementation on something that, look, they're not the first company to come out with a folding phone. But I think out of all the folding phones that I've seen, I think this is aesthetically, I think the design is the nicest.

3:38 I think the way they implemented the screen and the interaction and experience from the front screen to where you open it up, the little animations, I think it's really slick. I like what they did as far as rethinking how the user experience would work they didn't just make a folding phone and stick iOS on it they thought about how apps should operate and take advantage

4:05 of that screen so they made a lot of changes to the code and came up with a version of the OS specifically for that so now app developers have to take advantage of this and you know rethink think about where they're putting toolbars and such on the device. I think at some point down the road, it will definitely be a device I will go to. I'd like to switch away from an iPhone to

4:29 the Duo at some point. But like Jason said, for me, the camera is so critical. And it's not that the camera is horrible. It's just not as good as the Pro in a pretty significant way. I think for a lot of people, you know, that's something that they have to think about as a trade-off. But, But, you know, ultimately, too, I think if you want to take photos that matter, and look, I get it.

4:50 We all want to take photos with the phone that's in our pocket because it's easy and light. But if you have a really nice, like a real camera, I have a full frame camera. Like I can still use that for occasions where it really matters. But maybe in two or three years, we'll see what they do with next year's model with the camera.

5:11 But obviously, there's growing pains with the software, too. So I'm going to closely watch this space and see how it works. Patrick Tommaso on Instagram was actually doing a really interesting, he did a video where he was actually demoing a lot of the popular apps like Instagram and Amazon Prime and Netflix to see how they take advantage of it. Some are better than others, but a lot of them are still kind of bad

5:34 and don't fully take advantage of all the space properly. So it's going to be some time for software developers to catch up with this. Fenwick. So it's very interesting. I'm going to analyze some of the things I heard say. You know, Alexander just said, he started to say, if you want to take a serious picture or something like that. I think you were headed toward the, you know, because you said,

5:59 of course, we want to use the camera that's in our pocket. And yes, you did get to the large full-frame camera. But Jason said, I'm a photographer first. I did say that, yes. and then you went on to why this phone was not for you. And we've really entered into an era where, and we've been there for a while, but it is a camera.

6:28 It is a camera almost first. Also, I want to say, the thing that interests me the most about the Duo, even though it sits squarely in the Fenwick's Apple Wall of Shame graphic. Oh yeah, it's a Vision Pro for the Fenwick. It's a stupid product. I don't think it was worth all of the engineering and time and research. Put your resources into things that matter.

6:57 But what's really curious about it is just the math problem of taking the outside display, display, which is an aspect ratio of 1.4 to 1. And then when you open it, the resulting aspect ratio of the two displays is still 1.4 to 1. I don't know how that works. And I don't know what the actual pixel count of the two displays are.

7:28 And I kind of don't believe them. I want to find out what the pixel count of the two displays are and do the math myself. but that's really fascinating that a single display opened up into a double display is still the same aspect ratio it's like a4 paper no no no uh yeah no it's because of the way that it folds like it's not the frame it's the a4 a5 a10 i get that a1 i get that no i i know that

7:55 that, but it's, um, yeah, maybe it is that simple. Okay. Anyway, I still think it's a stupid product. You lose, Apple. So as was slightly given away by my miming, we've got a case. Um, so the, the one thing I just want to point out is I, I was curious how they were actually going to do the case for this because you've got to have, you've got to accommodate for the hinge that's going

8:23 going to bend around the outside of the thing. Look at this nice little... Yes, but it has an outside display that that case is going to cover. It really is the size of a passport, isn't it? You're covering one of the screens. The point is, if you want to protect the outside of that screen while it's in a bag or something, while it's in folded mode,

8:41 the front can open up like you're looking at a book, or if you want it covered, it'll still cover it, and I like that this has a little It's so big, you have to put it in a bag to carry it around. Again, this is my wife's case from my wife's phone, and my wife will put it in a bag. So I will report back in a week about what software has done a good job.

9:08 That is if you're still married. What's the future? I mean, she's put up with me this long. I think I'm stuck. Next question. All right, David Brady in New York City, New York, is asking, Are there any utilities for Mac OS that will translate or remap keyboard commands to new ones? Problem. Have an XKeys controller for Playback Pro that I'd like to use with Miti.

9:29 Some of the commands translate, but not all. Jason. Oh, this is the whole horse to water but can't make it drink thing. Okay. So the XKeys Mac app, if you put the XKeys in hardware mode and then actually just monitor the output with full keyboard mapping, mapping whatever is wrong like you will be able to correct so that that will fix it but if you if

9:54 you really just want to play around with it um yeah better touch tool can do this um but again like it's going to be more work there's also another keyboard customizer um called carabiner elements k-a-r-a-b-i-n-e-r that i've used to get through some it's lighter weight than keyboard keyboard maestro not as powerful but if you're looking for simple key remapping that might be

10:21 the best uh might be the best bet Jason um you know the other way to do this is with a mac OS shortcut but again like don't five code this like you need a button that does a thing like it's just an ASCII remap but again like x keys in hardware mode and reflash the firmware for mac OS and I I think you'll just be done.

10:40 Next question. All right, next up from Paul Vahos in Austin, Texas. Would this work better than a paint stick for my lav mic at a shoot? I also just want to briefly make a comment that I love David's question and how quickly and accurately it was answered. And that's like peak office hours, I just want to say. Alexander, let's talk about the paint stick.

11:09 Yeah, this is the paint stick. I hate these products. I hate these products so much. I hate that people buy tiny lav mics. I hate that they put them on stupid little sticks like this. If you want a handheld microphone, buy a real one. And I'll tell you which one that I would suggest. If you want an interview mic, get the classic.

11:33 And especially, you know, considering that you're putting a lav mic that's omni-directional on that anyways, if you want an omni one that's actually good, the Electro-Voice RE50, which is a classic handheld microphone with an omni-capsule there and an extended handle as well. Put mine on a boom pole. I don't know about you guys. I mean, this is a really nice microphone, and it's very inexpensive.

11:54 And it's going to sound a lot better, and you won't blow the diaphragm as easily because those tiny little mics, especially the cheap ones, they're not good unless it's a DPA. Courtney? Yeah, but it has a wire on it, Alexander. Oh, no wires. Oh, no. You don't have to have a wire. Where do I plug that RE50 into my iPhone, though? They do make plug-on transmitters.

12:21 You can get a nice, sure plug-on transmitter. Yeah, looks like a little cancer growing on the bottom of the microphone. microphone. Of the ones you mentioned in his little link here, I kind of like the one on the left because it accommodates a mic flag to be put on there, and it looks more like a conventional microphone. You can cover up the whole wireless transmitter body so that

12:45 you aren't shamed for sticking a wireless on a piece of plastic, you know, and it puts Put a pop filter over the top of it. And generally, those pop filters and windscreens don't work very well on that little condenser microphone that's in most wireless mics. Jason? Oh, Paul, I'm surprised that you don't have the Rode Reporter, which is what I call the Bob Barker mic because it is comically long.

13:10 And, you know, if you were to hollow this one out, and I don't remember it costing very much, but it sounds okay. you could actually stuff all the cabling all the way in there. It's not the Gene Rayburn? We're going Bob Barker? I call it the Bob Barker mic because Bob Barker, like, you know. Price is right. Yeah, I know. You went old game show reference.

13:36 I went older game show reference. Oh, I just got one up. I didn't even know it. 50 on a stick. Pain stick. So yes, I do have one of these jokey little pain sticks. And I got it because I think it was... You were painting your back porch? I was painting my back porch. You had it within arm's reach though. Like that was...

14:00 Everything is with arm's reach in this room. That's true. That's why the shot is so tight. No, the, I found it useful because I didn't have another, like, I was using the DJI, you know, lav to record something. It wasn't for live. And then I found, I was, we were trying to do an insert for NAB or something. I was trying to record and I didn't have any other microphones.

14:29 And then all of a sudden I wanted to talk to somebody else. and I didn't have something like this and I was like man in that situation it would have been nice to dress this up and put a fake little wind muff on it so that it doesn't look like I have a little DJI mic clamped into the top of this and it's just more natural to be able to have that back and forth because

14:51 we're used to the grammar of that in video is it going to be the same audio quality as a as the microphone that was built for that job absolutely not is it going to be better than me doofusly holding the lav up to somebody's mouth 100 and how many videos do you see doofusing i language is an evolution whoever whoever invented addicting just needs to die though like that's such a cop out

15:19 so i think it's not the ideal tool for that job but in the situation where i don't have anything anything else. It's better than me like, look at my microphone. So I think, is it perfect? No, but can it have a place for $12? There's something there. It's not, is it the professional tool? No, but is it better than what a lot of what we see? Kind of. Jason?

15:46 Yeah, I just want to know how I'm going to plug my iPhone into this ElectroVoice RE27. and I'm actually picturing the rig in my head, but no, like where I went with this was one of the things they added in iOS 27 is the ability in Control Center to add local recording, which is designed to double end, like, you know, kind of a podcast telephone type recording

16:12 in very, very accurate, like, you know, so both people turn on local recording, you have a podcast convo, right? and you can kind of splice it together. So I don't know. I guess maybe this thing's days are numbered as a microphone and now it's just a weapon. That little Shure clip-on thing is great for getting any of these microphones into an iPhone.

16:36 That MVX2U, I've got a pair of them. And that's been the other thing that's nice to have in the bag to just get me out of a jam sort of a situation. Chris? so uh i only show this because i know that alexander will enjoy it so much but i was watching this video the other day about a guy saying you shouldn't buy a shed from home depot

16:59 you should just build your own dj might it's on the beard please tell me that's ai no no this is This is real. This is real. And as a matter of fact, I think in this shot, it falls off his beard. There we go. You cannot buy class like that. And he leaves it in the shot. I love it. Anyway, so Alexander, I think there's a time and a place for everything.

17:32 Not everybody's going to get a wireless transmitter. Those little mics, as bad as they sound, they serve a purpose for certain people. Not everybody is going to rise to the Alexander Knight level of audio proficiency. Just like that interview, you sent me a comment about the interview I did last week where the guy had his SM7B pointed wrong. He absolutely did. and I opted to let him feel more comfortable

18:03 and not sound as good than to beat him down because he didn't know how to use the mic. You know, it's okay. Nobody's going to die. We all go home. Comfort is overrated. Well, I'm telling you, there's an advantage to having a well-grown beard. So that's just a thing. I keep it too short. I keep it too short for the mic clip.

18:29 So you guys are stuck with the stellar, I guess. Remember that not everybody started out with all the best tools and all the best gear. Some people have what they have and they're trying to make the best out of it. And if it's getting us closer to being of the kind of quality that we're aiming for, that we're aspiring to, then I think we should celebrate that and tell people,

18:52 yes, there is a better and you're on your way. Next question. All right, this one's coming in from JJ McKenna in Skabo, California. In lieu of purchasing a Manfrotto SkyRack, is there a historically functional grid system hardware that could roll along a one-inch conduit black pipe for overhead light placement? Courtney? Well, the problem with using a one-inch conduit as a rack pipe is it doesn't support enough weight to hang heavy lights on or any lights at all on.

19:24 And the other problem is, if you look at the way the Manfrotto is designed, it's a pipe grid system, but the things that roll back and forth to let you move is an extruded aluminum I-frame type that hangs below the grid. Because you can support it by the top part of that extrusion, and the roller things roll on the bottom side of that extrusion.

19:49 because otherwise you're going to run into the supports with the rollers. So it doesn't make much sense to make something that slides over a one-inch round conduit because it's going to run into however you're supporting it very quickly. Otherwise, it will bend down into your shot. You know, Courtney, you just made me think that the software folks at MiddleThings are going to get into hardware now.

20:14 It's going to be called RollerThings, and they're just going to do just camera, Just little lighting support systems. Chris, once you're done shaking your head at my dumb jokes. No, no, your jokes are beyond dumb. So, you're like the dad joke of the production community. I'm getting that on a business card. I have often said that there's no such thing as the good old days in television.

20:43 And because technology just gets better. but i have a question so courtney do you remember the first time you saw somebody show up on a set with like a commercially available uh store-bought sound card because in the beginning of our careers there was guys like getting ex you know l brackets and a v cart yeah you built something something you fashion something together because you had a particular need and i think that and i

21:19 think that that sort of diy attitude gets lost and i think that there's some advantage to it um and i remember i had a friend who had a he he moved his edit suite into his house in in hollywood and he had the he was a nerd and had no friends uh he the the dining room was the machine room and the suite was in the living room.

21:41 And he had all these cables running all the way around and all the way down the hallway and back into the, and I said, why don't you just pop a little hole through here? And he goes, I don't know how to do that. I'm like, it's called, you kick a hole in the wall, if nothing else. I mean, it's not that hard.

21:57 And I think that there's a certain amount of, like, can't you just build this thing that people need to learn how to do. All that being said, But when I took a closer look at this thing, there is an aspect of this Manfrotto thing that's really pretty ingenious. I want to show you here. So basically, you hang one of these extruded things on the ceiling.

22:21 You put this one on another ceiling joist. And then these guys here, you notice they're not parallel. And the reason they're not parallel is they've built this little brackety thing that allows you to slide it up and down the rack here and up and down the rack here. So you have set screws in one axis and then a roller in the other one.

22:43 That's great. Clearly, it pivots. No, I think you can roll anything anywhere. anywhere. So very clever. And that's what Monfrato has done is they've looked at our industry for decades and built physical things. So I got to say, CJ, I think this thing is pretty ingenious the way that works. And Courtney's right. If you do want to slide one of these, what are these things called? There's a name for this extendo thing-o?

23:12 Pantograph. Scissors, things. Pantograph. Pantograph. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. So if you want to slide one of these pantographs, past this support beam up here. You can because this guy grabs the bottom of the extrusion, whereas this guy here is grabbing the top of the extrusion. And I bet you, donuts to dollars, that you can take this thing and slide it right past this bracket right here.

23:37 You can because it's on the bottom side of the extrusion. The thing that they don't show you, though, in any of these photographs is the cables that are running to the lights and how you're going to manage those and how they're not going to pull. That's what these little gizmos are. You can clip the cables to these little clips that also slide along the thing.

23:55 But they don't show them laced up. And so when you move them, it's going to... But at any rate, I think this is a pretty cool product. But there's something about just solving the problem. And we get so wrapped up in impedance and converter boxes and scan rates and stuff like that. that we forget how to use like screwdrivers and saws. And those are pretty good tools once in a while.

24:22 So anyway, that's my thought. I'm always all about impedance in my lighting rail systems. I need them to have a little bit of friction. If you check out Just a Dad Tips, they've got a video that is showing you their little takeaway on the SkyTrack system. And it looks pretty cool. So if you want to see it actually moving around and what someone who's used it more than a picture,

24:51 I think that's a good one. Also, in the spirit of, little pro tip aside, I've got one for you in the spirit of Chris's earlier, just kick a hole in the wall. But let's get one more thing from Courtney. Yeah, one thing you might look at, because of the advent of all these 3D printer systems that are do-it-yourself, there's been an explosion of V-rollers and extruded aluminum out there

25:18 that's very cheap that you can buy that people are building these 3D printers out of. And they have these, you can go on Amazon and see all these little things with these V-rollers and they're designed to run along extruded aluminum tracks. And you can, that'll be pretty cheap, not as cheap as conduit, but conduit isn't going to support, and extruded aluminum can support a really good amount of weight.

25:39 And these V-wheel rollers can be mounted on them and slide back and forth easily. So look at that in the do-it-yourself 3D printer market. Those V-rollers and extrusions are commonly available. And this is a great tool. If you've never used a drywall saw, it's fun. and you can, this is what you use when you want to run your cables from your TV down to the outlet

26:09 behind the piece of furniture below the TV, but not see the, anyway, drywall saws. They're fun. Drywall saw and then something like this little, get a plumb bob or something like this that you can route a cable through. There's one that I think it's called like the mic bullet or the mic mic drop that's great because then it'll you can actually have some tension on it or you could just

26:32 tie a string to a book you know a couple of ways yeah go buy a thing sure this is not for that uh but i usually just tie a couple washers to the cable to keep attention on it that's okay you You can make fun of me. So I wanted to run wires in my house that span two floors. And I kept struggling to find a place.

27:00 And I didn't want to drill through the subfloor or whatever. And I was like, oh, I can use the cold air return. So I punched a hole in the cold air return that was the center column to get from the – because the internet came in the basement and I wanted to get up to the top floor. And then when I went to sell the house, the guy was like – well, the inspector came and he's like,

27:18 well, I'm not – I can't – this house isn't a code. You've got wires. running through the air ducts. And that's not what this, that's not, you can't do that. And I said, well, hold on. That's an internet wire, sir. And the thermostat is controlled over the internet. So because that supports the HVAC system, because of building code, blah, blah, blah, blah, cited it.

27:44 This one, do you think we could allow that? And he said, yes. You went low voltage on him. I did. But I was also super nice about it and didn't do anything improper. I didn't grease them or anything. I was just really nice, and that's all it took. And I gave him a way that he could do it and not, you know,

28:03 that he could stand behind if he were ever questioned. So sometimes it's good to smile. But, yeah, the drywall saw is way more fun. You didn't mention power over Ethernet. Did you wear a thing? You know, you could run. I was not running power over Ethernet at the time. They could catch fire and then send that toxic smoke into your HVAC. Just saying.

28:24 You know, there you got a rain on my parade. A little toxic smoke is good for people. I think so. Next question. All right, this one's from Brian Carney in Wheaton, Illinois. Any good options for controlling individual audio levels for apps, browsers, et cetera, on a Mac? Rogues. This is Rogue Amoeba's sound source is one example I found, but I'm open to alternatives.

28:47 Is that the one with the octopus? Do you know the one with the octopus? Jason. One with the octopus? No, I don't think it's one with the octopus, but I'm going to give you a couple of alternatives. And of course, since we were talking about turning it to 11, I will also just make it insane too. So yeah, you can absolutely use Audio Hijack and you can map anything you want and basically just have it set to turn on.

29:15 SoundDesk, which Fenwick has used pretty successfully, at least at some point, to do very similar versions of this with a, what was it called? That tiny little, like, you know, keyboard-sized channel mixer. A Korg Nano Controller. Korg Nano Controller. Thank you. Yeah, I had the predecessor of it. And then if you really want to just be absolutely crazy and you absolutely need motorized faders, anything that you need, like truly, the X-Touch can be programmed to do anything under the sun.

29:49 And you even have – you can name your apps and put them right up there, and it's yours for turning it to $11. Alexander? I don't much to that. I mean, I will say I haven't found a better solution than the Rogamiba app. But I have to say, this should be built into macOS. This has been a feature that's been built into Windows for years.

30:14 And I don't understand why Apple hasn't built it in. But it should be there. Chris? So, yeah, I apologize. I forgot your name. Brian. So, Brian, if you go to – I was trying to just find it for you. If you go to Office.rsa.global on the YouTube and you look through the live shows because it was live and you look for – it's going to be – it might be Korg Nano Controller.

30:45 It might be Loopback. It might be SoundDesk. we did a we did a one hour long presentation with me and alex lindsey and i walked alex lindsey through how i do this and it was a lab that we did one day and i will tell you spoiler alert it's not entirely easy i agree with alexander that it would be cool if it was built in the

31:12 Mac OS, it's not. But essentially what you do is I use loopback to grab audio sources, and I send them into Sound Desk so that I can control the audio sources. And then I use the Korg Nano Controller so that I have a physical fader for all those audio sources. And those those audio sources can be individual apps. And if it's the kind of thing you need to do,

31:43 it's worth doing. I use it, Jason said, at least Fenwick used to do this. No, I still use it, and I use it every single day, and it is crucial to my workflow that I use, I love it, I love it, and I'm really glad I put the time into figuring out how to do it, and it's absolutely worthwhile. It's a great example of Chris's

32:07 doing the thinking ahead of time so that you don't have to do it. There is an 11-minute version cut out of that show that we uploaded as a VOD. It was a very successful VOD. I was not cut out of that show. That was actually the tease for that show. Oh, well, this is called Tutorial Loopback and Sound Desk. And so that 11-minute video

32:24 is not complete enough to teach you how to do it. The purpose of making that video was a primer for the lab. It's like, this is what we're going to do. And we're going to get... You can tell he's an editor, folks? We're going to get much deeper into it in the lab. So don't watch the 11-minute one thinking you're going to understand it.

32:44 You're going to understand the concept behind it, but not the particulars of it. Also, I never saw this before, but Rogamibus said, great overview. Glad Loopback can assist. To that video? To that video. Oh, man. Jason. I'm almost famous with a bunch of nerds. How cool. That's going to be the next final cut grill, almost famous with a bunch of nerds. So loopback is the way to do this extremely like kind of – if you really want to get technical with it, it's much more stable.

33:20 Like I've used this to take SDI channels and to route them in crazy, crazy ways. It is incredibly stable. And, you know, I'm with you. It's super annoying to me that Windows can allow anything under the sun to directly address audio, whereas Core Audio is really annoyingly not that way. So, yeah, you have to separate it out, and it's like, you know, it's frustrating.

33:46 You know, this is the equivalent of, I've always wanted Firefox to be able to like, you know, go to a stream deck and every tab that's on there, like, just give me the icon so I can just go between the things. You know, why not? And one last quick thing I want to say is that Lubeck's super powerful. There's also a way, I call it the David Brady way.

34:09 It's not. not. In the SoundDesk software, it has a utility that you can launch that also has the ability to reach out and grab the output of the individual. It doesn't make as much sense to my brain whole. So I like the Loopback way better. And the other thing I wanted to say, oh, so Loopback and Audio Hijack, both from Rogue Amoeba, there's a unique difference between

34:37 those two apps loopback once you set it up it always does what you told it to do regardless of whether or not you have it launched it just runs in the background kind of a new high power will either the audio audio audio hijack has to be running for it to do audio hijack things so audio hijack or like you know why

35:05 why they were different. I'm sure there's a reason for it. But yeah, so, but Loopback is, I could not work without Loopback. I love it. If you cut out the interruptions that Jason and I did to Chris just now when he's telling about the difference between Rogue Amoeba or between Audio Hijack and Loopback, that would also make a great short just programming note.

35:25 So, Brian. You were talking? I've tuned you out. What? Oh, well, that's okay. So download Windows 95. You'll get the little mixer. sir. This is how you do it. No, the octopus thing that I was thinking of is called Sound Control Light. It's a menu bar app. It's free and it goes in your menu bar and all of your applications show up as little sliders. And if that's as low as that's as like what you're trying to do and it's

35:52 super simple, I've used that before and it works really nicely. And I need DirectX 9 to make that How's that going to happen? Next question. All right. This is from Paul Valhus in Austin, Texas. Sony's ECM-AX10 is a phone mic with four capsules. Will creators bother with spatial audio on phone content? Jason? What is this? Yes, some will, but I'll remind you, Paul, like spatial audio capture is actually pretty good on a modern iPhone, assuming you're using, you know, decent technique.

36:25 I would take a side-by-side recorder for whatever you want front and center and like allow the ambient recording to actually just occur on the mic. It does look cool though. I think Fenwick is showing it off. But yeah, it looks more like a theremin than a super elite kind of a rig of condensers. There will be one theremin reference in each episode.

36:50 The first read of this question, I thought it meant for people consuming spatial audio on phones. And then I thought, oh, Paul, you know, you're supposed to, in public, you got to wear headphones. Because I know a lot of people don't know that. But when you're watching video content on your phone, and there's a lot of people around, it's kind to wear headphones.

37:11 And I don't know why that got a little Christopher Walken there. But when you're watching content on your phones, it's kind, Courtney. Yeah, no. If you're watching on your own. Now, this has four capsules and it has four, three modes. It has ambisonic, it has binaural, and I don't know how they're doing that without a dummy head, and stereo pickup. And this is about the size of an Aggie marble, you know, that plugs into your iPhone.

37:43 Will creators bother to use this to record spatial? It depends. If they're doing, you know, deep in the forest, you know, if you're going to record environmental sounds, you know, sound effects editors used to go out with stereo microphones or ambisonic microphones and record backgrounds for movies for that kind of stuff. Yeah, using it for a recording of an interview or a basketball game or anything, or even

38:11 music. You know, it has a stereo mode, but I'd prefer to mic individual instruments and mix it into a nice stereo mix rather than just to capture what's going on in the room to make it sound like it. If you were really there and you were in that room with bad acoustics listening to those two people playing the guitar, this is what it would sound like.

38:31 It's like a plasma ball. What a strange design. Now, it looks like a little marble stuck to the end of your phone. See, it's right there. How they get spatial audio without a dummy head for that kind of recording. Well, but spatial audio is going to be different than binaural. Spatial ambisonic is different than binaural, but binaural depends on the shadow of the head matching the head of a person.

39:02 And that's how it gets its directionality because it filters frequencies coming from the different mics at different angles and time delay. Unless they've developed an algorithm to do that, you know, algorithmically to the microphones that are in that little ball. I love that Sony and a lot of companies, for that matter, still play. Like they still make these products that don't have a well-established market and maybe aren't going to take off.

39:26 but I think that it's so powerful to, and I know it's, oh yeah, we're going to bring it to a phone, whatever. But the phone's a little computer. If it can capture that sound at a high quality and you can make it more portable, then that encourages experimentation. Is it going to be perfect? Is it going to replace the DPA bike seat microphone

39:45 when we did NAB in 5.1? No. But could somebody make something really cool with it? Absolutely. Absolutely. Look at the sound design on films, on some of the best films that came out in the 70s. And what, you know, I saw Walter Murch speak once about how he did the sound mixing for Apocalypse Now. And he was like, yeah, like to hear him talk about how they recorded sounds for that, you go, then they did what?

40:10 So, yeah, you got to experiment. You got to play. If you want to experiment and play, there's a lot going on here at Office Hours. If you go to officehours.global slash join, it's pretty great because not only can you join in on the live show into the chat and get to know all the people in the community, but also you get into the Discord.

40:29 And that's where I think the real fun is because you get to see all the different people that are working at Office Hours. It's a huge community, and we'd love you to be a part of it. Officehours.global slash join. Sign up there and get on the inside track. Next question. this is coming in from david brady new york city new york found another ptt headset with an oddball

40:51 connector what would it take to bring this into computer production use i.e to use with unity or space comms jason oh boy i can just picture david brady going this pleases me like you know straight Straight up. Okay. So here, for those who don't have the link, this is a very old school. It's basically like, you know, an old school helicopter mic.

41:18 It's a dual AT, what, 213 plug with like, you know, that five-eighths of an inch apart thing they did where, did I get it? Yes. Look at that. So think of the airline pilots in the 80s. I don't know. Like this is a truly old school Ma Bell thing. Um, problem with this is because it's push to talk, you would short the mic if you used push to talk and that would do for the iPhone,

41:46 what, um, what the little clicky button always does. So this would be, this would be a seriously, um, engaged piece of engineering. Um, honestly, like, I think you should just hollow out your your own little phone thing and just put an AirPod in it in true to fashion, true to fashion, painty thing reference to earlier in the show. Chris Sabato. So if you,

42:16 I think this question is kind of jokey, but if you, if you actually want a headset, I would, would take a look at the Clearcom HS6, which is, actually a newer design like this is for for plugging into a clearcom belt pack and it's it's just a you know it's a regular mic and headphone with a push to talk on the thing and

42:41 it's the only kind of it's 300 oh yeah i mean sometimes you got to pay for the for the for the good stuff right oh this was made in portland for sure it's 300 but it's made with bagelite Yeah, it's got a standard 4-pin XLR that you could adapt out into a regular mic and headset plug. So there's your easy way to do it.

43:05 For the record, David Brady's been looking for this product for months now, and I'm with him 100%. David, I think you and I should just go into business and start making them ourselves. I'm willing to buy a soldering iron. The same. Courtney? Yeah, somebody makes a plug-in for a phone mic that is a handset. The one that you pointed to is old-school telephone company-type stuff that uses carbon mics in it, which generate voltage.

43:36 So they're not electric condensers or anything in there. So wiring it for a push-to-talk system into a computer, which probably has five volts going down, it would not be very good. I don't think it would be able to work. You have to plug it into an old telephone system that's designed for the impedance of those old carbon mics and carbon transducers for the earpiece.

44:00 Fenwick? I'm going to put an SM58 capsule inside the Bakelite handset and the little speaker. We have beaten this horse to death. No, no, this is a real problem, Jason. I think you need to be a little bit more sensitive. This is something that has to happen. We do need to have a good push to talk. talk uh the question is what are you gonna actually plug it into David what do you think

44:23 the ultimate I mean I mean ultimately it probably needs to be a USB device and now we're getting complicated wants to leave his iPhone on his belt and he wants to go hang on no hello he wants it for Zoom meetings he wants to be able to just pick it up and go hey that's better that's the wrong thing we should do it like this you should get a tactical throat mic like you know in the original

44:42 original speed. We're off the rails. Next question. Sorry. This one's coming in from Brian Carney in Wheaton, Illinois. When you transcribe and translate your videos, do you also indicate things like sound effects, music? I've seen it done both ways and not sure which is preferred. This is for a corporate manufacturing YouTube library. As long as you say indistinct chatter, I think that's my favorite thing to see in captions, indistinct chatter.

45:15 Jason? I feel like the first ASCII character I ever saw was closed captions. That little musical, like, what was it, like triplet eighth note, just a tiny little glide. I don't know. Anything that you have intentionally put into the mix that isn't just your background, yeah, lively chatter in background or – you're not going to put stuff like musical sting arc, right?

45:44 But like if there's an important thing like you're hearing a computer whir in the background for some reason, I don't know. I feel like this might come down to the difference between closed captions and – I'm not sure. Sure. Like it really, if you're putting a sound effect in because it's important for understanding what you're seeing, then put it in. That's, there's my rule.

46:07 And that's just it. If the goal is that you're trying to make this understandable for someone who is hard of hearing, then what is it, what matters to the context of your story? It's not just like, it's not just music. It's dramatic music. It's happy music. It's sad music, whatever, however you want to say it. But there's a little bit of an art to that, that it's not a clinical, just very straightforward, you know, stinger sound effect.

46:38 No, you're using that as a way to tell your story to someone who's not able to hear that soundtrack. If it's corporate manufacturing video and it's important to hear that the forklift is backing up because that's what the person is looking at, then it's going to go in there. there. But is it important for every little sound, every little thing that you put? Probably

47:02 not. So it's what's relevant to the story because you can also overwhelm if you try to be all-encompassing. Jason? Yeah, of course. I just had to look it up. And there is a standards body that is very adamant about this. That is the Global Accessibility Standards. And if you want to to look it up. It's WCAG, and they have ample training on, you know, basically having the

47:25 hard of hearing or those who just don't listen with any sound and bringing them, you know, right back into the experience, which is kind of what it's all about. Next question. Guy Cochran in Seattle, Washington is asking, what do you think of the new Rode Wireless micro colors the micro colors is it is it just a very light tint Alexander yeah so these are the they actually offer quite a variety of colors you got

47:52 classic black you got white you got this kind of orange color red and blue this is not the only wireless product that they have now started to offer in different colors they've got the wireless go gen 3 as well look at that even more color options it's not this product is not for me but I get why people would be interested in this because a lot of a lot of influencers

48:19 now seem to want to wear these transmitters and have them clipped visibly in the shot on their clothing so I suppose if you want something that matches your clothing then look at this guy here he's got like a khaki jacket and a blue road transmitter. So it's become kind of a fashion thing. If that's what you're into, that's cool. Don't let me stop you.

48:45 To me, it's no different than if it is going to be visible in the shot, it's no different than matching to outfits or skin tones with a color-matched lavalier. It's just, well, I guess it's not more expensive. The mic is fairly cheap. Courtney? It is quite different. This is a marketing ploy. Can you hear the sound of my eyes rolling? If you, you know, as was mentioned just previously, you know, if you want to match the color of your outfit, you're going to have to have more colors than, you know, five, black, white, and three colors, you know.

49:22 Or compliment. Orange, red, and sky blue. Lou. Yeah, compliment draws attention. The idea of coloring it to match your wardrobe means it blends in. It doesn't call attention to itself. That's the main reason to have a colored microphone is to conceal it and make it less obvious than a big black thing clipped to your shirt or blouse. Yeah, if you watch CBS this morning or wear Gale, for somehow they match Gale King's wardrobe

49:52 wardrobe exactly, not just black, red, or white, or yellow. I mean, it'll be, you know, puce or plum colored. It'll match the clip, the wire, the wireless mic, and the windscreen are all the same color, and it blends in perfectly. I don't know how they do it. But this, yeah, this is more of a marketing ploy to draw attention to the word road printed right across the front of that

50:17 microphone. You know, if they wanted to conceal it, they wouldn't put their logo and big letters in the front. Fenwick? I, too, prefer puce as my go-to comedic color reference. Thank you. Pantone puce or, like, you know, standard puce? Either one. Okay, good. Next question. All right, this is coming in from Paul Valhus in Austin, Texas. Canon's new PTZ firmware adds onboard recording and auto-tracking face

50:45 registration to models like the CRN700 and CRN400. Does onboard recording change how small studios use PTZs? Jason? No. And these are the two cameras. A lot of the Canon PTZs got new firmware. The two that got the recording bits are these two. And as you can see, at $8,800 and $5,700, these are not going to be used in a low-end situation. The studio or whatever they're hooked into, that's going to have the better recording.

51:28 To me, the onboard recording for this is that it's a backup. Like, I've got a backup. If something in my signal chain fails, I've got a backup recording. But I'm not using this as my primary. The face tracking and the other things, it depends on what your production is. If you don't have a camera operator, if you can't afford a PTZ operator,

51:48 and you can experiment to this to get it that it actually works, then maybe. But you've got to make sure that it doesn't fail. You've got to say, okay, if this fails, do I have a dump shot? Do I have a button that I can hit that's going to take this camera either out of the mix entirely entirely so that I can hit another button and reset it quickly? Or how do I get rescued? You

52:10 don't want to have automatic tracking be the only thing that you're relying on. That said, I did a town hall event earlier this year where I was using the tracking that was built into the, I think it was the Tail 2 from Opspot. So a much less expensive camera, probably at least a third, if not a fifth of the cost of some of these. And I put it on, I had, I had

52:34 generous tracking. I set the framing so that where it was going to hold the person in the frame. Set it to super lazy tracking mode so that there wasn't any herky jerk going on and the motion smoothing all the way up to 100%. Was it perfect? No. Was it more dynamic and engaging than what I would have had to do to have a static shot? Absolutely. Did I have to cut away because

52:57 I needed to dump to something because the AI lost the plot? Twice in an hour. If that, for you, is better than just a still shot and doesn't constitute your event as a failure, then give it a shot. But don't expect that this is going to replace a PTZ operator. Next question. This question is coming in from Andre DeLay in Berlin. Are you always buying into high-quality Neutrik connectors where possible, or are you buying cheaper products and replace them more often?

53:27 Chris Sabato. No. No. So anytime I'm buying panel mount stuff, things that are like the D-subs, those are always Nutri-Connectors. All the time, any D-subs I'm buying, I'm buying the Nutri-Connectors. Power-Con stuff, I kind of go back and forth depending on my use case. If I just need a Power-Con connector, it's just for security and I don't need it super weather sealed or anything like that.

53:57 a lot of times I'll use the knockoff power con connectors I'll also use cheap XLR connectors because like most of my XLRs and my ethernets for that matter my cables start out long until I need a short cable and so then I just cut it and put a new end on it and then my XLR ends get taken off lot and and so it i don't i don't mind having cheap ones there and they've the ones i've used

54:29 have been fine um and it for me i think it's worth the savings on xlr stuff but um like i said for the panamount stuff i'm and anything that's really hard to replace i i want the the good stuff Alexander? Yeah, I don't like cheap connectors personally. I always buy the Neutrik stuff. I mean, I get a deal because I'm a Neutrik dealer, so there's that advantage too.

55:00 But I've seen so many. I've used cables with cheaper connectors on them. I especially hate the generic ones that have a little set screw where you can't actually open it up without tools, which that to me is already no thanks. Thanks. And the other thing is the problem with a lot of the cheaper stuff is the strain relief is not very good.

55:23 So the Neutrik stuff tends to bite down on the cable better so that it has, it's going to last longer, especially if things get pulled on the end of the wire like that. So there's a reason why I prefer those. And there's a reason why Neutrik is the standard in the industry. They're not that much more, you know, if you're going to be building your own cables,

55:44 I would suggest you go, you know, spend a couple extra dollars, get the Neutrik. Courtney? Yeah, and if you buy them in bulk, they're about the same price. And I agree. The main reason I buy Neutrik over the old Switchcraft is you can see it here is the set screws required on the – both the strain relief and to get the center plug out to solder them on, you know, requires a little screwdriver.

56:13 if you don't have one, you can't take that apart. The Neutrics, you can disassemble them by hand. You just unscrew the back, and it pops out, and the connector part comes out the back, which makes it easier so that you don't have to remember to put the shell on before you solder the wires to it. So, you know, it makes it a lot easier to assemble and disassemble.

56:35 So the Neutric is better in that respect, and the fact that you can, the strain relief, if you can tighten it down or loosen it up by just adjusting that little screw on the by rotating the collar on the back as opposed to taking a screwdriver and attaching two set screws which will one day poke through that rubber and go right into your kit alexander okay so the other thing

56:57 corny can you pull up that comparison shot between those two connectors that's another thing i wanted to actually mention here if we go back to courtney's shot because uh the other thing the other big thing that there's a reason why you pay for those Neutrik connectors is the those cheaper connectors like the that switch graph one that Courtney was showing you'll notice that those the and

57:18 Hosa does this too with their economy brand of cables is it has this really cheap flexible rubber boot on the end and you'll notice if you grab a Neutrik connector the end where where the part where the wire goes into, that is a very rigid, solid piece. And I've seen this where on stages where people are stepping on stuff. And if someone steps on that,

57:43 like if you're striking a set and if someone steps on those cheap connect, on that rubber boot, that could be the difference between breaking a wire and not breaking it. And that's why you pay the extra dollars. Chris Sabato. So just for reference, these are the XLRs I've been buying. in they're they're they're knockoffs of of the neutric they look pretty similar um they're not

58:07 as nice but they're they're half the price and um that's like i said i for me they've been they've been fine and i'm not working on million dollar productions and i'm i'm also not doing like one cable right so like it's a it's a difference between like like okay can a buck 50 verse three bucks buy the new trick right but like when i'm buying 20 or 30 of them i i often have to cut

58:35 things for my budget and this is a way that i can save 50 bucks and and it's good enough for me and uh someone in the someone wrote a note on the question buy once cry once uh mickey's pretty passionate in the chat about uh don't accept anything less than what the quality of the event is going to demand. So don't cheap out if it matters.

59:01 I think that's been the general consensus here. Didn't have time to put our faces on it, but since we mentioned it earlier in the show, just as a parting gift, here is Almost Famous with a Bunch of Nerds. I just wanted you to know. That's going to wrap us up for Office Hours today. Thank you so much to the panel for being here.

59:23 here. It's always fun on a Friday to get to get smarter. There's no one of us that is as smart as this group. And it's incredible. Also, thank you to our producers for asking such great questions. And for our back end crew without whom we would not be able to do this wonderful little show. We had sent your question back because we ran out of time. There's another Q&A show tomorrow and

59:45 another one on Wednesday. The Wednesday one's especially good for audio. We're around on Sunday for introspection. We've got extra hours Monday, Tuesday, Focus Tuesday. We've got the rundown on Thursday. There's stuff all the time at office hours. We hope to see you there. See you in after hours. You didn't mention out of focus Sundays. Well, it was introspective, but out of focus is better.

1:00:08 I like that. Because I'm gone for the next two weeks. I'm going to miss you guys. I have to respond to this micro duck thing and you guys really should look at the video. Have I ever used micro ducks? It's like, hmm, you've trained a really cute robot. No, because it keeps stealing chalk from five-year-olds and trying to prove the Ryman hypothesis on my walls.

1:00:30 So, like, no, I don't let it anywhere. What is Microduck? Pollenrobotics.com. Okay. It's a baby robot. Guessing Michael Smith might be the founder for all I know, but, like, very cool product. Looks neat, looks pretty, looks cute. But, yeah, I don't know about hugging face for a duck. Eh, it's kinda... That's danger. I thought the Ryman hypothesis in chalk was pretty good.

1:00:56 Danger duck dodgers, yes, of the 21st century. Stupid micro duck proving it can divide by zero. Well, okay, don't go breaking things now.