Question re REDMOTE / Remote viewing monitors

[Phillip Stefani]

Ok, here's where I reveal what a newb I am...

I'm wondering if anyone can clear up a few questions regarding remote viewing monitors in the digital and film worlds.

I'm interested in the possibilites that the REDMOTE presents to filmmakers and would like a bit more clarity about how the REDMOTE differs from, say, the monitor around Christopher Nolan's neck (pictured below).

I know the REDMOTE affords a director a greater degree of control over numerous things, but is there any equivalent to it in the film world?

If not, what kind of control can the REDMOTE give a director above and beyond its counterpart devices in the film world?

(Also, does anyone know what kind of monitor Nolan is using? He's shooting quite a bit of IMAX footage right now -- wondering if that's a special monitor for IMAX playback...)

Much obliged.

 

[Dan Kanes]

Hi Philip - that looks like a SONY, COBY or Philips television around Mr. Nolan's neck. This kind of clamshell monitor is used with a Standard definition Transmitter off of a video tap on a film camera (or another kind of camera with standard def downconverter).

Redmote at this time offers camera assistants or others the opportunity to:

Run/Stop the camera remotely
Adjust a variety of camera settings and parameters
view the histogram (depending on firmware revision)
Get other status information from the camera.

Redmote is not a wireless monitoring solution at this time.

I am personally working on bringing to market a device with my company Wi-Mon. That is all I can say for now, it may or may not ever come to fruition, but I keep trying.

 

[Phillip Stefani]

Thanks, Dan.

So right now, is the only method to wirelessly view RED footage essentially the same as on a film camera?
(i.e. some sort of video assist attached to the RED)

 

[Dan Kanes]

Correct - and there are different ways to do that.

Hopefully one of them will be my solution in early 2012

 

[Phillip Stefani]

Just ran across the following thread -

Not exactly the most authoritative source, but...

http://forums.superherohype.com/showthread.php?t=371091

 

[Noah Yuan-Vogel]

Well nowadays there are some very cheap wireless HDMI options that are small and not difficult to power, so you can do wireless HD monitoring for ~$200. As far as I know the film camera video assist usually works in composite video or HD-SDI, so if you want HD monitoring on a film camera, you'll likely need a $5k+ wireless system. On the other hand, HD-SDI to HDMI conversion is trivial, but still required equipment that costs more than the HDMI system itself and requires its own power supply and added size and weight as well.

 

[Max M.]

Noah, what would be a good wireless hdmi system?

 

[Noah Yuan-Vogel]

Well there are a number of threads around about the various systems. The original was the Asus Wicast which is now discontinued though I believe Optitek rehouses them for the more complete production ready wireless system they offer. I've used the Brite-View HDelight with good results. Brite-view also makes the AirsyncHD which has twice the range and an HDMI splitter built in but the transmitter is quite a bit larger and may draw more power. The only thing you have to figure out is how to provide 5V battery power for these. I ended up building my own 5v dc adapter for mine pretty easily, but it's not that pretty. I'm sure there are more elegant (expensive) options. There are a number of other companies that also use the same WHDI chipset I believe and they all fall in the $100-200 range for the system.