Montréal, Canada (September 26, 2023)—Two recent projects for Canadian television highlight veteran film and TV production sound mixer Daniel Fontaine-Bégin’s choice of wireless equipment.
Fontaine-Bégin has been working on two of the hottest shows in Canada: Aller Simple (season 2), a murder-intrigue series; and Indéfendable, a wildly popular legal drama. “With Indéfendable, people talk a lot,” he explains. “The scenes are more static; it’s just straightforward to dialogue. But on this other show, it’s a little more like, ‘Tonight we’re shooting from 3 p.m. until 3 a.m., and there’s going to be a car accident, with dialogue,’ so that can get a little more complex.”
He has used Lectrosonics throughout most of his three-decade career. “Around 2000, I bought my first receivers and transmitters; they were Lectrosonics,” he says. “And that’s the only brand I’ve used for the past 23 years.”
In the end, he explains, the work—and the technology requirements—are the same. “Your gear needs to adapt to faster situations and quicker setup. You need gear that you can hide well. That’s why my preferred transmitter is the SSM from Lectrosonics, because they’re so compact, very easy to hide in wardrobe.”
Lectrosonics Preps for the Future
Thanks to his decades-long relationship with Lectrosonics, Fontaine-Bégin was one of the first to use the new DSR4 four-channel digital receiver. “Ever since I started doing this work, I’ve always tried to have the smallest setup possible. With the new DSR4, I have so many receivers crammed in a little space, it’s just fantastic.”
As someone who has progressed from using the Lectrosonics SR to the SRB to the SRC to the DSR4 over the years, Fontaine-Bégin has had a front-row seat to a continual evolution in next-generations quality and performance. With wireless technology, RF performance and fidelity are table stakes; for Fontaine-Bégin, the improvements he seeks are more about performance in the context of an increasingly complex telecommunications environment.
“It might feel like things don’t change that much, but in reality, it’s way better, because the environment has become so busy and disruptive over the years,” he says. “It’s great for me that I can use this gear without worrying about what’s happening in town or things like that. I’ve been to New York to do ENG work, and I never had a problem when I was there, either.”
His testing experience went well enough that once the final product was available, he ordered two. “I needed that compact setup on Indéfendable because the court scenes have up to nine or 10 speaking actors at the same time. I needed things to be compact. So, in a leap of faith, I was just like, ‘You know what? Let’s go. It’s working.’ I knew I could count on Lectrosonics. Then, after a couple days on set, it was like, ‘Okay, everything is smooth sailing.’”
