Pittsburgh, PA (November 14, 2024)—Production sound mixer Chris Bell, who works on TV movies, commercials, documentaries, corporate video and sports events in the Pittsburgh area, has added to his collection of Lectrosonics wireless gear.
“If you’re in the city, it’s challenging with all the buildings and other RF,” explains Bell, who works closely with Pittsburgh’s tight-knit film and video production community. He recently added a Lectrosonics DSR digital receiver to his SRc and SRb slot-mount receivers. His transmitters include the DBSMD, SMV, SMQV, and SMWB.
“I’ve found that with the wideband capability of the DSR [digital receiver] and a transmitter like the DBSMD, it’s always doable — quick, even — to carve out something. I can’t think of an instance since I acquired those pieces that I haven’t been able to find all the clean channels I need. I have had as many as ten channels going at a time, with my newest digital sets and my Hybrid Wireless combined, and never had a problem.”
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Bell says he finds the audio quality of the DSR matches its RF tenacity: “The DSR has been working flawlessly, and sounds wonderful. The biggest thing I noticed right away about Lectro’s all-digital wireless was the super low noise floor, even side-by-side with my Digital Hybrid Wireless stuff — which was already good. It’s noticeable. If you have somebody projecting and speaking up, it’s just perfect, but even if they’re quiet or a timid speaker and you have to turn up their gain at the transmitter, any noise you may be adding is just so negligible.”
Bell’s advice to new and aspiring location mixers is to get great gear at the outset, even if that means going pre-owned. “So many people start out using prosumer-level gear, which is fine for student films and all the other things I did. But eventually, you start having problems. You do productions with more and more people involved, which means more frequency coordination. You start shooting in different kinds of environments. You need real, robust gear. The thing is, for a little more the price of a new set of the prosumer stuff, you can get a used Lectrosonics pair with years of service to come — something like the 200- or 400-series. I was prompted by advice from people who had already been using Lectrosonics for decades. They weren’t wrong.”
