Holophone H4 Supermini

[Peter Richardson]

www.holophone.com

Curious to hear thoughts about this as a solution to the lack of pots on the Red (and an easy way to add 5.1 to your 4k image). You can plug in a shotgun for your center channel, and use one of the free xlrs on the red for a lav or other inputs. I would only be concerned that the processing on the holophone would degrade the quality of the center channel. Anyway, curious to hear everyone's thoughts on this.

Peter

[chuck colburn]

I would think (if I understand what you are asking) that it would depend on the cross talk spec. between adjacent channels.

[Sanjin Jukic]

I was reading about Holophone years ago.

Just curious if they were wider spread the technology that is practically very good idea.

[Peter Richardson]

I would think (if I understand what you are asking) that it would depend on the cross talk spec. between adjacent channels.

yep, that's what I'm wondering. Perhaps if the Dolby surround is decoded in post the center channel could be made discreet and there would be no quality loss in this channel. Maybe an email to holophone is in order...

Peter

[Zack Birlew]

I still don't get how this thing is supposed to work. If your cameraman is breathing behind the camera, with the microphone on it, won't his breathing mess up the rear channel(s)?

I like this product, I've been keeping my eye on it but I still haven't seen much of a real world review on it. The review DV magazine did this month on it wasn't as thorough as I had hoped. I've also seen the microphone in person but I hear the same thing "Oh yeah, it'll give you good 5.1 sound" but that's it. I guess what I'd like to know about it is whether it can be a replacement for a Sennheiser MKH416 or any other shotgun mic and could be used for everything. If not, I could still see it set up on a ceiling or below the camera or something for environmental sound.

[Steve Sherrick]

In theory I don't see it being a replacement for a short shotgun like the 416. Different tool for a different purpose. To me this microphone would be perfect if you were trying to shoot stock footage clips and wanted a nice full soundtrack to go along with it. Also, you could use it to shoot sporting events or anything else that would benefit from the full surround sound. But as a dialogue mic, don't think it is very useful, at leat on paper. Again, I've never tested it, so i don't want to make any assumptions.

Steve

[Peter Richardson]

To me the cool thing about the mic isn't that it would be a replacement for the 416, but that you can plug the 416 into it, and potentially have the best of both worlds. The only question is: how much would the 416 be compromised by being plugged into this mic. If it remained a discreet channel after decoding in post, that would be pretty sweet.

Peter

[Benjamin Rowland]

In theory I don't see it being a replacement for a short shotgun like the 416. Different tool for a different purpose. To me this microphone would be perfect if you were trying to shoot stock footage clips and wanted a nice full soundtrack to go along with it. Also, you could use it to shoot sporting events or anything else that would benefit from the full surround sound. But as a dialogue mic, don't think it is very useful, at leat on paper. Again, I've never tested it, so i don't want to make any assumptions.

Steve

Steve is right. This isn't intended to be a replacement for a 416 or similar shotgun. The Holophone is great for easy 5.1 ambient sound recording or "live" recordings (concert, football game, etc).

[Jim Hoffman]

This would be more useful for your sound person to collect amb - its a fast and nice way to build base layers in a 5.1 mix.

[Michael Morlan]

Precisely, Hoffman. Dialogue should be recorded with directional mics dedicated to the task of rejecting ambient tone so the dialogue may be later mixed to a desired level against hundreds of other sound cues.

A 5.1 mic is really useful for recording layers of ambient palette to surround that dialogue track.

Michael