Hi everyone, I'm Abramo from Pickford Media.
So a lot of people playing along at home will know that not only am I a producer, sound
person, occasional editor, sometimes production manager, always caterer, at Pickford Media,
I'm also a production sound mixer, sound recordist and boom op.
I do that freelance in the film industry, film, TV, corporate videos, that sort of thing,
and today I'm going to be talking about something that I bought primarily for that side of my
business, but also for Pickford Media.
It's turned out incredibly handy.
And it's the Tentacle Sync box.
It's a great little lock box.
it's very light, very small, about the size of a box of matches, about that heavy as well,
and just a super versatile little tool.
So a quick rundown for the people who don't know: LTC, or longitudinal time code, sort
of like the tracks that the train of production runs across.
It keeps everything locked in place and together, so when you record a file on a audio recorder,
the very start of the file will be stamped with the time of day, a timecode, and on the
video camera when you hit record it stamps the time of day on the front of that file,
bring them all into post if you've locked them together so they're in sync, post sees
them, puts them together, all the clips are there, all synced up ready to go.
It stops you having to go there and hand sync, the claps, you know you see the slate there,
so you don't need to hand sync and that can only really be used as a backup.
So great little system.
I mainly got this timecode box in particular because of a few really unique features that
help me with a lot of the work I was doing at the time.
I was doing a lot of work with people using say the Canon C100 or a lot of the DSLRs that
don't have a timecode input.
Timecode inputs are generally for pretty high end cameras.
So what this does is out of a really common connector, it's just the 3.5mm jack connector,
it outputs timecode onto an audio track.
So we use it on our C100, as well as some of our DSLRs, and some of my other clients'
cameras and it's got a little tiny microphone in there, it's a scratch track which will
output to the other side of the track on your stereo recorder.
We use it on the C100, we just plug it straight it, it's just a mono, it's just LTC.
You go into the really excellent tentacle sync software, dump all the files in there
at the end of the day, it syncs them all up.
We just have them syncing on the trolley as we pack up and you're all done.
It's, it's just so handy to have.
I use it across all jobs, whether or not I'm working with a 60D or a 5D on content that
needs that, all the way up to when I'm working with you know, your ARRI Alexas, your Amiras,
your REDs, so really expensive cameras.
It does it all.
It's really good.
A few little setbacks is it doesn't have a locking socket, I'd really, really like a
locking connector on these, I really wish that the update that they just brought out
had that.
It doesn't, it does have a slightly different shape, but I think that's really lacking.
I don't really trust anyone who's operator a camera to not accidentally pull a cable
out for something that's for audio and I can't be there all the time because I'm busy with
my job, so that, that's one thing.
And it doesn't have a few really high end features like Gen Lock, but I mean you're
not really going to use those.
I think most people watching this video aren't going to, and those who do have a workaround.
The really high points is the size and the weight.
It's so small, it's about the size of a matchbox, it's about that light as well.
I came across from using the Ambient Lock Its, the full size lock its, which are about
three or four times the size, they're much heavier, a bit more feature-rich but most
days it doesn't matter if I'm working on a C100 or if I'm working on an ARRI Alexa, this
does the job really well.
It's super durable, it's been dropped heaps of times, still going strong.
I reckon you could probably hit it with a truck, it'd be fine the next day.
And excellent battery life out of it.
I know a few people are a bit iffy because it's got an internal battery that you recharge
over USB, but I've had no problem with this.
Apparently you can change the battery when it does eventually die, it is a semi-servicable
part, so that's good.
I recharge it every night when I'm on a longer running production, but I can at a push I
can get nearly three days out of this.
And it's great, I can't recommend it more.
A few little downsides to it: to change any of the settings you've got to either use the
program on your computer or the app on your phone.
This is good but I always find that it really, I usually have to reset my phone to get it
to read it at the start of the day.
I don't know what this is but it's something to do with the microphone output on the iPhones.
It's not the biggest hassle in the world, I know that's what I need to do now.
Also if you'll see here you've got the 3.5mm jack connector, I would really, really like
this socket to be lockable.
I don't trust any equipment of mine when I'm not directly using it and this is always the
camos using it, and they don't want to know about it.
That's why they love it, because it's so light, but you know it's easy to pop a cable out
and then you could be stuffed for the rest of the day.
But really that would be my only two real concerns about it because it's rock solid.
And it comes with this really cool accessory back, I got a bunch of cables that go out
to different kinds of cameras because of course every single camera has to have a different
input, and it's also got a great hook part of the hook and loop on the bottom.
It's incredibly strong, I've I've had a lot of trouble getting this off cameras at the
end of the day, which is good, at least I know it's going to be on there all day.
There's a few other alternatives come out on the market now, these have been very popular.
I've had this for about six months now, they've been out for, for about a year, maybe a bit
more.
You've got timecode buddy have come out with their small one, ambient has their new small
one.
As for features, a few of them have different features, I wouldn't say more.
It would be nice if we saw this being about to support Gen Lock, but that's more higher
end stuff and not what you'd use for a lot of DSLR and run and gun kind of gigs.
So it's great.
They have just updated it at NAB, they showed their new one which is a bit thinner, it's
a bit more rounded, it looks a bit sleeker and it has bluetooth control.
So if you need to control multiple at the same time, I don't really do many gigs where
I have big multiple cameras but you know, if you have to run four or five cameras, you
have four or five box on them and you want to control them all at the same time, that
that's going to be great for you.
Or if you're doing anything, a lot of GoPros, anything like that, I know a few people use
these to sync up the GoPros with the LTC on an audio track, so it would be very handy
if you're doing that.
I know a lot of reality people are out there having to wrangle, you know 15 GoPros at the
end of the day.
RIP.
So yeah, highly recommend these, definitely check them out.
I'll definitely be checking out the the series two update and see what that's like.
I don't really see me moving over to a different kind of lock box any time soon, I'm pretty
deep moneywise into cables for this little guy, but I will be picking up a few more of
them.
So if you liked this video, like and subscribe, do all that usual stuff.
We are going to be putting out a lot more content about what equipment we use and a
few reviews.
I do have a problem buying gear so I'll always have new stuff to tell you about and new videos
and all that, especially with sound equipment.
I think Zoe's going to tell you a bit about some of our video equipment one day.
So I hope that's been helpful, if anyone wants to know anything more about them you can go
onto tentacle sync's website, we'll put up their website here.
I highly, highly recommend them for anyone, even if you're just shooting on a DSLR or
maybe you're a Youtube producer, you're a vlogger or something, I would still really
recommend one of these and a double system over running any sound to your camera.
That's just, take it from a soundie, we we don't want you to just hire more gear off
us, we do actually want it to sound much, much better, and there's no camera on earth
that has good sounding audio circuits, so yeah if you have any questions chuck them
in the comments below, like, subscribe, do all the usual things, we'll keep you in the
loop and we'll see you on set!