View Full Version : MOT Box


Brian Sargent
August 19th, 2006, 02:58 PM
I am at a show now trying to record a dub off a MOT Box and I can't seem to get a signal. I have no problem getting a video signal, but audio is just dead.
There are XLR's comming off the box and I am using RCA adaptors to send the to the camera but I get nothing. I've changed the audio dub input from A_IN to MIC and in the record set-up menu setting and try going xlr to xlr Input 1/2 Line, and still I get nothing. I got the sound guy to give me a line check through the XLR and we're good, but when I go back to dub mode it drops out. Any ideas???

Sorry Chris, not sure if I should have posted here or in the NHT section, but I am wondering if it is a menu/switch setting w/theHVX

Vince Curtis
August 19th, 2006, 07:44 PM
Whats a Mot Box ?

Brian Sargent
August 19th, 2006, 11:58 PM
But I think it may stand for Mobile Optical Transport.

There was a video feed being sent back to a press room and I was tasked w/dubbing it to the HVX. I was getting the composite feed fine, but the audio was not picking up in either the XLR or RCA inputs. Needles to say there was much fretting and stress about why this was happening and prevailing opinion was that it was a menu setting in camera - and that someone hadn't read the manual close enough.

Our sound guy was really quite good and figured out that the signal was being either 'compressed' or 'padded' and that it was not hot enough to be picked up by the HVX. He boosted the signal through his setup and we ran it back into the camera and viola, it worked.

So if anybody has any trouble getting a signal from a press box or Mot-box or whatever they're called, the signal might be too low to register.

Scott Auerbach
August 20th, 2006, 09:19 AM
But I think it may stand for Mobile Optical Transport.

There was a video feed being sent back to a press room and I was tasked w/dubbing it to the HVX. I was getting the composite feed fine, but the audio was not picking up in either the XLR or RCA inputs. Needles to say there was much fretting and stress about why this was happening and prevailing opinion was that it was a menu setting in camera - and that someone hadn't read the manual close enough.

Our sound guy was really quite good and figured out that the signal was being either 'compressed' or 'padded' and that it was not hot enough to be picked up by the HVX. He boosted the signal through his setup and we ran it back into the camera and viola, it worked.

So if anybody has any trouble getting a signal from a press box or Mot-box or whatever they're called, the signal might be too low to register.

Any chance it was being sent out at mic level and you had the HVX set to line level?

Brian Sargent
August 20th, 2006, 04:37 PM
I think that was part of it. I did have it set to line and the soundman changed it to mic for me, but still wasn't getting anything into the camera. He monitored through his mixer and determined they were only sending 1 channel, I think the right box was not getting anything at first. They fixed it but it was still real low and I couldn't hear it at all.

Needless to say, we were on the verge of producer meltdown and my new baby was getting pawed (which of course I didn't care for).

Our guy asked the soundboard crew to bump us up a few dbs. They said like 5? and he said he'd like to see at least 10. He was then able to hear it fine, but I was STILL not getting it. We ended up having to pass through his mixer to get good levels into the camera. It sucked. We had to tape the performances off the Box and unplug the camera and the mixer (which needed to go back w/Camera A - I was camera B) tape interviews and b-roll and then back into the box all night long. And of course we'd plug into the box and they'd say 'No, we got an interview, let's go!'

The dub feature on the camera saved our butts, because we really needed to get that feed. Next time, though, they better bring a deck.