Azden 200ult For Weddings?
 

Hi guys,
I'm about to purchase an Azden 200ult dual channel receiver with 2 body packs. Reason for this is that the receiver is camera mountable and would suit my pd170. I want to place 1 body pack on the groom and the other to mic up the lectern.
I know some of you use irivers or minidisc recorders etc for the lectern, but I am just shooting the weddings for another company, (for now),(I won't be editing), therefore handing in an iriver for 12 or so weeks won't suit me.
Are any of you out there using this wireless kit? If so are you having any problems with it? or is it worth its weight?

thanks

Manny.

Hi Manny,

I picked up a 200ULT a couple of weeks ago and shot some interviews and my first wedding with it. Of course, the dual-channel feature was the big selling point for me. It's pretty neat to be able to monitor two mics - one in your left ear and one in your right. I'm not sure what camera you're shooting with, but if it doesn't have separate level controls for L/R, you might want to get a Beachtek. I shot with my FX1 and so was stuck with setting one level for both channels. I suppose you could set the camera on AGC.

It definitely adds a lot of weight to your rig though...much more than the Sennheisser G2 or Sony UWP-C1 I was used to. The receiver itself is pretty hefty, and on top of that, you have to add 6 AA batteries. The other downside is that the body packs use 9V batteries, which are more expensive (I ended up buying some NiMH rechargeables). Channels are adjusted by old-school "pots", with a tiny screwdriver.

I think overall, it was still worth it for me over buying 2 separate units. So far, no problems with it. Will see how it performs for the rest of the wedding season.

One thing though....why would you have to hand in your iRiver to the company? Offload the files and burn them a disc!

Cheers,

I also bought the 200ULT about a year ago. It has worked pretty well, but it is impossible to monitor any outside interference. There is no RF level indicator. and the pots on my unit at least are backyards from the lav packs so you if you program it as channel 1 group 2 the lav pack is group 2 channel 1....took me a while to figure that out. It is extremely heavy as well. so i made mine to sit on my hip with a beltclip. i know this is not the most ideal but it saves my wrist.

i'm probably going to sell mine in the next few months and purchase two seperate wireless units that show the RF level so i don't pick a channel and then half way through the ceremony it starts getting all kinds of interference.

thanks for your replies guys.....I think I'll get one:)


manny.

[1 group 2 the lav pack is group 2 channel 1]

Zach - How in the world did you ever figure that one out? I've got two 100 sets and a 500 and none of them are backwards like that (thank goodness!)

Azden has pretty fast support. If you get an RMA number (give them a call) and mail it in, they'll have it back to you pretty quick. You'll probably have to wait until the wedding season is over, but I think mine was back in my hands in about ten days.

Hank Castello

Zach, my pots are reversed too. They must've just printed the words wrong on the receiver. It did have me puzzled for a bit too....wondering why only channels 1/1, 2/2, etc worked.

Out of curiousity, what units show the RF level? If, like you say, you start getting interference halfway through the ceremony, aren't you screwed anyways because you can't remotely change frequencies on the body packs? I'm very worried about this also, and I now double-mic the groom - one wireless and one iRiver.

I didn't figure it out on my own. I spent probably 4 hours one day messing with it and nothing would work execpt like Eric said only channels/groups that have the same number (ex. 1/1, 2/2...etc). I called Azden's support and they explained it rather quickly.

"what units show the RF level?"
well i believe the sony wireless mics do and i'll have to do some research but i think its a common feature on many wireless systems. but with any wireless system you can't remotely change the freq if it starts to get interference within the service. you have to manually take the reciever and body pack and change them. why don't you just use the iriver and sync it in post? stand in front of the camera and clap our do something that the iriver will pick up and you can visually see where to sync it at...