Sound Devices introduces the A20-Nexus – A revolutionary half-rack 8-channel SpectraBand (470-1525Mhz) Receiver expandable to 12 or 16 channels!

The A20-Nexus is a revolutionary half-rack 8 channel true-diversity full-digital SpectraBand receiver with a real time spectrum analyzer. It is also expandable to 12 or 16 channels and can be used either as a standalone or via docking with 8-Series. SpectraBand technology delivers a tuning range of 470 – 1525 MHz in a single unit – an industry first!

It features NexLink, our proprietary very-long-distance data link for full remote control of A20-Mini transmitters, including frequency changing and wireless timecode jamming, which can work alongside the A20-Remote Bluetooth app. 

For standalone use, Nexus Web App remote control allows IP control using the A20-Nexus built-in web server – no need for any apps, just log in via an IP address, from any browser. 

The A20-Nexus also offers multiple powering solutions, a variety of outputs; analogue, AES digital, Dante and fiber optic, GainForward, excellent immunity from RF interference with brick-wall SAW filtering, Long Range modulation, smart antenna control, and much more. 

There are a range of accessories for the A20-Nexus: 

  • A20-Monarch – A small footprint, passive omnidirectional antenna which covers full SpectraBand (470-1525MHz), ships with mounts and cabling 
  • A20-QuickDock – For quickly attaching and removing the Nexus to and from any 8-Series recorder 
  • A20-Shelf – To securely rack-mount 1 or 2 A20-Nexus, or PowerStation-8M units, in a 1U shelf space, whilst having full access to the front panels 
  • 2.4GHz Antenna Bracket Assembly Kit – For front mounting the NexLink 2.4GHz antennas 
  • A20-2.4G Ant – 2.4GHz NexLink SMA antenna. Not compatible with 8-Series SD-Remote antenna

What’s in the box? 

  • 1 x A20-Nexus 
  • 2 x A20-Monarch 
  • 2 x Articulating arm with clamp and ¼-20 thread mount 
  • 2 x 30in/75cm BNC – BNC cable 
  • 2 x A20-2.4G Ant

For more info read here >>>

Contact Jose on +27 (0)87 551 1034 or at jose@www.stratosphere.co.za for more info or to place your order.

Plant a tree with Bubblebee Industries

Until the end of the year, for every Lav Concealer sold through our ECO-Partners, THREE trees are planted through our chosen charity, OneTreePlanted

To learn more about this campaign and to find out who your nearest ECO-Partner is, visit the link here.

Sanken Microphone Company wins 2021 Academy Scientific & Technical Award!

The Academy’s Scientific and Technical Awards honor the men, women and companies whose discoveries and innovations have contributed in significant and lasting ways to motion pictures.
 
Sanken Microphone Company Limited was awarded the 2021 Scientific and Engineering Award Academy Plaque for the original innovation and continuous refinement of the Sanken COS-11 series of miniature lavalier microphones.
 
Sanken has inspired the current generation of lavalier microphones through their early engineering of microphone orientation and miniaturization. The COS-11 series has become the predominant lavalier microphones used in motion picture production and sound recording through their exceptional sound quality and durability.

Learn more about the Scientific & Technical Awards ►► www.oscars.org/sci-tech

South Africa’s “My Octopus Teacher” wins an Oscar!

Produced by Craig Foster and directed by Pippa Ehrlich and James Reed, this touching Netflix documentary between man and octopus has warmed hearts across the globe. They walked off with the most coveted prize in the film business for Best Documentary on Sunday night.

It’s the first South African documentary to win an Oscar and comes just weeks after winning Best Documentary at the 2021 British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Awards. We congratulate all who were involved in this production. It’s a huge win for South Africa and for South Africa filmmaking. 

 

LIVE ONLINE EVENT – 30th MARCH 2021 – Bubblebee Industries Making Sound Sound Better with Trew Audio

Join in our live online discussion with Thomas Popp from Trew Audio on Tuesday 30th March, from 11:00am PST, where we will be talking about how to make sound sound better with special guest and live giveaways too.
 
Tuesday 30th March, 11am PST / 7pm CET
 
There will be live giveaways of $50 Bubblebee Industries vouchers with Trew Audio and special guests TBC.
 
Read more and set a reminder here…

UK Sound Recordist Jono Cary and Presenter Andi Peters on comms and Bubblebee Industries The Sidekick 2 IFB

Jono Cary, one of the UK’s most in-demand sound recordists and production sound mixers, has switched to our Sidekick In-Ear Monitors because they are so small, they can even be worn underneath headphones. “Comfort is such an important factor, especially when you have a long day ahead of you,” he says. “Sidekick fits into my workflow perfectly and makes monitoring the IFB feed when doing ‘lives’ so much easier. I’m able to wear the earpiece all day without any pain or discomfort.”
 
Designed to be virtually invisible, Bubblebee’s Sidekick In-Ear Monitor features the world’s first micro driver solution where the driver fits invisibly in the ear canal, eliminating the need for acoustic tubes outside the ear.
 
For TV Presenter Andi Peters, comfort and aesthetics were the deciding factor. “I’ve really enjoyed using the Sidekick,” he says. “Earpiece technology in TV hasn’t really moved on in 20 years but this new technology has been a tremendous game changer. It’s so lightweight that I’ve often forgotten that I’m wearing it. The sound quality is excellent and the cable VERY strong. I highly recommend it.”
 
Read the full article here…

PRESS RELEASE: Sanken Microphone Company honoured with the AMPAS Academy Scientific and Engineering Award

The award was presented for the original innovation and continuous refinement of the Sanken COS-11 series of miniature lavalier microphones.

Sanken’s early engineering work in microphone orientation and miniaturization has inspired the current generation of lavalier microphones. The exceptional sound quality and durability of the COS-11 series have made them the predominant lavalier microphones used in motion picture production sound recording.

 

PRESS RELEASE: Bubblebee Industries – The Sidekick IFB Monitors help cast and crew of America’s Got Talent

For Sound Supervisor Daniel S. McCoy, owner and operator of Los Angeles-based location and post-production audio company ToneMesa, Inc., it is The Sidekick In-Ear IFB Monitors that are currently making his life a lot easier. These virtually invisible communications earpieces have proved invaluable for McCoy who used them to great effect during the most recent season of America’s Got Talent, which was filmed in a very different way because of Covid-19 restrictions.

“With today’s productions requiring an element of ‘social distance’, getting comms sorted out is absolutely critical,” McCoy explains. “You can’t expect technicians to show up and place 10 wires on people because it is just not safe. That’s probably not going to happen again for many months, if not years. What’s important now is having comms equipment that talent are comfortable with. It also needs to have a high useability factor so people don’t need technicians to fit it because they can do it themselves.”

Bubblebee’s Sidekick IFB monitor fits the bill perfectly because it delivers high speech intelligibility, as well as a very comfortable experience for the end user. The Sidekick features the world’s first micro driver solution where the driver fits invisibly in the ear canal, eliminating the need for acoustic tubes outside the ear. This gives it an extremely small and lightweight footprint and makes it a popular alternative to earwigs.

McCoy first heard about The Sidekick in 2011 when he was working on X-Factor USA and was introduced to them by a Front of House engineer…

Read more here…

PRESS RELEASE: Bubblebee helps sport broadcasters cope with new social distancing measures at Formula E

 

The sound recordists responsible for delivering this year’s ABB FIA Formula E coverage to the BBC made good use of Bubblebee Industries technology to help circumnavigate the impact of Covid 19, which had threatened to scupper the sport’s 2019/2020 season.

Like so many sports, Formula E faced challenges because of the pandemic. Normally the fully electric, single seater cars race around major city centres in front of thousands of spectators but due to the pandemic that was deemed unsafe. After months of deliberation a solution was found – namely to complete the season by holding six races over nine days, behind closed doors, at Berlin’s iconic Templehoff airport. Live TV coverage was provided by host broadcasters Aurora Media Worldwide and North One TV, known as Formula E TV, who supply the international and English host broadcast feed to channels such as the BBC, Eurosport and Mediaset.

Formula E’s Sound Supervisor is Paul Halstead, who heads a dedicated crew of sound engineers, many of whom have extensive live broadcast experience and have been involved in Formula E since its first season six years ago.

“We work as a team but we have very distinct roles,” Paul Halstead explains. “Scott Morton looks after ENG crews and is involved with the live presentation element, while I handle mic allocation around the track and mixing the international feed, along with any additional race support presentation.”

For the Berlin races, Scott and Paul had to contend with the German Government’s social distancing rules, which meant making changes to how the audio was captured. Handheld microphones shared between interviewers and drivers were obviously out, so they switched to boom microphones and used Bubblebee Industries’ Spacer Bubble to get the right balance between wind protection and audio transparency.

“Switching to boom mics was a major safety protocol and we used them for more than 80% of our ENG and live presentation audio,” Scott Morton explains. “In this new landscape, presenters can’t get close enough to the drivers to share a handheld mic, and our sound engineers are not allowed to touch the talent so we can’t easily fit lavaliers. Our solution was to give presenters their own stick mic and use a boom mic to capture the interviewee’s responses.”

Social distancing with a boom and The Spacer Bubble

Scott adds that the Spacer Bubble system proved a real winner during the event because it can be easily adapted to suit the weather and ambient noise levels. This three piece windshield solution for shotgun microphones is specifically designed for changing conditions and features a noise-free mesh base with coarse foam inside and a specially designed rubber mount that can be left on the boom or camera mic. The foam and mesh are ideal for indoor recording, while short and long haired fur Spacer Covers are available for outdoor recording and can be quickly fitted to provide wind protection in all kinds of weather.

“Other systems are full on fur or nothing. We like the flexibility this system gives us because it means we are able to adapt to changing weather conditions much more quickly.”
 
“The modular nature of the Spacer Bubble system was perfect for us because we could get variations in the shielding,” Scott Morton says. “Other systems are full on fur or nothing. We like the flexibility this system gives us because it means we are able to adapt to changing weather conditions much more quickly. We used them with various Røde and Sennheiser shotgun microphones and got excellent results. As so much of the audio for the Berlin event was captured on boom mics, Bubblebee Spacers were very much in evidence – especially as we didn’t worry too much about booms being in shot because there was so little we could do about it.”
 
Another innovation adopted by the Formula E sound team in Berlin was Bubblebee’s Sidekick In-Ear Monitor. This virtually invisible earpiece became a vital piece of the communication jigsaw because it allowed the sound crew, presenters and talent out on the track to communicate with the sound mixers back in the studio.
 
“The earpieces were great at blocking out noise and I was able to communicate very easily with everyone out on the track,” Paul Halstead says. “Formula E is not as noisy as Formula One, which I have also worked on, but you still require a discrete solution where the presenters can hear the gallery. You can get away with earpieces instead of headphones for comms – and that makes a big difference to how the presenters look on the show.”

Nicki Shields with the invisible Sidekick IFB

Designed to deliver comfort and intelligibility, Bubblebee’s Sidekick In Ear Monitor features the world’s first micro driver solution where the driver itself fits invisibly in the ear canal. Because it is so small and lightweight, it makes a great alternative to earwigs and can be comfortably worn for long periods of time.

Scott adds: “Our presenters (Nicki Shields and Vernon Kay) were very happy with the Sidekicks and were able to wear them for long stretches of time because they were so comfortable. From an aesthetic point of view it looked better on camera because you couldn’t see the presenters were wearing an earpiece at all. There was one occasion where I gave Nicki a telling off for not having her earpiece in when we were about to go on air, only to have to issue a grovelling apology when she pointed out that she did have it in – I just couldn’t see it!”

The presenters fitted and cleaned their own earpieces, which they found very easy. This was especially important because Covid restrictions meant they had to be responsible for their own kit.

“I work on a number of other live shows such as Gogglebox and I shall certainly be recommending Sidekicks to them because they are so invisible,” Scott adds.

 

Formula E racing will hopefully be returning in 2021 with the first event currently scheduled to take place in Chile in January. Bubblebee windshield and in ear products will be on equipment list as both Scott Morten and Paul Halstead are happy with their performance this year.

WIN! A colour-matched DPA 6060 and Bubblebee accessory kit every week during march each valued at over $1000!

The Colours of Great Sound Giveaway with DPA Microphones!

To celebrate the expansion of DPA’s CORE 6060 colour range, Bubblebee Industries have teamed up with DPA Microphones to offer you the chance to win one of four incredible lav mic kits worth over $1000 each!

Up for grabs are 4 DPA 6060 mics, one in each colour within the range (black, white, beige and brown). With every mic, we’ve created the ultimate Bubblebee Industries colour-matched accessory kit for all you mic’ing needs!

To find out more and details on how to enter, click the link below! 
http://www.bubblebeeindustries.com/cogs2020