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800, Bluetooth And Video


mn90403

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Does anyone know if an 800 will connect to a phone or any other Bluetooth app or device that records video or audio?

It sure would be interesting to record directly from the detector.  I guess the best way is the old way of just putting the sound on the detector speaker and then capture the event that way.

Mitchel

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Mitchel --

This is an excellent question, and something I have wondered, as well...

I hope someone who knows, could share a way to do that -- record the audio of the unit, synced up with the video being recorded...

Steve

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I imagine it would be possibly with a Bluetooth receiver plugged into a phone to record but it might require some tinkering. AndThere is the problem of latency. You would want the vdi in sync with the tones.  Instead buy a small lapel mike with a 5 foot cord. Plug it into your phone tape the mic to the speaker or even place the mic into the earphone cup on your headphones. 

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Besides latency, the other issue with using a wireless receiver as the source for your recorded audio is how do YOU hear the detector itself while recording, since the control head on-board speaker is cut out whenever you are using wireless audio.  So here are some strange Equinox wireless audio fun facts that may provide some folks with alternative ideas to route "auxiliary" sources of "no latency" detector audio out to video or audio recording devices (or detecting "partners") instead of having to inconveniently capture lower fidelity audio from the control head loudspeaker so both you and the camera or your "partner" can hear the audio simultaneously.

Many folks don't know this, but if you are using the BT headphones or the WM08 receiver, the control head speaker audio is cut out, but the headphone jack audio is still active.  In this manner you can actually use the BT headphones to be able to hear tones yourself and you can route hardwired audio from the headphone jack via a mini-patch cable into a camera mounted on your detector shaft, detector housing, or mounted on your hat, backpack, or clothing.  Another way this "feature" can be "used" is to enable a partner to hear the audio via the BT headphones while you swing and simultaneously listen to the audio using a pair of hardwired phones which can be useful in helping someone else walk along and learn how to use the Equinox. 

Another strange thing is that if you are using the supplied BT headphones, which also have a "hard wired" headphone jack on one earcup, is that you can actually use the headphones as a BT receiver and you can plug a separate set of hard-wired stereo headphones or earbuds into the headphone jack of the BT headphones and get audio that way.  In this way you can "rest" the BT headphones around your neck/shoulders while using a set of wired earbuds.  Not too practical, but it can be done if you want to use more comfortable wired earbuds in hot weather- though the bulky full-sized BT headphones are still resting on your shoulders/neck (I can't recall as I type this whether the BT headphone speakers are cut out if you do this, but I do think that is the case).

Also, although only one set of BT headphones or a single BT receiver can be used in conjunction with the Equinox's BT transmitter output at any time, however, up to four separate WM08 Wi-Stream modules can be simultaneously paired with the Equinox at any time for small, four-person "group" Equinox instruction opportunities.  Though, good luck getting your hands on four WM08 receivers at any one time unless you can borrow them from four Equinox 800 owners, because they are cost-prohibitive to be obtained as stand alone wireless accessories. 

All strange but true wireless Equinox audio factoids.

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Chase,

Thank you for this detailed info.  I did recall that there was a way to use a couple of different sets of headphones at once, but didn't recall how. It sounds easy -- BT phones and a wired set can be used at the same time, with the wired set plugged into EITHER the control box, OR, into the BT phones directly.  

Along those same lines, I can see how you could listen to the audio in your BT headphones, while sending a patch cable from the control-box headphone jack to your video recording device, and record Equinox audio output directly, along with the video, on your device.  HOWEVER, the question then becomes, in my mind anyway (and please forgive my ignorance), but is there a way to "mix," so to speak, the audio from a hard-wired Equinox audio output into your video recording device, along with your voice/words?  Can you still use a microphone of some sort (built-in, or wired), AT THE SAME TIME, so that the video would record both the audio from the Equinox, AND your spoken words (i.e. can the device "mix" the two audio sources)?  Unless I'm missing something, I'm not sure how you would "mix" the two, WHILE recording.  And if not, I guess what it would mean, in "video editing" terms (which I know next to nothing about), it would require you to essentially include two audio tracks simultaneously, synced to your video track?  

Is there a way to "mix" the two together, as your video is being recorded, short of using your video recording device's external mic, and the Equinox's external speaker?  Because I can promise that I don't have the video editing skills/know-how to include, let alone "sync," two different audio tracks, post-recording...

Steve

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Steve,  you would typically have to use a field mixer to do this before feeding it into the camera audio input or mike jack, unless you had a video camera with on board audio mixing and two audio inputs or a microphone with a built-in line level mixer.  Otherwise you could separately record the live voice over narration audio (with another camera or digital recorder) and lay it on top of the video and detector audio in post production using a video editing program (since the canera is not trained on you while you are doing live narration, getting the audio to line up exactly is not critical).

I have done a lot of event videography (weddings, graduations, recitals, etc.) with decent mid-range videography equipment.  But I am such a perfectionist when it comes to that stuff, I would be fiddling with all that video gear that I wouldn't be able to focus on detecting, so I have made very few live detecting videos. 

For Equinox, I would probably rig up an external speaker connected to the headphone jack and allow the camera mic to just pick up my voice and the speaker audio of the detector whike I listened to the tones through my BT headphones.  Alternatively, I could feed the detector audio into a BT APTX LL receiver with a clip on speaker/mic plugged into the receiver and the speaker/mic clipped to my shirt or jacket that way I can hear the detector audio and the camera mic could also pick it up along with my voice commentary.

HTH

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