My First doco shoot using the Tentacle sync

I have just finished a documentary shoot using the tentaclesync system for the first time. Initially i got confused with line vs mic output on the Sony FS7 cameras and the mic vs line on the Tentaclesync.  Setting both camera and Tentacle to Line level and a heathly level on the Camera’s audio track solved the problem. My master time code came from a Sound devices 663 mixer/recorder. Luckily for the first week of the shoot we had the editor (using Premiere Pro) with us so every night he received the picture and audio files and using the free download “Tentacle sync studio application and using one of the actual Tentacle sync device box (plugged into the computer with supplied USB cable) as the license to use the full studio app.

All worked perfectly,  though one day the camera’s picture files were half a second out of sync for the second half of the day. No explanation for this but it hasn’t happened again. Interestingly when this happened I checked the read out of the tentaclesync box vs the original Sound devices Timecode and found (by taking photos of the 2 displays) that the timecode numbers rarely were the same. varying up to 4 frames out of sync in a series of freeze frame photos. There appears to be no problem with the actual sync though.

I love what this system means to me as now all my recorded tracks can be used as masters in the edit rather than the 2 channels on the camera. I still sent a mono guide audio mix track to the camera’s second channel as a safety and to check sync. This also helped if the camera happened to start shooting before I started recorded (happens sometimes with multicam shoots)

I would just like to thanks all those involved in creating this wonderful product