44 ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE TIMECODE SYSTEMS
MADE FOR MULTICAMERA The second season of The Grand Tour has streamlined its timecode management with Timecode Systems and its high performance and rugged units
everything from the iPad on the BLINK Hub app which connects via the Wi-Fi of the :pulse unit. They all pop up on the app screen when they’re jammed, as camera A, camera B, camera C and so on, including in-car cameras and the GoPros one through eight, or whatever we happen to be using on that day. Then you have the sound guys with the Timecode Systems units on their kits as well, and they are also jammed. Sometimes at the start of the day you have the issue that one crew is in one place and one crew is in another place so you can end up with different timecodes if you’re not careful. With the :pulse as the master clock it jams everybody and away you go.” TIMECODE EVOLUTION Before Timecode Systems’ units arrived, to manage timecode The Grand Tour team had to manually jam the timecode. Jon explains the compromise: “There would be
for GoPros, and are now adding UltraSync ONE to their timecode kit list. “We’ve got more or less all of the Timecode Systems products now,” Jon continues. “We’ve been migrating over to their system mainly because the wireless sync they offer works really well on a multi-camera programme like The Grand Tour . We have a :pulse unit which for the road trips lives in the main tracking car usually. The sound supervisor, Russell Edwards and I are in there and basically one of us jam syncs that first thing in the morning and everyone else just powers up their boxes on their cameras and everything’s jammed. I can monitor
on Shepley of CreoKinetics manages the minicams including the GoPros for all the three-presenter shoots
BEFORE TIMECODE SYSTEMS ARRIVED WE HAD TO MANUALLY SYNC
on The Grand Tour . “Physically you have three to four main cameras on a three-presenter shoot which are the ARRI AMIRAs, then you have three sound men, then you have three in- car recorders, all of which have the Timecode Systems units on them,” he explains. “Then you have GoPros using the SyncBac PROs on top of that; typically there would be a minimum of three GoPros for each presenter, so nine cameras.” The team started by using :pulse, :minitrx+ and SyncBac PROs
BELOW Timecode Systems’ :pulse was the timecode hub of The Grand Tour 2.
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