"And we did in the snow, barefoot." And we had to shuttle the tape ourselves - uphill both ways! It was aweful! ;)

[quote="Mike Cumbo"]I would be carrying my own drive.[/quote] Already do Mike! How are things? Hope all is well. Best, Rick.

Let's not forget our friend, the X-File, and it's external drives. Considering how cheap hard drives are now, if I was doing a specific show regularly, I would be carrying my own drive.

Don't get me wrong, I don't WANT to be loading my own Spotbox. It's a huge improvement over the load-the-Fast-Forward-from-a-machine way. However, there are times, albeit rarely, and only on a certain show that I work, that it would help me to be able to put one thing in there myself without having to bother tape. Just wanted to know if it was possible. Thanks Lou, for the helpful info. Some of you younger TDs may not remember this, but 2 or 3 years ago, we had to get a tape from the producer, make sure it was patched into the Fast Forward records, and then manually clip off the elements! And we did in the snow, barefoot. ;)

One thing to keep in mind, too, is that the Tape Room has gotten considerably busier over the last few years as well. On the smaller shows where I may have a SpotBox and only one or two EVS guys who are dealing with APs trying to build opens and teases, we're all swamped. On these shows they'll generally load my stuff but send it to me as one big clip. That doesn't help me much because it's still very time consuming for me, but I can't expect them to clip off every fill, matte and monitor loop for me and send them all seperately. They've got jobs to do, too. Thankfully, on my bigger shows, my EVS folks are plenty and they're awesome. They'll clip everything for me and send it over AND they'll give me a list of where to find everything: Replay ON Fill 121A, Replay ON Matte 121B, etc. I always buy those guys beers after the shows! :-)

[quote="jonas"]young or old, all tds are burdened with a lot.[/quote] I think you all missed my point and the meaning of what I was trying to say. All I was trying to say was that with the added responsibility of the DDR's in recent years at the regional level and where time is limited for your setup, having a DDR I don't have to load myself is a plus. With the SpotBox and way the clips are managed there is no reason for the TD to load the clips in themselves and I welcome the assistance of the EVS operators help in that regard, and I find I can manage my time and the job I do more efficently. I think sometimes people take things out of context here and what the true meaning of my post was. All I was trying to say is that some newer (younger) TD's that were not TDing 10 years ago might not realize. It was not meant as whether you are young or old or anything like that - only that the job has changed and the help from the tape room was appreciated especially where the SpotBox is concerened.

[quote="Rick Tugman"]Some of the younger TD's don't realize the TD's job used to be setting up the switcher, labeling, making DVE effects and managing the crew. That in itself was a full time job. Today with the added responsibility of the DDR's time is that much shorter especially when you add in clipping off and running promos.[/quote] i know he understands it. take all those duties and add in cueing 4-6 channels of spot, programming feeds for international, inHD, etc., PVI/non-PVI, tallies to Secaucus and Denver and Charlotte, etc...plus did the crew get a meal? do we need to feed now? when's telco? when we do feed, is it clean or with the brand and if the brand is it upper right or lower left??? young or old, all tds are burdened with a lot.

Eric, I found by using the EVS Multicam manual how to easily record from the VDR Panel. The following link gives a lot of the shortcuts using PDF pg 81 (or document pg 79). Personally, I find it a little easier just to go back into tape and use an EVS controller myself, right to my spotbox. That way I can clip everything right as it comes in, and when I do have a Lance it makes it even easier just to load and just hit Mark-In. Typically I start out the SpotBox in 1-in 3-out mode for record, then just switch back to 4-out mode for air.

[quote="Rick Tugman"]Some of the younger TD's don't realize the TD's job used to be setting up the switcher, labeling, making DVE effects and managing the crew. That in itself was a full time job.[/quote] "In MY day......!"

On HD-6 there is no Lance Controller anyway - that truck has always had machine control from my experiences on the truck. I think EricG is used to the Profile & Fast Forward way of doing things where the TD actually inputed animations on their DDR's which is not necessary with a SpotBox. With IT networked trucks and the SpotBox, it's actually more efficent to transfer the clips over to the TD. The management of the files (clips) is more accurate and it's actually labeled so you know what is what and it can be archived that way too. Some of the younger TD's don't realize the TD's job used to be setting up the switcher, labeling, making DVE effects and managing the crew. That in itself was a full time job. Today with the added responsibility of the DDR's time is that much shorter especially when you add in clipping off and running promos. With all the clips that are being introduced on some of the shows we work on, I find it more productive to set cue points and program what I have while other elements are loaded. That you can't do with a Profile or Fast Forward. I myself welcome the assistance of the EVS operators on the truck because there are more of them and only one of you.

Eric, as Steve mentioned it technically is possible to record on a Spotbox, but engineering would have to do some repatching on their end IF the unit is even wired for one channel to be used as an input. All of the physical channels may be wired to be sources rather then destinations. I do know that on NMT HD-6, the Spotbox is wired for record, since the TD gets two physical channels and tape uses two. In tape, one channel is used for record and the other is playback.

Since the Spotbox is an EVS, you have to configure your channels for either record or playback. Generally, in the trucks I've been in, for maximum flexibility, the Spotbox is usually configured for 4 channels of playback and no record channels. It can absolutely be configured to have a record channel (or two), but you lose playback channels that way. Once you are recording, you can use the VDR panel screen (shift-F9, if I remember correctly) to mark ins, outs, and save to clips - just as if you had a full EVS controller in front of you. It's pretty powerful. You can also initiate a loop in VDR panel, saving the Lance from doing the work if you don't want it to.