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Welcome to the rack room. The Production Geeks is a deep-dive into the obsessive engineering, high-stakes problem solving, and "nerd-level" passion that fuels Sorrentino Media. Join founder Mike Sorrentino and Dave Shaw (VP, Content and Creative Engineering) as they pull back the curtain on the complex infrastructure behind the world’s most ambitious broadcasts.
From live-streaming test flights for aerospace innovators to architecting massive multi-stream control centers and building turnkey studios for global enterprise leaders, Mike and Dave explore the "how" and "why" behind the tech.
This isn’t just a talk show; it’s a technical post-mortem. We dive into the spec sheets, the signal flows, and the "engineer the hell out of it" philosophy that makes the impossible look easy. If you love the gear as much as the result, and believe that the best production is built on a foundation of relentless technical curiosity, you’ve found your people. Engineered in Midtown Manhattan at 37th & Madison.
SorrentinoMedia.com and MadisonAveLive.com
Sorrentino Media: Get ready.
It's production geeks time.
Let's dive in.
Michael Sorrenitno: Welcome to
Episode One of the production
geeks. I'm Mike Sorrentino, and
with me is my trusted colleague,
Dave Shaw, welcome Dave. Hey
everybody. Terry, a little late
on that switch a little bit. All
right, so what is the production
geeks? Some of you that have
tuned in, thank you for tuning
in. By the way, are here because
you already subscribed to the
Sorrentino media, media podcast,
media offline, and we're taking
over that feed with a new
podcast called The production
geeks. It's a it's a new
concept, where we want to kind
of show you the work that goes
into the work media offline was
really about the people and the
folks in the media and our
colleagues and our clients, and
that was a really cool look. But
Dave and I are dorks. Nerds
Dave Shaw: would have but we're
told not to call it nerds,
because that's too academic,
right?
Michael Sorrenitno: Yeah, so we
wanted to kind of just be a
little bit more natural and be
ourselves and and show you our
process. And so this is really
about what goes on here, and how
do we solve problems from a
very, very, very technical hands
on perspective, and also from a
higher level perspective of what
does a client want, and how do
we get there? So give me some
examples of what you're
thinking. I mean, I know that
we've got a couple projects in
the works for this aerospace
project,
Dave Shaw: yeah. I mean, it's
the challenges. I mean, every
project that we get, I mean, you
get the run in the middle day to
day, I don't wanna say crap, but
day to day projects that similar
to a podcast like this, yeah,
it's almost like a rinse and
repeat. But then you get those,
like, random projects that it's
like, oh, we need to shoot on a
farm and live stream, and you
have no cell service, no power,
and they need to be able to see
it and talk to you and all that.
And that's that's probably for a
future podcast. We'll get into
kind of some of those
challenges. But like, those are
the fun projects where, like,
you got something different, and
there's a problem that you got
to fix. It's not that day to day
stuff. And
Michael Sorrenitno: so many
times we'll just be sitting on
the couch here in the studio,
and just Dave will just kind of
start talking through his ideas,
and we'll pitch each other ideas
for you know, we should use this
type of camera, we should use
this type of broadcast. And you
know, 90% of our ideas that are
thrown around get thrown away,
and what that 10% that's left
with is what ultimately becomes
a project. We recently found a
great way to kind of explain our
work with live streaming as we
don't sell video, we sell
certainty. We don't sell live
streaming, we sell certainty.
And how do we how do we transmit
video from a farm with no cell
cycle, or from an electric
airplane that only allows us a
certain amount of weight and
dimensions to put all of our
equipment on? These are things
we're going to actually talk
about in upcoming actually talk
about in upcoming episodes as we
talk about
Dave Shaw: real projects, but
and hopefully actually do it
live from some of these
locations as we're set up. And
it's going,
Michael Sorrenitno: Yeah, I
think, I think we want it to be
really, like I said earlier,
conversational, but we want to
show you in this podcast, all of
the things that could go wrong.
So if we make a technical error,
something gets, you know, put up
late or incorrectly. We want to
show it, because we're, you
know, experts at what we do, but
humans as well. And a lot of
times, this stuff really gets
polished before it gets out the
door. And I think we just want
to, we should want to be a
little bit more raw. So let's
start with a couple of things.
First is the formatting of this
podcast. We're going to start
today with Goose Island IPA. And
the reason we're starting with
Goose Island IPA is because
that's what CVS had. That's what
they had, that wasn't a Bud
Light or so. I think what we're
going to try to do is something
cheers every episode. Try
something new. And if anybody
out there is actually listening
and you want to send something
for us to try,
Unknown: or just suggest,
Michael Sorrenitno: yeah, send
it along. Dave had these really
cool mugs made up. I think
you'll find that this
encapsulates what we do. We are
production geeks. We're dorks.
One when we do calls with
potential new clients, I think
that's something that really
clicks with people. When we're
like, we're gonna nerd out about
this or because,
Dave Shaw: because we enjoy it,
we don't. We don't in. Things
cookie cutter. It doesn't feel
like we're just selling them on
a
Michael Sorrenitno: product.
Yeah, and also, that a little
bit of history is a go to go
back. David, I went to college
together, and problem solved a
lot of things there. And
throughout the years, Dave was a
client, he was a freelancer, and
now he's been here for several
years,
Dave Shaw: more than three and a
half now, maybe.
Michael Sorrenitno: And it
really just, you know, that's it
just clicks with us. When it
comes to the work, I think we
you always say, like, I know I
know enough to get in trouble.
Dave Shaw: Well, right? It's
true. Like, I mean, and we
talked about this a lot too.
Like, you don't want me
operating that camera.
Sorrentino Media: I
Dave Shaw: know how to do it. I
know how to set it up. I know
how to turn
Sorrentino Media: it on,
Dave Shaw: I know how to frame
up the shot, but you don't want
me operating it. You don't want
me lighting the set.
Sorrentino Media: Yeah,
Dave Shaw: I know enough about
what lights need to be there and
kind of where they should be,
but there's people that
specialize in that we specialize
in the workflow side of the
things, and we have our kind of
our tried and true freelancers,
crews that come in and they know
how to operate everything, and
that's really their job.
Michael Sorrenitno: So when,
when we were trying to figure
out what we're going to do for
our first episode, we were we
decided we just start right here
at home. So a little bit about
this space where we're in is our
studio on Madison Avenue and
37th Street in Manhattan. We
have two spaces. This is our
bigger studio, which we call
studio six because it's on the
sixth floor, and we were on the
10th floor of this building for
seven years or so, and the lease
went up, and frankly, I was just
like, I need a bigger space that
could be that and affordable.
And we came down here, and this
room was, how would you describe
this room?
Dave Shaw: I was gonna say
something that probably
politically incorrect, but keep
this, keep this on the higher
level, looked like a bomb went
Michael Sorrenitno: off. Yeah,
it really did. And and we'll
edit in some pictures to show
but it there was no floor, there
was no electricity. The walls
were literally falling apart.
But we put it together, and with
the help of some of the great
people in the building, we paid
some people in television sets.
We had a lot of TVs, and we
always have a lot of TVs and and
here we are. So we came in here,
and the space was sort of
piecemealed together. Would you
say was like piecemeal a
Dave Shaw: little bit at a time,
like we were trying to figure
out exactly how it was going to
work and kind of make it look
and sound decent. And also, we
had clients coming in.
Michael Sorrenitno: Yeah,
Dave Shaw: we didn't have the,
unfortunately, didn't have that
amount of time.
Sorrentino Media: We
Michael Sorrenitno: have the
luxury of, like, time and plan,
Dave Shaw: really build it out
and plan it all out. So we kind
of just kind of built the plane
as we flew, as we were flying
it. And I mean, things worked.
We definitely learned a lot of
lessons and figured out how to
do things. And
Michael Sorrenitno: I think that
this place, it, yeah, came
together, and it was like piece
by piece, because what we do is
the variety of work that comes
in is so different from day to
day that we might have a
corporate webinar in here one
day, podcaster the next day,
Miss Rachel coming in another
day on a green screen. So we
have to be versatile. But at the
same time, we didn't, I don't
think we didn't know exactly
what were a lot of the common
threads that were going to pull
a lot of our productions
together, and so it took us some
time. So we luckily had some
time over the last year to be
thoughtful about what is, what
is like version 2.0 of this
studio going to look like? And
we were able to put in some
really great equipment, you
know, a routing system. We'll
dive in a little deeper into the
specifics, a routing system,
dedicated studio, cameras,
comms, IFB and for for those
listening, we'll, we'll try to
explain terminology as we say
these things, because we want
anybody to be able to listen,
but at the same time, it's
relatively highly technical, but
this space is awesome. Now,
would
Sorrentino Media: you say
Dave Shaw: everything's working?
And I mean, the biggest thing
is, I mean, the whole thing
could be controlled remotely.
Michael Sorrenitno: Yeah,
Dave Shaw: nobody physically has
to be in the control room.
Nobody physically has to be
here. So when we have those kind
of lower price clients coming in
that don't have the money.
Michael Sorrenitno: Yeah,
Dave Shaw: we can just have them
turn the lights on, and we can
control everything.
Michael Sorrenitno: Yeah, I
think, I think a good place to
start is for me to do a little
show and tell and explain. What
is this space? So I'm gonna, I'm
gonna use my phone.
Sorrentino Media: I'm.
Michael Sorrenitno: And I'm
going to give you a little bit
of a studio tour. This is going
to be talk about raw this is not
going to be perfect. So what I'm
going to use is an app called l,
u, smart. So there's a system we
use called Live View, l, i, v,
e, u, and if you look on my
phone here, it's essentially a
camera app. Okay, and what's
going to happen is I'm going to,
I'm going to select the server
that is located in the room next
door where our colleague, Tara,
Hey, say, say, hi, Tara, hello,
Unknown: hello. So
Michael Sorrenitno: Tara's in
the control room switching the
show this app will does,
something really cool and live
view is one of many companies
that does this service, but it's
called bonding. It's called
cellular bonding, or internet
bonding. And on the phone, my
phone is connected now to our Wi
Fi network, and it's also
connected to the 5g cellular
network for in this case,
Verizon. And usually when you
connect to a website or
something, it chooses one or the
other. Usually if you're on Wi
Fi, it defaults to Wi Fi. This
will take the two and combine
them. And so what it does is it
takes those that video and
splits it up into pieces and
sends it across both of those
paths. So if you're in a hot
dead zone for cellular, it'll
send most of the information
over Wi Fi. In my case, where I
have great signal on both, it
creates essentially a really
super fast internet pipeline,
and doubles or triples the speed
that the phone could get before.
So I'm going to now start the
transmission, and it's about a
one second delay. So right now,
Tara is pulling up the feed, and
it's up. I could see it on the
monitor here. So it's a little
blurry. It's going to take a
minute blurry. It's going to
take a minute to go through. You
can see, this is what you hear.
I don't know if I could zoom Oh
yeah, I can zoom in. So here's
the screen that I'm looking at
for our feed. Here are our
cameras. There's Dave,
Dave Shaw: what? Four cameras
now?
Michael Sorrenitno: Yeah, so now
these are little, tiny, teeny,
tiny, black magic cameras that
we're using. They're black magic
micro studio cameras, and they
have small lenses on them.
Really micro 4/3 Yeah, the
Dave Shaw: four, four thirds.
Michael Sorrenitno: And then
this is a black magic Studio
Pro, or plus Studio Pro with a
great screen built into it. And
another black magic we really
are happy with these cameras.
What, you know, let's, we'll
talk about that in a minute. But
you know, this is, this is our
space. So as you can see, our
set, we have our wood slat walls
here. The reason we put those
there, obviously for decorative
purposes, but also, but also
acoustic. Now, hopefully, Tara,
you're being able to pull in my
audio from the live view. Are
you pulling in my audio from the
phone? Now,
Unknown: yes, I am noise.
Michael Sorrenitno: Okay, so
basically, acoustics is a big
issue. So you can see we have
these panels on the ceiling, and
we also have a lot of three inch
panels behind this wall, and
then we covered it up with black
fabric, and then put these wood
slat on there. And then we have
bunch of 85 inch TVs. There some
fake wood walls, which we call
stage flats, equipment, rack,
refrigerator, lots of other some
slot machines. We'll get to that
on a later episode coming down
the hall. We have Tara in here.
Hi, Tara. What's up? Okay, this
is Tara. What are we switching
on? What's the software?
Unknown: So we're using vimex,
and it's basically combining
everything, video, sound,
graphics, all live.
Michael Sorrenitno: It's pretty
rad. I mean, I love this stuff.
There's Dave, so in here we were
doing some work. Here's our
audio board. Everything comes
into the board and then is split
up into a bunch of different
place, places. My phone is
currently sending the signal up
over the internet, and this is
putting this, and I mentioned it
splits the signal up into pieces
and sends it over the different
connections. This puts it back
together and then sends it out
over this this feed, it's
creating an endless loop. And
then we also use a lot of stuff
here. We'll talk about this
another time. This is MAC. We
use something called Zoom ISO,
which is sort of similar. So
we're gonna talk about the audio
board a little bit. We're gonna
talk about, we talked already a
little bit about this live view.
We'll talk more about that in a
bit. And then this system is our
we like a lot of black magic
stuff, like a lot of production
companies. It's called the Video
Hub 4040, we'll talk about that
in a minute. This essentially is
the, I wouldn't say the brains,
but this is the main switch. Or
the routing system. Everything
comes in and goes out of this
little box here. We'll talk
about that, and it makes life a
lot easier. And yeah, so then it
all comes through into vMix
here, and we're huge fans of
vMix, all right. Tara, see you
later. And going back into the
studio, we'll, we'll pick it up
here, and you can take me off.
Live View. Tara, so you
Dave Shaw: did a little picture
in picture there, yeah,
Sorrentino Media: yeah,
Michael Sorrenitno: trying to
get a little creative. Thanks,
Tara, so that alright? So that's
our space, right? Like the
router. Let's start with that.
The I said, everything comes in
and goes out of this. Why was it
so important for us to get
router and what did we have set
up before?
Dave Shaw: So originally, we
just had one of the Black Magic
constellations. Does something
similar, any in, can go to any
out, definitely some
restrictions with audio, because
it's certain channels and having
to dive into the back with like
programming XML.
Michael Sorrenitno: And why do
we have the constellation? A mic
was cheap. B, what else?
Dave Shaw: Well, it's not that
we're cheap. That's at the time
we needed something that we
could push any input to any of
these screens that we have, and
something that if we wanted to
switch on and switch a show on,
we could so I mean, that's the
biggest difference.
Constellation is also really the
switcher,
Michael Sorrenitno: right? So it
does what vMix can do,
Dave Shaw: what vMix can do, and
it does some routing. So it
served two purposes,
Michael Sorrenitno: yeah, but
we're
Dave Shaw: as we're talking
about earlier. We're talking
about kind of, what are we going
to actually talk about today?
We're trying to bridge that gap
between when you get that full
broadcast level studio. They're
spending millions of dollars,
but kind of be that like niche
middle ground, place where
you're not we're not looking to
do broadcast here. That's not
what we are. We're not looking
to have $300,000 cameras and all
this stuff. We're looking to do
nice, corporate, affordable
jobs,
Sorrentino Media: yeah,
Dave Shaw: live streams,
content, yeah, any types of real
content, and really for the
digital space. So putting that
routing in basically was a it
was something that we wanted to
do, but didn't seem necessary.
Michael Sorrenitno: It's not
cheap either now, right?
Dave Shaw: But as you start, as
we started building more and
getting different clients in.
Clients would come in and say,
Oh, well, I need to plug this in
here. They'd unplug something,
and then the next client would
come in and stuff just wouldn't
work the way it should. So we
had to look how to expand and
just adding the that router, we
can now put any input signal to
any output signal within this
entire facility. So and what the
router does differently is it
also passes audio through,
rather than to a master channel.
So what we can do is, right now
this, we're running these mics
directly into the board and
through the USB interface into
vMix. These cameras are running
into a patch panel within the
studio here, which goes right
into the router and then routes
into vMix. We could also route
these cameras into the ATEM. We
could route it directly into the
Tascam streaming device,
whatever we need throw
Michael Sorrenitno: up the
screen share so people could see
what this router looks like a
little bit. So here's the here's
this one is like, it's 4300 it's
a little bit older. Black Magic
just came out with a whole bunch
of new routers that a lot of
them are.
Dave Shaw: They're all IP based
now. And
Michael Sorrenitno: that's,
Dave Shaw: that's that's
definitely a future discussion.
That's where they have
everything, you know, you
Michael Sorrenitno: have
opinions on that. Sure, you see,
it's just a good look. It's a
bunch of plugs on the back and
but on the front, you know, this
all computer controlled, so we
can send anything to anywhere.
And, you know, look well,
because we, you saw in the
video, we have a TV that is in
the studio. And, you know, we
used to have a problem. We have
an Apple TV in the control room,
you know. So we want to send, we
want to watch a show a client
wants to watch the Oscars feed
while they were doing live
stream about the Oscars that
now, yeah, so we put an Apple TV
in here and stream it out.
Great, but what if they want it
on that TV? Well, now you got to
unplug the Apple TV, you got to
put on the other TV, and then it
becomes a whole thing. So now
it's you don't have to do that
anymore. Now it's just this.
Dave Shaw: And I mean, we still
got to program a nice stream
deck for a lot of our presets.
So all we got to do is to hit a
button and not even have to go
into the software.
Michael Sorrenitno: I mean, the
video router, honestly, just
like made life so much easier so
then.
Dave Shaw: But it's the routing
in general, like when we reset
the audio board and just wire it
again, all everything going into
it, everything going out and
really taking the time to
program it. Uh, being able to
now split. We're you mentioned
ifbs earlier, being able to
split. I only want
Michael Sorrenitno: earpieces
for those the listen to, yeah.
Dave Shaw: So like we're able to
split it. So if we only want the
director talking to the host,
rather than the talent as well,
but the talent still needs to
hear remote guests, whatever it
could be. We're able to set
whatever goes to their ear
specifically,
Michael Sorrenitno: yeah, yeah.
That was a huge thing. Like,
just, you know, we're always
trying to be different for
everybody, but at the same time
we, you know, we're studio like,
so we're trying can't be
everything everybody, but a lot
of times the host needs to hear
the direct or the producer, but
they don't want the guests to
hear that. Yeah, the guest needs
to hear the sound bites that are
playing. And just because audio
is like crazy, audience is
something that I think every
it's always overlooked. Do you
agree? Like
Dave Shaw: I think so, because
you think it's a couple of mics
and little bit of playback. You
don't really realize what goes
into it.
Michael Sorrenitno: Yeah,
Dave Shaw: and as I said before,
like, there's the people that
specialize in it. They know how
to do everything, how to EQ
everything, how to do it. Like,
I know enough to get myself in
trouble. I know how to use EQ. I
know how to do all the routing.
But the question would be, if we
bring in an a one to run that
board
Michael Sorrenitno: audio
technician who's basically like
the senior level audio tech. Do
Dave Shaw: we, is it? Did we set
it up the way that they would
run the board for a production
Yeah, or did we set it up from
that engineering perspective?
And that's we ran into that when
with the client out on the West
Coast,
Michael Sorrenitno: who were
Dave Shaw: hoping to actually
get on one of these podcasts to
discuss where we built a
probably close to a million
dollar studio for them, and we
set everything up. We wired
everything. Everything was
working as expected, but we made
sure to bring in one of their
audio ops that they use all the
time to do it, and he completely
redid the board because it
wasn't the way that they would
operate. It works, but I think
again, that's where, like, these
operators are so skilled in what
they do.
Michael Sorrenitno: Our board is
a Behringer X 32 compact. Is
that right?
Dave Shaw: I believe it, yeah,
Michael Sorrenitno: so I'll pull
that up Sarah in a sec.
Dave Shaw: It's an older board,
but it's one of those workhorses
that really it has everything
that you would need in a studio
like this.
Michael Sorrenitno: And what?
Um, yeah, what's the what are
the key things here about this
one? Let me try to find that on
barringers website. What are the
key things about this board?
Dave Shaw: What was really nice
about is it has a USB interface
built in, uses a Midas preamps.
Midas is kind of the higher
level, let's say, of Beringer.
They're kind of premium brand,
but the having the USB
interface, we can hook that in
directly to vMix. We can get all
the channels in and out. I
think, I think we can do 32
different ones. I think we have
it set up for 16 now, all these
ins and outs and create
different audio busses. Once
that stuff gets into the board,
it meshes with the hardwired
stuff, where we can then route
it right into our IFB system. So
we can have bus A or bus B out
of vMix going into your ear,
where I hear bus C, where I'm
only hearing video playback or
certain things, so we're able to
really isolate all those
different things.
Michael Sorrenitno: That's the
craziest thing was, when we have
like, every like, you never know
where you're going to need to
send audio,
Dave Shaw: no and but even the
video stuff, you're going to get
people to come in and just say,
you have this whole thing
planned out. You spend days,
weeks, whatever it could be,
planning this show out, and you
get their CEO that walks in, I
don't like the light there. I
want to see. I don't like this
little 30 inch TV. Put a 60 inch
Michael Sorrenitno: or like
maybe we had planned on rolling
video out of a TV screen offset
for them to hear sound bite
during a live stream, and then
that person says, I can't hear
that speaker. Well, I want to
hear it in my ear. And then you
Dave Shaw: get the feedback when
you're doing that certain
things, if we crank it up. But I
mean, it really comes down to
the the overall production,
Michael Sorrenitno: yeah,
Dave Shaw: when people have the
budgets and we can get giant
crews in here, I mean, we had
1213, crew members on some of
the large shoots in a small
space. And we've done it with
two, one or two. This
Michael Sorrenitno: space is
about 40 feet by 20, maybe,
Dave Shaw: yeah, about 600 ish.
Michael Sorrenitno: So, yeah. I
mean, we, you know, we have to,
our biggest thing is that we're
always trying to reverse
engineer budgets too, you know.
And I think, like, some people
come in we just had, we have
some people come in there, like,
they just, like, money is not an
issue, of course, which is the
best problem ever. But then we
also have people who are like,
the just yesterday Dave was
talking something, they're like,
I just got to tell. You we don't
have a big budget, yeah, right.
And so let's figure out how to
make it work. But
Dave Shaw: that's how you get
that's when we have to get
creative. I mean, there, this
client is coming in. They're
looking to do a pitch reel to
put on Kickstarter, or one of
those platforms to hopefully get
funding. And, I mean, what we're
working out is a deal where they
can come use the space, but if
they get the money to do the
pilot, and it actually they this
Kickstarter campaign project,
then we have their we have,
we're going to be their studio
to shoot the pilot in, and then
that turns into a much larger
production we had originally.
Most of our work is outside the
studio, so I don't know what
percentage, but I would say
probably like 70. Would you say
hard to these? I know these days
we're doing so
Michael Sorrenitno: many streams
and these hybrids, but most of
our work is outside of studio.
So the studio is great. We love
it. It's our home base, it's
where we hang out, it's where we
store all of our equipment in
and a good bar. It's great bar.
And the issue that we also found
up until like a week ago, was
that we would set up cameras in
here for a studio shoot, and
then we need to break them down,
pack them up, because then they
would need to go on the road for
a field shoot. And we were
setting up and breaking down,
and things get lost, and then
they go but, you know, obviously
we have days where we have
things in the field, things in
the studio. At the same time, we
finally decided to commit to
setting up the studio cameras.
And I mean, just in a week. I
mean, I showed you the cameras
already that. I mean, they're
they're nothing, they're so
tiny, these black magic micro
studio cameras. But first of
all, what's your, what's your
take on these, on these cameras?
Dave Shaw: I mean, we had to,
obviously, we had to get the
video assist, which is basically
an external recorder, a
Michael Sorrenitno: monitor.
Dave Shaw: Yeah, the biggest
negative about the black magics,
we'll start on that,
Michael Sorrenitno: is it up
Tara,
Sorrentino Media: their
Dave Shaw: studio cameras don't
record internally. You got to
hook drives up to them to
record, and the formats lack
Michael Sorrenitno: Yeah,
Dave Shaw: so you can only do
the black magic raw or a couple
of codecs.
Michael Sorrenitno: Yeah? That,
which kind of sucks
Dave Shaw: for our editors, that
it's just it's not practical,
yeah? So the smaller cameras,
and we wound up hooking one up
to the Studio Pro as well. We
put on these video assists so we
can select the ProRes or HDS
explorer issue whatever whatever
codec the client is requesting
for the record. We can hook we
can record right to that. But
that also gives us small cameras
and monitors. So that was kind
of like a nice easy fix. And I
mean, for the most part, a lot
of these cameras, we don't do a
ton of movement on but if we
ever had to put a nice head on a
slider or something like that,
that's the small camera, the
fact that they're the power
lenses on them. So we can
control those right through the
ATEM and the zoom and the focus.
And
Michael Sorrenitno: in the
studio camera. Here you tear you
could pull this one up, the
studio cameras a little bit
bigger. This one has, like a
built in screen. And did we lose
my There we go. It's got built
in screen. It's got more
outputs. We have HDMI, SDI. Why
do we like SDI? Because it runs
better.
Dave Shaw: It's a stronger
signal, longer distances
Michael Sorrenitno: pop out of
Dave Shaw: the lock in, it's
just a HDMI, in my mind, is
still that consumer format. And,
I mean, we got to work with it.
I mean, probably have what, like
600 converter
Michael Sorrenitno: boxes. How
do you think? I mean, I would
say what hesitation that I had,
what, and I think we both had
for a while, is that is the
optics. You know, I think maybe
kind of pun intended a little
bit, but the clients want to see
a big, expensive camera when
they come in,
Dave Shaw: yeah,
Michael Sorrenitno: but these,
like micro studio cameras, are
so small.
Dave Shaw: Well, I think that's
the studio camera here. I mean,
that looks looks nice. It looks
nice. They have these monitors
coming off of them. And, I mean,
you look at this picture, I
mean, for
Michael Sorrenitno: I know
Dave Shaw: what these cameras
cost these days, I mean,
Michael Sorrenitno: and the
depth of field that you get on
these little lenses, and it's
great. We always joke I should
show in a minute, like the the
tiny lens that we have on,
Dave Shaw: yeah, the big camera,
the tiny, little pancake lens on
the beefy camera. Here's that.
Here's what I'm talking about.
There's almost there. I still
see some bars popping up.
Michael Sorrenitno: There's this
big, big old camera and this big
old camera and this tiny lens,
you know, it's kind of crazy,
but they are, they are great,
these great little cameras
talked about our routing system.
Tara, hopefully it. Mess up.
Let's talk about comms, because
that was like, and we did talk
briefly, because it's part of
audio. But comms, I mean, we
talked about IFP, but what is
comms? Comms is how we
communicate, generally, like,
internally. Yeah, right. And so
a director talking to a camera
person, producer talking to the
director, things like that. We
have these great Holly land, you
know what? By the way, what's
your take on hollyland? I,
everybody's got opinions. And I,
Dave Shaw: I actually like some
of their products, yeah? Like,
yeah, they came into the market
as this, like, cheap alternative
to everything. But, I mean,
we've been doing a lot of those
field things where we just
people just need to, they're
literally shooting on their
phone like you just wore with
the Yeah. And to be able to give
them an earpiece and a clip on
mic, and to be able to go in 15
seconds on their own, it's kind
of impressive. And the quality,
I mean, I'm sure our audio
people would, I'm not going to
call him by name, but I'm sure a
couple of our audio people would
disagree with me on that,
Michael Sorrenitno: yeah,
Dave Shaw: but the and I think
that this could be a whole
episode that we do talking
about, like, the right tools,
Michael Sorrenitno: yeah?
Dave Shaw: Like, yeah, we
mentioned before that, like, we
weren't looking to build the
broadcast level studio,
Michael Sorrenitno: right,
Dave Shaw: but all this gear we
could do a broadcast level
production, it's really just
comes down to, like, the cameras
and a couple other things. But
he's like in but you're building
it with like, that backbone is
there, but everything has its
job. I mean, these, these little
mics, these consumer, prosumer,
yeah, prosumer level stuff, go
ahead
Michael Sorrenitno: and throw up
the calm system. Picture Tara
show
Dave Shaw: you don't need that
30,000 $40,000 system.
Michael Sorrenitno: Yeah, these
wireless headsets. They don't
have the belt packs. They
literally just have the built in
wireless you can walk all over
the floor and still be
connected. And these, I mean,
this, this particular one is
just a few headsets, like 600
bucks, but by the way, I mean,
I'm sure it's no surprise, but
we are not paid by anybody to
talk about this. If you want to
be, if you want to pay our well,
you can sponsor us. But like
the, I think our set was, you
know, a few grand, maybe back in
the day, at least. But it's
like, I think it had eight or
nine headsets, plus this base
unit, and it's great because it
also has USB interface, so you
can plug into a computer and
then bring in somebody over
zoom. So, like, producers don't
want to deal with tech, if
they're everybody's familiar
with Zoom, then it works. But,
Dave Shaw: but even that, with
all our guests and everything to
like this is all now wired
through our board.
Sorrentino Media: And
Michael Sorrenitno: how did, how
did we do that? Because that was
actually kind of like a
Dave Shaw: we thought we were
just gonna plug in, and that
wasn't the case. We had to get a
specialized cable that Holly
land.
Michael Sorrenitno: What is for
wire? What is to wire like? What
is all this?
Dave Shaw: It's just the sends
and returns and so,
Michael Sorrenitno: so, so
there's different shapes of
plugs. There's rj 45 there's
XLR. And in those types of plugs
there are, there are four wire
and two wire,
Dave Shaw: yes, that right,
yeah. And then there's five pin,
like for DMX and other stuff.
So, so
Michael Sorrenitno: a lot of
calm systems use. I mean, I
learned this just like two weeks
ago, really. So that's why I'm
asking. But like, it seems like
four wire and two wire, which
this system is compatible with.
Both is a common way for
intercom systems to connect to
other,
Dave Shaw: yeah, but to be able
to Yeah, so you usually have
that, usually get the extra pin
for
the So, like an XLR, yeah, which
is the three, like, typically
three pin, you have your ground
lead and the three pins on it,
then the return, and then you
have an XLR, stands for ground
left and right.
Michael Sorrenitno: Good.
Question. Tara, can
Sorrentino Media: you
Dave Shaw: look that one up for
us so we don't look like idiots?
For the geeks,
Michael Sorrenitno: I'll look it
up. So the, but we were able to
use, there's basically a four
wire adapter that is sold by
Holly land. It's a Ethernet type
Jack, right? Yeah,
Dave Shaw: it goes from the RJ
45 to break out into kind of the
XLR. So we're able to run that
in and out of the board. And
now, because it's hooked up,
we're able to route anything
that we push into that we can do
that com system into the IFB we
could do it just to one and kind
of bring anybody into it. And
we're looking to kind of
integrate the cloud IFB system
as well. Which, which.
Michael Sorrenitno: What do you
like? You like space comes?
Dave Shaw: Yeah. I mean, unity
is kind of like this, the
standard. But space comes. I
know Chris Russo, if you're
listening, which you'll probably
be on one of our episodes. He
knows the developer on that, and
kind of, that's cool, so he but
he's kind of the one who kind of
sold us on this, and it is just
a simple, very easy setup. I.
I'm interested to try the Zoom
integration that just came out
with it. They had the iOS app,
but just from an admin
standpoint,
Michael Sorrenitno: couldn't pop
up the space comes websites.
Dave Shaw: We can just route
within that any person to talk
to any other person. But we can
also then tie it into our
system, so we can use it as a
one way IFB into zoom.
Michael Sorrenitno: Yeah.
Dave Shaw: So that's really
where I think this is going to
come into. Come in, huge for us.
If you got to count somebody in
or tell them they're going to be
up in five seconds, whatever
it's going to
Sorrentino Media: be,
Dave Shaw: we can pump a
director Mike into zoom, and
they'll only get that through an
IFB it won't go to everybody,
Michael Sorrenitno: yeah, and we
haven't. We haven't tested that.
I'm excited to test that out,
yeah, to see if it actually will
break out, like, separate the
audio within zoom, I don't, I
don't know if that's if it's as
effective as it says, but it'd
be really cool. But, yeah, space
comes, it's
Dave Shaw: been, it's been
great. I mean, we used it for a
bunch of projects. Did we
Michael Sorrenitno: use Unity
for anything recently? Like
maybe last year or two? Don't
think we've used it in about
three, four years. I mean, I
remember a long time ago, before
some of this stuff came out, pre
covid, we were doing, we did
something, and we needed a lot
of people on comps, and we ended
up using discord. We just
created a discord audience. It
was not
Sorrentino Media: no but
Dave Shaw: it wasn't
Michael Sorrenitno: designed for
that job. Yeah, you know.
Dave Shaw: And I mean, that's
the whole thing, finding the
right tool to get the job done,
right? I mean, and that's kind
of where we're at now with the
studio. We've put in all these
tools. And that being said, it's
easy enough for somebody to they
want the Cinema Camera rather
than one of these black magic
cameras. Yeah, it's run right?
You change out a cable, and you
can run right into the control
room and nothing changes. The
workflow is there. The
infrastructure is there. And, I
mean, we're, we're kind of
really versatile now with like
any client need, is an easy
adaptation.
Michael Sorrenitno: Yeah, yeah.
So I think it's probably a good
place to wrap things up that you
don't
Dave Shaw: listen to me talk.
Michael Sorrenitno: I mean, I
could go on, honestly, I legit
could go on for another hour
about this stuff, but
Dave Shaw: I don't think our
Michael Sorrenitno: listeners,
but I hope that this was a
valuable conversation. Maybe,
maybe you learned something. I
think what I'd like to ask of
anybody that's listening is if,
if you have topics that you're
interested in learning more
about, ask us. Shoot us an email
info at Sorrentino media.com
it'll be in the show notes.
Dave Shaw: Also, if you, if you
have, if you're an expert in
some area, you want to just talk
nerd with us. Yeah,
Michael Sorrenitno: come on.
Dave Shaw: Kind of Come on. If
you're, if you have a product
that you think we would like,
and you want to kind of show it
off and tell us how we you think
we could put it to use. Come on,
see what other people think. And
kind of just, this is really an
open discussion. We want people
we're going to be having
hopefully some of our vendors,
come on. And I know we were
talking about, we want to have a
larger conversation about really
good relationships we built with
vendors that we've actually
never bought anything from.
Michael Sorrenitno: Yeah,
Dave Shaw: like they're they're
there. They answer the questions
they they but just the way that
you're treated by real people
versus being sold on something.
Yeah,
Michael Sorrenitno: yeah. I
mean, we've was just saying this
morning, or maybe yesterday, I
forget, like, how much money
we've spent at bnh alone. You
know, it's crazy, not on our
behalf, right, but for our
clients. You know, like Dave
said, we built for one client a
studio was just under a million
dollars. And that's just one
client, one build. And, you
know, over the course of putting
all of these studios together
for all these different clients,
plus our own and then all these
field productions, we've
accumulated a lot of knowledge.
So we want to be able to share
it with the production world. We
want to hear and learn from you
in the production world, and not
gatekeep information, I think is
is important. Now I may just
friggin love talking.
Dave Shaw: There's no, I mean,
this industry is all about
connections.
Michael Sorrenitno: Yeah. I
mean, we're in the relationship.
Always say that.
Dave Shaw: So, I mean, you can
come to us, you learn some
stuff, and if you can go out and
do it, do it. But I mean, we've
found that a lot of people will
learn things, and they try and
go out on their own and then
realize you need people. So I
mean, that's why we're here.
We're here to help people and
kind of get you to the next
level, get your content out and
make it look
Sorrentino Media: good.
Michael Sorrenitno: So that's
it. Thanks for listening
watching. As you know, we are
streaming on YouTube and on
social platforms. We're also
available, as you hopefully are,
hearing us on Apple podcasts,
Spotify, Audible, all those
platforms. We could do the same
for you. Ours is just designed
to be a little bit less
polished, but we can do
anything, whether it's live.
Streaming, podcasting, studio,
production, field production,
animation, graphics, design.
We're here for you. We'd love to
connect with you.
And if you want to share
information, you have
information that you want to
share with us, or if you're
interested in the project, give
us a ring. We love to talk shop.
So Mike Sorrentino, Dave Shaw
Sorrentino media, give us some
beer, whiskey, whatever
recommendation or six packs.
We'll see you next time on the
production weeks you.