For a while now I’ve been running two cameras on my shoots. I’ve often looked at Timecode boxes to sync them up but for various reasons none of them really “spoke” to me, or didn’t have the features I wanted or was willing to fork over the dough for. For certain things like static sit-down interviews Timecode isn’t terribly necessary, but for a long fashion shoot, commercial, or narrative it’s critical. Unless you (or if you’re lucky, your AE) want to spend hours sifting through the footage to get everything lined up on a timeline. If you’re like me, you just grit your teeth, have two separate folders, and go skimming through thumbnails to find the right clips.
Unfortunately (only for workflow reasons) I’d been using my Fujifilm X-T3 as the B-Cam to my C500mkII and while the X-T3 is a terrific camera, as it’s primarily designed for stills it doesn’t offer timecode. For a while my only realistic option seemed to be the TentacleSync E system, which is great but I wasn’t super sold on for various reasons. LTC specifically (that tone you can record to the camera to act as Timecode) wasn’t thrilling me and using a separate piece of software to get LTC to burn in as proper TC before importing it felt like a lot of friction, especially considering I don’t have a Mac. I really wish Adobe would add reading LTC to Premiere but so far my post on the Adobe Support Forums has garnered a ton of replies but no official response yet. Bummer. For the record, Resolve can do it natively.
I have a C70 now which has Timecode so that problem is behind me, but my need to use LTC at all wasn’t anyone’s fault but my own. So with that friction in mind I ignored my TC problem and moved on.
Parallel to that, I always was interested in a digital slate. They really don’t do anything other than display the timecode that the sound person and camera are synced to, but they usually can generate TC as well and honestly they just seem fun (fast forward a few months and a simple TikTok I made about the Deity slate hit almost half a million views in a week. Clearly everyone thinks they’re fun.) Plus clients really love them as they make everything feel more “professional”, way more than a mattebox on your camera. Pfft.
Lucky for me, I was offered to shoot part of the launch video for the Deity TC-SL1, their new smart slate, and in lieu of payment they agreed to just give me one along with their TC-1 three unit kit, much to my excitement. So here, after just about a year of use, is my review of both of these fantastic products, starting with the slate.
The Deity TC-SL1 Smart Slate is a lightweight metal timecode slate with bluetooth connectivity milled from a single block of aluminum, complete with a set of walnut clapper sticks held together with a hidden magnet. On the front is a classic slate face with an ultra-bright display for Timecode and other data (we’ll get to that in a sec), on the back there’s a slot for your fingers next to a small information/menu OLED in addition to a thumb slot on the sticks, and on the sides there’s Lemo and TRS jacks for jamming or reading Timecode, a wheel you use to interact with the info on the LCD as well as power and “flip” switches, the latter of which allows you to use the slate upside down for tail slates. Where other slates look like they were made in a garage and use somewhat obscure methods of adjusting parameters, this slate is super slick and simple to understand and use.
A note about the colored patches on the clapper part as the question seems to come up a lot: they are purely decorative. You’d think they’re there for post reasons but if you’ve used a Macbeth chart you know touching the patches is a no-no because the oils and dirt on your hand will affect their look and make them ineligible for proper calibration or matching. What do you use to operate the sticks? Exactly.
The display, as I said, is bright enough to beat out the sun but can be easily adjusted via the aforementioned “interaction wheel” picking a value between 1 and 6. The same goes for the backlight on the slate part. When closed, a group of 6 LEDs in the rightmost lower corner of the display will blink to let you know the slate is on and working properly. When in “tail slate mode” it switches to the upper-leftmost six LEDs, which is a nice detail.
I sort of wanted to save this for later because it’s one of my favorite parts, but in addition to simply showing the running timecode and pausing for a bit when you clap the sticks, you’re also able to display a few lines of data right afterwards, which you set via the app (which will have its own section towards the end). You’re able to pick and choose what you want or don’t want, but you can show FPS, User Bit (date usually), 3 separate custom lines, and two “input patterns” which just kind of look like… emojis? Not sure what those are for, and you can’t edit them. You’re also able to change what is “always on” the slate when the sticks are up to one of those emoji strings instead of the Timecode which, again… no idea why that’s there. Fun I suppose. Fun’s not a bad thing.
Personally, I always set it to show FPS, the Date, and then what camera I’m shooting, and the footage type. As a freelance colorist, it’s so frustrating to get footage and just be told “uhhh… I’m not sure what they shot.” This way everyone in the post pipeline will know, for instance, that we shot 24fps, November 5th, on VENICE, in Slog3.Cine. That third user-customizable thing could also be a note to the editor if necessary, like “I love you” or “120fps slowmo” or whatever. I’ve actually used the “slowmo” tag a lot just so the editor knows the exact frame rate we were going with when doing high speed stuff and can adjust accordingly when needed. Huge feature there that no other slate on the market has.
Charging it is easy enough, you can either leave the batteries in the unit and plug it in to a wall socket via USB-C (I’d recommend the fastest charging block you’ve got, it’ll take them all) or by pulling the batteries and charging them on a standard NP-F charger. If you go the USB-C route, the slate is still perfectly usable and will keep all its settings intact, as it did just sitting in its case here, and in a pinch could be a way to get super extended runtimes if necessary. I could see you velcroing a big 20,000mAh “power brick” to the back and getting… I suppose it’d be 120 hours of clapper-up runtime seeing as each of the NP-F batteries are 3350mAh, plus the 20K brick. If you’re out in the wilderness for a month with no power, there ya go!
Now, one thing I will say is having the batteries on the bottom of the slate could be potentially problematic since that’s where you’d naturally put it down when not in use, and I could see dirt or debris getting in the USB port or the battery doors. Simple fix though, I’d say just put a thin strip of gaff to cover them up and you’ll be fine. Maybe even paper tape.
I’ve actually just updated the firmware on the slate to 1.3 during this review (very simply using the app) and while there’s a couple usability changes and bug fixes, the main thing that stood out for me was how you can now adjust the brightness from inside the app and that it’ll display the previous clap TC on the device overview screen. Really great for your sanity or a Scripty who forgot to check.
I’ve mentioned the app a few times and we’ll do a segment on that at the end, but what if you don’t have the app or want to use non-Deity TC boxes? That’s perfectly fine, as the slate is compatible with any TC device that can transmit TC via 5-pin lemo or TRS (¼” on the slate). This means you can use the TC-SL1 as either the generator or jam other devices to the slate. The only thing that is app-dependent is setting “time of day” TC, unless of course you’re jamming it with another device doing that. You can set custom TC inside the menu on the unit itself if you want.
Now, while the slate is great and all, it’s not necessarily worth spending $1000 on if you don’t have other devices to sync to. It is primarily a multi-unit syncing device after all. Sure it’s nice to know the TOD/Date/Camera for each clip, but where it really becomes handy is when you’re running separate audio and/or multiple cameras. That’s where the TC-1 units come in.
The Deity TC-1 Timecode Boxes are modern Timecode devices which you use to ensure all your cameras and audio equipment are synced. If I had to pick one or the other as an investment, I’d say the TC-1s are more useful than the slate as Timecode is meant to be shared, not necessarily seen. By having all your equipment synced to the same TC (up to 20 devices), you can simply drop the footage and audio into your bins or timeline and they’ll auto-magically line up and there’s no need for manual syncing via a clap, Pluraleyes, or anything like that. As with the slate, the TC-1s can be jammed to or from other devices, whatever your needs may be.
The TC-1 kit that I got includes 3 sync cables, all locking: TRS to TRS (3.5mm on all of these), TRS to BNC, and TRS to Lemo. I bought a second TRS to BNC cable because I own a C70 now and both the C500 and C70 have BNC jacks for TC, but having the additional TRS and Lemo cables ensures that if I’m faced with a hybrid camera that only has a mic jack, or my sound person needs to jam off of me or vice versa, I’m good to go. There’s also a “triple tap” USB cable allowing you to charge all three devices via one single USB port.
The devices themselves are relatively small, only measuring 1×1.5×2”, with a small OLED screen on the front (the same one as on the TC-SL1) and a patch of “hook” on the back so you can attach it to any “loop”. To that end, the kit also includes 3 coldshoe mounts with “loop” on the top so you can mount it that way as well.
It’s Velcro, okay? I know 3M gets mad when you say that but you all know it as Velcro. No one calls it “hook and loop”. I’m sorry your trademark got genericized. Go sit with ChapStick and Kleenex at the sad company table.
Looking at the screen, on the left side of the unit you’ve got the locking TRS jack, on the right side you’ve got the power/back button, on the upper right corner you have the scroll wheel for manipulating the menu, the bottom houses the USB-C port and the top of the unit contains the Power/Sync/Pair LEDs and is where the scratch mic lives. That’s right: if you’re running these things via a headphone jack, it’ll have one channel sending LTC and the other scratch audio. This is a fantastic quality of life addition because not only can you simply just hear things normally by muting the LTC channel if necessary (lord knows scratch audio has saved someone’s life out there), but if the LTC doesn’t work for whatever reason you can still sync manually. I love that for us.
The OLED turns off after a few moments but when on displays the current TC so you can confirm everything is synced and has small boxes below it as the menu parameters. These features are a touch difficult to discern, but generally you don’t need to interact with them. They include: Lock/Unlock, Master Run/Auto Jam, Frame Rate, Channel (A, B, C etc), Out Type (Line/Audio In or Audio Out), TC Type (Sync, Set, Ext), Bluetooth, and General settings. You can also “name” each box, for instance with the camera it’s attached to, via the app or in the general settings menu. Aside from a bit more on-set organization, it also makes it so you can see on the app which camera is connected to what device and is potentially de-synced or powered down or what have you.
As with the TC-SL1, these little boxes run for a very long time, roughly 28 hours on one charge. Unfortunately they don’t have removable batteries, but I can’t imagine you’ll have them on for a day straight before being able to recharge them. Sound off in the comments section if you’re doing the kind of work that might though I’d love to hear about it! In any case, they take about 2 hours to fully recharge and like the slate can run while being charged so maybe get a few of those power bricks if you’re the wilderness person we spoke of.
Deity states that the TC-SL1 will potentially drift roughly one frame every 48 hours, with the TC-1s likely drifting a frame every 72 hours, but it’s easy enough to just pop open the app and hit “sync” after lunch and not have to ever think about it. Which brings us to…
THE APP. The app goes hard, I’m not going to lie. Sidus Audio, available for both Android and iOS, is a tremendous value-add to this system.
Opening the app you’re presented with all the devices you’ve synced and their status: Connected/Disconnected, Name, current TC, a “reconnect” button if applicable, individual reset buttons, individual sync buttons, “sync all”, and battery life on each device. Next to that page is a “Device Groups” page where you can, shocker, put devices in different groups if you’d like. If you tap on any individual device you’ll get a dedicated page showing all that info as well as a settings gear (where you’ll set the TC, User Bit, FPS, TC Type, and Output Volume) as well as a preset page where you can save all of those setting types to apply elsewhere quickly, or after a hard reset.
Towards the bottom of the main page is a “workstation” tab you can select which is kind of an expanded view of the main page where you get a bit more detail on each device’s settings and status but can still perform all the same functions. I’d assume this is more of a “tablet friendly” page or where you want to simplify the layout for whatever reason? You can also change all the devices’ User Bit and FPS very quickly from that page and sync everything at once with the same settings.
Everything is nice and simple and it just works, which I love. Deity (and Aputure) have done a great job with their Sidus apps and I think it’s worth giving them credit where credit’s due. Again, you don’t have to use Sidus Audio to operate the TC-1 or SL1, but it certainly makes everything easy breezy, even down to updating firmware. Obviously if the devices are further than, say, 250ft from your phone or tablet it won’t work (bluetooth is simple wireless after all) but at least in my experience that’s almost never the case and if you’re re-syncing or making adjustments to any given device, you’ve probably had to get near it for some reason anyway.
While you can use any other company’s Timecode devices in conjunction with Deity’s offerings, another advantage to the Deity ecosystem is their new THEOS D-UHF mic packs that have just come out and they too include Timecode (which you can jam via the 3.5mm jack) and connect to Sidus Audio. This means that you can see all the mic packs in the app, sync them with the TC boxes and Slate with one tap, and you’re good to go. I hope to get my hands on those soon for review but just from what I saw at NAB this year they look very good.
Overall I think these two tools are top of the class when it comes to their competition and that’s pretty rare for something that’s the “affordable” option in its field. After about a year of use these things have never failed me once and have been a huge value-add to my personal workflows, as well as great tools to rent out or bring on set when I’m in a support position. Unless you need something specific like Genlock or MIDI output, I can’t really see why you’d go with a Deneke, TentacleSync, or Ambient Recording (Lockit) package when they have, in differing ways, fewer features and cost 2x or more. Those products are fantastic, don’t get me wrong, but if you’re fresh in the market for a smart slate and/or timecode boxes, I think there’s only one recommendation you could realistically make all things considered: Deity.