BM Video Assist

Hey all,
I am looking to buy a few BM VA to pair with Canon HF g series video cameras. My question is can you trigger the BM VA to start recording from the camera. Here is the issue, I have the cameras on a crane. They feed a monitor right now but they are also feeding a 8'x10' video screen. Because of that I have to have the screen displays (rec enable, etc.) turned off so it doesn't show on the large screen. So, I can not monitor if the camera is recording, instead I have to rely on counting the number of times I press the button. If I had the BM VA, and the camera was cabled to a LANC, I could press record on the LANC, start the cameras record function and hopefully also start the BM VA recording at the same time. I would get:
- better monitoring than the present system
- redundant recording, so a backup to the BM
- a "tally light" via the BM

Any thoughts? If they made a LANC that had a tally light on it I would be good but they don't and honestly I love the form and functions of the BM. I just would like to hear thoughts before I plunk down $3K (I need 6) or have to buy to try the functions.

Of course I understand that I could just record to the BM but the Canon can give me 12 hours of recording with a 128GB card. I need to be able to support a weekend festival (3x 12 hour days) and really would prefer not to have to buy a ton more media.
thanks much
Kent

Hi, I have a similar problem for remote control of video assist

I want to control rec. on and off from my camcorder Canon XLH1 to start
and stop recording on my Video Assist 4K.
LANC solution does not work when the camcorder is controlled with input signal.
Can the TC output signal (BNC) be a solution.
But how do you connect this to Video Assist and it is possible ?

Kind regards
Fredrik

Not with a Canon XLH1, which needs a tape in it to go into record mode. If the XLH1 had T/C out it’s SDI (Record Run, not Free Run) that might work, but the camera still will need a tape in the camera.

That said, this is a HDV Camera, and not sure what the SDI output signal resolution is, 1080i I think.
Cheers