Triggering and sync: Air Remote vs PocketWizard

It's the least glamorous part of a lighting kit and the one that can sink a shoot: the trigger. Every strobe on a stand needs a reliable way to fire the instant the shutter opens, frame after frame, without misfires. Get it right and you forget it exists. Get it wrong and you're chasing a dead light while the talent waits. Two systems cover everything we rent — Profoto's Air Remote for Profoto gear, and PocketWizard radios for the rest — and knowing which is which saves you the headache.

What a trigger is

A trigger is a small radio. A transmitter sits in your camera's hot shoe; a receiver sits on (or talks to) each light. Press the shutter and the transmitter sends a pulse over the air that tells every light to fire at that exact moment. Radio is the standard because, unlike optical or infrared, it doesn't need line of sight and isn't fooled by bright ambient light — it fires lights around corners, inside softboxes, and across a big set.

The simplest rule for our shelf: Profoto gear fires on the Air Remote; everything else fires on PocketWizard. That one distinction tells you which trigger to grab for any build you put together from the strobe shelf.

The two ecosystems

Profoto Air — for Profoto gear

Profoto's Air system is built into the modern lights — the B10X, B1X, D2, A10, and the Pro-11 pack all have an Air radio inside. The Air Remote in your hot shoe doesn't just fire them; it controls them. You can adjust each light's power from the camera, group them into channels, and on TTL/HSS-capable bodies pull metering and high-speed sync over the same link. That's why a single Air Remote can run an entire multi-light Profoto build: one trigger, full remote control, no extra receivers clamped onto each head. The Air Remote is sold per camera system, so you pick the version that matches your body (Canon, Nikon, Sony, Fuji, or Universal).

PocketWizard — for everything else

PocketWizard built its reputation on one thing: radios that simply fire, reliably, over long range, on a dedicated frequency away from the crowded 2.4GHz band that Wi-Fi and phones jam up. They're the industry's default 'just trigger the light' radio. We use them for the gear that isn't on Profoto's Air system — our legacy Pro packs and generic strobes that have a sync input but no built-in radio. A PocketWizard transceiver works as either transmitter or receiver, so you put one on the camera and one on each light; the Connect Pro Remote is a transmitter option for the camera side.

Practical sync notes

A few things to keep straight when you're wiring up a shoot, so the trigger never becomes the bottleneck:

• Match the Air Remote to your camera. It's body-specific — grab the Canon, Nikon, Sony, Fuji, or Universal version that fits your camera.
• Don't mix the two systems on one light. A Profoto light is happiest on Air; a legacy pack on PocketWizard. Pick the right radio for each head rather than adapting across.
• Mind your sync speed. Standard flash sync is capped at your camera's X-sync; to shoot faster you need HSS, which is a Profoto-Air feature on our HSS-capable heads, not something a basic radio adds.
• Fresh batteries in the transmitter. A weak coin cell or AA in the hot-shoe unit is the most common cause of intermittent misfires — swap it before you blame the lights.

For most renters the answer is simple: if your build is all Profoto, take an Air Remote and nothing else. If you're driving one of our legacy Pro packs or a non-Profoto strobe, take a pair of PocketWizards. Mixing a Profoto build and a legacy head on the same shoot? Carry both — they coexist happily, each firing its own side. Plan the trigger when you plan the studio booking so it's in the case with the lights, not an afterthought.

When to rent it

Triggers are cheap to add and easy to forget, which is exactly why renting them with the lights makes sense:

• You're renting the strobes anyway — add the matching trigger so the kit is complete on pickup.
• You shoot a different camera system this time — grab the Air Remote that matches the body you're using.
• You're firing legacy or generic strobes — a pair of PocketWizards covers what Air can't.
• You forgot yours — a backup transmitter on the shelf saves a shoot day.

We rent the Profoto Air Remote (Canon, Nikon, Sony, Fuji, Universal), PocketWizard transceivers, and the Connect Pro Remote — individually or bundled with whatever lights you're taking out.