Can you tell us more about their capability?

Sounds exciting!

Are there also plans for a one or probably a two channel version with HDMI inputs?

Because I'm looking for a solution converting the HDMI camera output to NDI as close to the camera as possible.

Regards,
Patrick

It is possible for us to do so. As far as similarity to birddog it has the same base function but in our case it fills more of a role as a video snake. What we have is essentially the same size as the newtek input unit so it can be placed closer to your camera ins, but is not meant to be like the blackmagic fiber converters. It may be possible to bring this to market quickly, but it would have to have a good pre-order size. I would estimate it would take a month before we can start selling these.

In regards to a version with HDMI inputs I have been exploring this and it may be an option to have however it would limit the capabilities of the device. We may do a quad HDMI out version first, but we can definitely talk about a custom package as well.

The nice thing about these units as compared to the birddog is that they are futureproof. We can actually provide DIY upgrade kits if there are new capture technologies or better network technologies.

Two questions, djevo1.

Is it going to be Windows PC based solution or sth else?
Could it be battery powered?

In my opinion device like this should provide also a talkbalk solution using NDI protocol.

+1 for this if somebody could produce that

@djevo1

I think you would have a product that end users would be interested in buying. Since there are HDMI to SDI converters available from BlackMagic, AJA, and several other companies, bringing your company's 4 SDI input/output to the market first sounds as if it would be a good strategy.

Many users are looking to expand, and bring in multiple cameras through one device. Keep us updated as to what you and your company decide to do.

Single HDMI to NDI would be excellent. I have cameras that are too far from each other to make use of a multi input device.

You mean a device like that?

http://www.bird-dog.tv

Low-resource/low-latency NDI Matrix Router/Switches are certainly possible using the routing features in NDI v2. I created a 6x2 switch during the Christmas break (picture attached) and it works really well for switching in the NDI domain. The concept is easily scalable to virtually any number of inputs/outputs, and it will run on any PC that supports NDI.

Yes I understand the concept of a NDI router is quite a non-sense considering the nature of NDI distribution.

BTW as I said some sort of a "stage box" inside the venue on which you connect all your cameras is interesting, it would allow to transport all the signals to an OBvan outside for example over fiber or 10Gbit ethernet. A good option would be if it could also transport intercom signals and tallys.

I guess it could be more interesting to buy a dedicated NDI "router" than to buy multiple capture cards for several PCs

So far I have also deployed such a config based on 3 vMix

- the 1st one receives all the SDI signals (5 cameras) and converts them into NDI
it also is used as a simple "CCU" solution (basic color correction) and a multi recorder (4 out of 5 cameras are recorded)

- the 2nd vmix selects some of the NDI sources to do the main switching for streaming/recording

- the 3rd vmix selects some of the NDI sources to do a different switching for videoprojector inside the venue and TV monitors on stage

vmix 2 and 3 can also simultaneously receive NDI signals from a laptop for powerpoint and videos which are perfectly in sync

This worked pretty well even if I was a little worried by bandwidth usage (being only on a gigabit network). The only issue was delay for the videoprojector. The very good points were upstream color correction, ease of use and flexibility.

@Kane : yes it could be useful to select what to send to a return monitor on stage for example : slides or videos or clock or cameras... Also to operate easily a multi source video wall...

@zenvideo : is this software available? Could I test it?