First Look: BirdDog Flex 4K NDI Converters
Today I have an exclusive for 流媒体: a first look the new BirdDog Flex 4K NDI converter.
图1(下面) 展示Flex 4K. As you can see, the unit is tiny, and it’s very light because it’s plastic. It has two little fans in it and ports all the way around. 盒子里面, you also have a power adapter and plugs for various, versions of outlets around the world. 一切都准备好了.
图1. 鸟狗Flex 4K NDI转换器
计数、冷却和连接
The lines on top of the unit are not really heat fins or a heat sink because this is a plastic enclosure. BirdDog emphasizes that they really managed the thermals on this. I have had one running for three days and it’s barely lukewarm. There are a couple of small fans on one side and an air vent on the other side to keep it nice and cool.
You’ll see screw holes on either end of the Flex for an optional mount with a 1/4-20 thread on the bottom. You can put this mount on a magic arm or wherever. I added a small cold-shoe mount on so I can attach it on top of a camcorder. 山(下面的图2)售价约为20美元.
图2. BirdDog Flex相机支架
The top ring all the way around is your tally. Positioning it on top of the camera in the holder ensures that your entire crew can see it.
On the rear panel visible in 图1 you have your Ethernet which is PoE+. If you don't have power over ethernet, the unit also has a DC input. There'a a DC output which supports 15 watts out. 然后是HDMI输入. None of these Flex units have a loop through.
还有一个Flex OUT (下面的图3)，它有HDMI输出. 它没有直流输出. That one's going to be available late July or August. Each of the Flex units has the same list price: $399.
图3. 鸟狗伸缩
完整的NDI为399美元
Flex (下面的图4)功能RS232, 1/8“或3.5mm电话输出. BirdDog says they will have adapter cables available so that you can use this input with various PTZ cameras. 我用的是NDI|HX PTZ相机, but if your pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) camera is RS232-based, the BirdDog Flex gives you full NDI for $399. Your PTZ camera might also have NDI available as an optional purchase. For Panasonic cameras, it costs $299 to purchase the NDI|HX license. For PTZOptics, it costs $599 to purchase NDI|HX. So you could purchase the lightweight version of NDI for $600, or you could purchase full NDI for $400 with the BirdDog Flex IN.
图4. BirdDog Flex上的RS232
Flex是完全NDI的. There's big difference between full NDI 4K and NDI-HX. Full NDI is lower latency and higher bandwidth.
That said, you need to make sure your network is ready to handle the throughput. 例如, if you have five PTZ cameras on gigabit ethernet, and you want to do 4K from all of them, you can't do five 4K feeds on a gigabit network. Each camera is going to need close to 300Mbps.
如果你想做4K, you’ll need to count your bits when you’re making your purchase, or just set all your cameras to HD and make them 100Mbps each. I'll show you how to do that when we go through the menu system.
审稿
Next to the RS-232 port is an 1/8” headphone jack, which is not needed for a PTZ camera, but if you're mounting the Flex on top of a camera, that headphone jack with BirdDog hardware will serve as your comms. Plug in a BirdDog headset and you’ll have microphone and headphones. You're able to communicate through BirdDog 审稿 when you buy any BirdDog device because it comes with 审稿 Lite and NDI Central Lite.
BirdDog includes the lite versions of these apps with the Flex. The pro versions of the software are available for an optional purchase. BirdDog says they plan to make Audinate Dante available for AV-over-IP on these devices as well for an additional $69. That way you can use the "audio in" to put Dante on an NDI network, and take Dante off the NDI network through BirdDog’s little converter boxes.
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