Teradek Bolt 4K

In yesterday’s post, we heard Focus Puller Dennis Scully say, “It was a game-changer being able to actually pull focus in 4K and in real time.”

Dennis was working with two new Teradek Bolt 4K transmitters sending video to Teradek 4K receivers. Dennis said, “With everybody wanting to shoot wide open and super shallow depth of field, it’s not even a matter of choosing the right eye or left eye. It’s whether you want the eyelashes or the eyeball to be sharp. If you’re on something like a 135mm at T1.3 on a tight choker, God help you. Unless you’re viewing on a 4K monitor.”

In this shallow new world of focus, Teradek’s 4K Transmitters and Receivers will surely become required ingredients of any 4K, or more K, camera package.

Teradek Bolt 4K transmitters can send full HD and 4K video up to 5,000 ft, with less than 1 millisecond of latencyto Teradek Bolt 4K receivers. That miniscule amount of delay is essential for focus pulling. Imagine how those eyelashes might buzz out of focus if your video lags behind the talent’s gentle turn of the head. Or worse, would your drone operator see that brick wall in time if the video were late?

FDTimes readers may remember the factory tour last year when Creative Solutions acquired Amimon. (FDTimes issue 92, Feb 2019.) That’s where I first saw a comparison between 4K (then a prototype) and HD wireles video. It was jaw-dropping, no contest.

Teradek Bolt 4K transmits and receives 10-bit 4:2:2 images at every resolution up to 4096×2160, with frame rates to 60 fps, and with a degree of quality that is so detailed and color-accurate that it is almost indistinguishable from a direct SDI cable feed.

There are currently three Teradek 4K systems:

  • Bolt 4K 750. Range: up to750 ft.
  • Bolt 4K 1500. Range: up to 1500 ft.
  • Bolt 4K MAX. Range: up to up to 3000 ft. (5000 ft. with Panel Antenna)

Inputs and outputs are 12G-SDI and HDMI 2.0. You can send video from 1 transmitter (TX) to up to 6 receivers (RX). The Bolt 4K family operates on 13 certified 40MHz channels.

Dimensions are slightly larger than previous Bolts, but not by much. The 4K MAX transmitter is 132 x 91 x 27 mm (5.2 x 3.6 x 1.1″) and weighs 668 grams (23.6 oz) with antennas and Gold-Mount battery plate.

The 4K MAX receiver is 112 x 139 x 27 mm (4.4 x 5.5 x 1.1″) and weighs 668 grams (23.6 oz) as well.

If pulling focus on anything other than a 4K wireless video system and 4K monitor is said to be like asking for divine intervention, then it also follows that a DP shooting a 4K HDR show without a 4K HDR monitor on set is like filming with your eyes wide shut.

Bolt 4K sends and receives lossless video conforming to HLG, PQ, and HDR-10 standards. Of course, everyone on set will want to be watching on 4K HDR monitors—and SmallHD 4K HDR 13″, 17″ and 24″ Production Monitors are coming soon.

 

This article first appeared in FDTimes April 2020 Issue 101.

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