The new Teradek Beam is an H.264 broadcast contribution system with a reach of up to 750m (line of sight). It will encode at up to 50Mbps, making it useful for ENG delivery to an OB vehicle. “One of the big requests we got was for a long-range application where the receiver can be in an OB van,” said Michael Gailing, Teradek’s director of marketing (pictured, well his hands are).
Many of its broadcast users are already using the Teradek Bond, bonded cellular links, but its tiny Cube encoder didn’t have the high bitrates (it only goes up to about 10Mbps) or range users wanted. Beam’s latency is only two frames, and it has been attracting attention beyond news use. “We’ve had a lot of interest from reality television and live events,” he said. The unit only requires 8W of power (7v-17v), so can be powered off a Lemo connector, and is sized to fit easily on a camera back. It has 3G-SDI I/O, and is scheduled to ship on 22 September for $5,990.
