BirdDog Flex 4K NDI® Review
By Jamie G
BirdDog has recently announced their brand new family of 4K NDI devices, the Flex. Flex delivers everything you have come to expect from BirdDog’s one cable solution including Tally, Audio, Video, PTZ Control, Audio Intercom and Power along a single Ethernet cable and is the smallest NDI on the planet. The family of Flex includes, Flex IN, Flex OUT, and Flex BACKPACK. Newsshooter gives their review of the Flex IN & BACKPACK. Check out some of the highlights from their review.
“The Flex 4K In & Backpack are both very compact and lightweight. They are just a bit larger than a deck of playing cards.
Newsshooter
Flex 4K In: 107 x 63 x 31mm
Flex 4K Backpack: 107 x 63 x 42.5mm
The construction is made of plastic but feels sturdy enough.
There are two small fans in the unit which act as intake & exhaust but they are not audible enough to cause any issues on set.”
“One important consideration to make when working with NDI is the bandwidth of the system. Since every NDI device (encoders and decoders) are on the network, there is a limit which you will need to monitor. If you aren’t on a dedicated network, you will also need to account for any other usage that may be on the network e.g. data transfers or internet use. With the Flex system, you can set a variable bit rate NDI in either HD or 4K between 60 to 360Mbps. Normally, this is set to a maximum of 140Mbps in HD or 300Mbps in 4K.”
Newsshooter
“If you are going to be using the Flex 4K Backpack, you may also want to pick up a few short HDMI patch cables to minimise the amount of cable management you will need. You will still need to get the video signal from the camera and then loop out the signal from the monitor to the Flex.”
Newsshooter
“NDI has been growing in its maturity, and as more devices like the Flex become available, the wider the adoption rate will be. Compared to traditional SDI routing, there are numerous advantages to using NDI and we will only see it become more common as time goes on. The Flex 4K units priced at $399 USD will play a big part in getting more consumers on board. The versatility of being able to use a single cable to transmit data, intercom, tally & power not only reduces the clutter but simplifies the setup. PoE switches are already affordable and 10GbE will continue to come down in price.”
Newsshooter
Check out the full review HERE
Learn more about BirdDog HERE