Review: NewTek Connect Spark Cuts the Cord for Wireless Video Transmission over NDI
By Jim Bask
From NewTek
The NewTek Connect Spark is a simple tool that does a whole heck of a lot. Not only will it transmit an HDMI or SDI signal wirelessly over existing network infrastructure to an NDI enabled switcher, but it will also loop record to an SD card or USB hard drive.
Network Device Interface, or NDI, is an open standard that enables products to communicate, deliver and receive broadcast quality video with low latency and frame-accuracy for switching in a live production. What kind of video you transmit is up to you — the applications are near endless.
Using NDI, it delivers video at up to 60 frames per second (fps) in HD over Wi-Fi or ethernet.
This evaluation is of the HDMI version, but the SDI option is no different outside of the input and loop connectors and its cost.
With its two USB ports, it will capture video to an external storage or to a micro SD card. It will either capture in loop record mode — always recording and deleting the oldest video when full — or it can be set up to stop when storage is full. Moreover, you don’t even need a storage device to be physically connected to the Spark. You can record the signal from any NDI enabled system you have connected to it…read more