A very exciting event happened in the world of snowboarding this month that we just had to share with you. No, it wasn’t Chloe Kim’s (USA) winning 1st place at the Burton U.S. Open Snowboarding Championship, nor was it Ayumu Hirano (JPN) taking the gold for the first time at the international competition. To us gearheads, it was much more awe-inspiring than that.
The Burton U.S. Open (widely considered to be the Olympics of snowboarding) saw the debut of the video industry’s newest contender, the Teradek Bolt 10K! The 10K is the newest addition to our line of zero-delay Bolt monitoring systems, able to achieve a monumental range of up to 10,000 feet. The ultra long-range system is designed to meet the most demanding of video delivery projects, from cinema to broadcast and even industrial workflows.
Our friends at Motion State were the first to test out the unit, taking it to the slopes of Vail, Colorado to capture live video for Red Bull TV & BurtonUSopen.com. Corey Koniniec, co-founder of Motion State, was DP for the production.
“We handle all forms of video production from music videos to commercials to live events. This was our 5th year doing follow cam for the Burton U.S. Open,” said Corey. “Since more and more people watch every year, we wanted to go the extra mile and make sure our setup was foolproof. So instead of our usual 3K system, this time we brought the 10K.”
Setup
For the live broadcast, Corey has camera ops going down the halfpipe and slopestyle right behind the snowboarder, fully equipped with camera, gimbal and wireless video. Here’s what the setup looked like:
- Sony FS5 camera + MoVI Pro gimbal
- Teradek Bolt 3000 Transmitter
- Teradek Bolt 10K Receiver
- SmallHD Monitor
- MoVI Controller
- Sigma 18-35 Lens with Full MoVI FIZ Control
Camera ops’ video feed was connected via SDI to the Bolt 3000 Tx (mounted to a pole on camera ops’ back). As he traveled down the course with the athlete, the Bolt 3000 Tx sent live video to the Bolt 10K Rx, perched 10 feet above video village.
The Bolt 10K was hardlined down to Corey’s SmallHD monitor, where he viewed the shot and controlled focus, iris & zoom using the MoVI Controller. This was hardlined to the organizers’ broadcast truck, where it was live streamed directly to Red Bull TV & BurtonUSOpen.com.
Uncompromising Reliability
The live stream’s goal was to offer viewers an immersive experience on the course with the athlete, and this can only be done with a live video feed from the halfpipe. The challenge was then to cost-effectively get video from the camera to the station without having to rely on a 3G/4G video over IP network (which can be very expensive and delayed). For Corey, Bolts were an obvious solution.
“When our clients are relying on us to get the live footage going down that halfpipe, we can’t miss a single moment,” explained Corey.
Like all other Bolt models, the Bolt 3000/10K pair sends HD 1080p60 video with less than 0.01s of delay, which made it the perfect solution to bring video from the course to the broadcast truck. Having the 10K ensured Corey and Motion State that even at any distance on the slopes, the camera could still supply the broadcast truck with instant video and provide viewers with stunning views from the halfpipe.
“It’s such an amazing addition to our systems for environments where we need to go beyond the limits of the Bolt 3000. Our projects put us in very long-range situations like filming from cars or covering the Tour de France, so having that giant boost in range gives us the confidence that we can get a signal to the downlink anywhere.”
Check out more of Motion State's cinematography on their Instagram here.
Click below for more info on the new Bolt 10K:
