Did you hear? NewTek Now Makes Cameras!

From David Shapton Yes it's true! NewTek is getting into the camera business with their new NewTek NDI HX PTZ1. It supports NDI, SDI and HDMI as a perfect companion camera with any of their end-to-end IP video production systems. Connect to any NDI aware streaming and switching solution via simple Ethernet cable! Due to be released soon, NewTek is furthering their advancements in streaming video looking to become an all-purpose company for all your production needs.

NDI compresses the video but does so gently so that it remains broadcast quality. This NDI-specific compression is low-latency - there are no delays; and it’s accurate. Timing is precise and as deterministic using SDI but massively more flexible as there is no need for physical matrix routers.

NDI is easy to use: just select sources and destinations from a menu. The system takes care of “discovery”: Just add a new source or destination and it appears to all the other connected devices.

NewTek’s new generation of Tricaster - the Tricaster TC1 - uses NDI exclusively for input and output. It’s a complete live production system that relies on IP video.

This new mode, complete with forward error correction (FEC) is an extremely efficient way to use a network for multiple destinations that want to see the same source. Effectively (and this is a massive oversimplification) multiple destinations “pretend” to have the same IP address. This means they can all tap into the same stream, without needed a separate stream for each destination.

NDI handles this simply and transparently and allows the system to fall back to conventional Unicast mode if necessary.

Here are the other new features in NDI 3:

High Efficiently Mode (NDI|HX) allows for full resolution, full frame rate with limited bandwidth wireless, remote and large scale networks.

Pan / Tilt / Zoom camera support standardises video, audio, tally and camera control. Improved encoding performance Software encoding has always been impressive with NDI but these new figures are astonishing. On a modern Intel i& based system, you can expect 1080p at 2500 fps, 4K at 1000 fps, 8K at 320 fps.

The second announcement is that NewTek now has a PTZ camera that speaks NDI natively. The camera needs only one cable carrying the video signal, PTZ data and power. So it’s easy to install and set up. In fact, it’s completely “plug and play”.

The new device sends full 3G 1080p 60 directly to NDI-compatible products across and standard IT network.

Once the camera is connected, it’s visible to all systems running the latest version of NDI, including LiveStream Studio, SplitmediaLabs XSplit, Streamstar®, OBS Studio, StudioCoast vMix, Telestream Wirecast, NewTek TriCaster®, and "hundreds more”....[continue reading]