Little did I know when I showed up at my appointment today with Tony Iwamoto, VP of sales, marketing and technical services for IDX, that I would be checking out two particular products that were so new that they had literally landed in Vegas just in time for NAB.
For this first product, a little background. Last year, when I went to visit IDX, a provider of batteries, power products and chargers, I remember seeing the Elite line of lithium-ion batteries as well as a wireless camera transmitter/receiver system. The wireless system was being highlighted for its high picture quality and low latency, and when I mean low latency, I mean the latency was just barely enough to be perceivable. But it was still a pretty nice, functional system. I bring this up because at the IDX booth today, I was introduced to the CAM-WAVE system, an uncompressed HD/SD-SDI wireless transmitter/receiver system.
Why was I so impressed? For one, it operates in the 5.2GHz spectrum, so it requires no license; it simply snaps onto a broadcasters camera, making deployment quick and easy; it’s 1080i capable, cost-effective and can transmit 150ft from the base station, or 100ft through a building. Sounds like a good deal for small- to midsize market broadcasters to me. Unfortunately, it won’t be available until this summer, but I’ve heard that the company should have a system available for testing and review by June.
The other product is just as new (so new, in fact, that the unit I saw was a prototype) and just as useful — the 50W LED camera-mounted X3-Light, which, according to Iwamoto, provides approximately 10,000 hours of operation with low drain on battery life and is extremely durable.
But what really got me at the end of our meeting was IDX’s recycling program. Apparently, you can pack up your old professional camera batteries, ship them off to IDX and the company will recycle them for you, and it’s not just limited to IDX batteries either — pretty much any professional camera battery from any company. I can’t help but give kudos to any company trying to do its part for the environment.
