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Teradek Bolt


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In a nutshell: the first test went VERY VERY well. Once connection was established I walked around freely within a house (one floor above the Rx and at the other end of the house. The house is open and airy, but the room village was setup in can almost be considered to be like a basement wine cellar without a door needed for access. Google "House of Voo" for pics & info on the location.

 

I'm heading to my next set in 30 minutes to block and shoot a oner. It will be in a large open backyard with around 45 people and a residential wall between me/the Tx and the Rx.

 

Updates to come in the evening after a bowl of Pho!

 

Oh, and the delay was nearly imperceptible with the following setup: F35 outputting video into a KiPro mini (sp?!) which was then outputting the signal to the BOLT. Plenty of chances for some additional delay there. We were running really far behind yesterday so setting up cams for video proof of delay -- or lack thereof -- was out of the question. I'll try for that on Sunday.

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I braved the 'elements' and the 405 on Thursday and drove on down to Irvine to pick one of these things up in person from Mike G. at Teradek. Very nice and straight-forward guy. As a matter of fact, everyone I've dealt with at Teradek has been very nice and helpful over the last couple of months as I tried to stay on top of the product's release. My initial customer experience is very positive.

 

Well, I hope the thing works. That would be frikkin' sweet. No more village griping about the Modulus feed and no more tethering myself all up to be damned when "hey, we'll just set the sled down, plug in the BNC and watch playback" just isn't good enough for the 20 year-old director. I get it. Once they've had the taste of glorious, real-time HD during the shot, anything else just isn't going to do for a lot of DPs/Directors/Clients/etc. out there.

 

These Bolts are out there now and we'll all know what's what soon enough. Please work, Teradek Bolt. Pleeeeeeeeaaase...

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Hi,

 

Long story short, I'm not happy with Teradek right now, I can see some of you received their units already, I did not .

Teradek charged my credit card on Nov 27 th . Pre-order instructions were very clear: we will charge your credit card when we ship : As a result, I was expecting the unit the next day or so since I paid for priority shipping. In the meanwhile, I arranged with Emery at Lentequip to have his new Canatrans White Space for my job on wednesday (dec 5th) and I was going to test the 3 units in the same day along my Paralinx.

Well, this test will only be with the Canatrans and Paralinx that day since Teradek has been unable to send my unit yet.

Don't get me wrong, online and by email , customer service from Teradek was super fast to answer all my questions but the answer I got regarding my credit card charged and not shipping the unit was : "we wanted to speed up the shipping process" ; if speeding up the shipping process takes a week to achieve, I have my doubts about support in the future.

I 've heard the usual lines: "it's new, they have a lot of orders for that unit...."

The only thing I can state right now is the fact that I paid in full a week ago for an item that has not shipped yet when I was told otherwise when I pre-ordered.

Still waiting for a tracking number.... First time buying at Teradek. Hopefully things will get better, I'm just mad I won't test the 3 units together...

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Even though Teradek's support sounds ok (at least their communication does - the live chat function is pretty cool), I can t understand their shipping policy. I am in europe and had it delivered to a friend's place in LA. At first, they would t guarantee delivery in 20 days. I took a chance and ordered it last Friday and it was delivered this morning. I see some of the folks on the Forum weren't so lucky, yet Teradek talks about following a first come first served policy. I am glad I got mine delivered, but I would also like to see a spotless record on their part.

 

Also, my unit was left by UPS at my friend's doorstep unattended for a whole day. If someone form Teradek follows this forum, please make a note of this and have the good people at UPS change their procedure. I'd hate to hear of ops having to do without their gear because of preventable theft.

 

Leandro

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Another question for Teradek people in the thread: have you run into problems with the Bolt shutting off Anton Bauer batteries, probably related to the batteries detecting they're charging another battery and faulting out? Curious to hear thoughts.

 

Preliminary thought/edit: the Bolt only accepts 6-16v power, and I probably gave it more.

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