Boxx HD/SD Zero Delay Video Transmitter Update

[Jens Piotrowski SOC]

receiver

transmitter

 

 

look here.....

[Alec Jarnagin SOC]

Thanks Jens, but thats the same old; same old. Thought they were changing the antennae on the transmitter and a few people actually had them in hand to test. I'd love some field test reports and pictures.

 

Anyone????

[Lars Erik]

Hi all,

 

had a shoot yesterday doing a commercial for the military and thought I'd share my views of the boxx Meridian Elite system. This is a complex system if you use it to its full extent, and I don't feel qualified to speak about the whole unit. But I feel confident enough to speak about picture range and quality of the picture.

 

Alec; they will be changing the antennas on the T/x. They will be identical to the R/x. This has been decided because of Steadicam operators.

 

 

Tech specs shoot:

 

Camera - Panasonic AJ-HPX3000 HD w/ Pro35

Rig- Ultra2c

Monitor - Panasonic BT-LH1700W 17" HD monitor

Batteries (powering the R/x) - IDX Endura 7s, Lithium Ion

Batteries (powering rig, Arri Wireless Focus Unit WFU-3 24v, T/x) - IDX Steadicam Power Cubes

Camera+PS powered by camera battery

 

 

 

Tech specs Boxx R/x:

 

Height - 15.5cm/6.10" (version w/o antennas)

Depth (w/ IDX battery plates on both sides) - 7cm/2.75"

Wide - 14.5cm/5.70"

Weight - 760g/1.67lbs

Power - 6.5-30V DC 9 Watts on 4pin Hirose or 2.1mm DC jack

 

 

 

Tech specs Boxx T/x:

 

Height - 15.5cm/6.10" (+12.4cm/4.88", antennas)

Depth - 3.8cm/1.49"

Wide - 16cm/6.29"

Weight - 727g/1.60lbs

Power - 6.5-30V DC 9Watts on 4pin and 2.1mm DC jack

 

 

 

The unit is very, very user friendly. Just decide on what frequency you want to use, and the R/x and T/x will find each other. The unit works on the 5GHz WI-FI Channel system. Frequency can be set on these channels, 1600 - 1800 - 2000 - 2200 - 2400 - 7450 - 7650 - 7850 - 8050 - 8250 - 8625. You can also use Auto.

 

Is has 4 region options. Europe, US, Japan and Custom. On Custom you can set the frequency you want ranging from 1600 to 8625. If you choose a region, the unit will stay within the approved channels of that region. Of course, everyone will use custom.

 

The R/x unit doesn't require too much power. Our shoot lasted for 11 hours. And we only changed batteries once. The unit was on at all times. Including lunch and dinner.

 

Additional R/x can be used to widen the range of the unit.

 

The T/x can be delivered with IDX battery plate. I decided against this, because I felt it would limit my options. So I power it directly from the rig, and use velcro and a strap to safely protect it should the velcro fail.

 

There is a LCD display on both units, telling you if you have a picture. If there is a problem with the units, the display will tell you what's wrong.

 

 

 

The shoot:

 

First of all I want to say this, I was really unsure about spending $10.000 on a HD wireless unit. It's a lot of money just to be able to send an image. I had a SD unit that was good, and was unsure about the benefits I would gain from spending that much money.

 

After using it a few times now, I must say it is really great. What did we do before having an HD unit? The focus puller and DP was very impressed with the image, and they kept saying that's really sexy. I kind of agree, not quite sure what "sexy" is, but a good word to describe it I guess.

 

The image is crystal clear, and the colours are accurate. The focus puller mostly sat by the monitor and pulling, so he was happy. There is no delay. The signal is 1080.

 

When the signal is getting bad, it starts by breaking the picture up, and when the signal is lost, video village goes black. The Meridian Elite can show all formats, so when you shoot SD or film that doesn't have HD output, you just use composite. No delay here either.

 

The range of the unit did impress me. We were in a big military airplane hangar for the commercial, and there was lots of boxes and containers in the room, blocking the unit from having line of sight. Still worked great. The longest range the units were apart was about 60 meters, this without line of sight. No effect to the signal. One note, after done some testing before, it seems like that composite will give you slightly longer range than HD, so if you have a shot with very long range, one can try to use composite. We did have a couple of shots outside the hangar, then the unit went black. Hangar doors are very thick and there was double doors.

 

We used channel 8625 for this shoot, no special reason, that was what it was on from last time, and it worked fine. Changing channels is easy. That said, my experience is the higher the channel, the stronger the signal. All 2000 channels I'm not that impressed with. Shorter range. So I try not to use those. One note, did a test in my own house which is a six floor house, the R/x on the top floor and I could go down 3 floors before signal got weak.

 

Personally I'm very happy with the unit and only look forward to new adventures with it on my rig.

 

 

PS! I have the User guide on PDF if anyone wants to read it. It's too huge to post here. 2MB and 40 pages. Let me know if you want it.

 

 

My humble 2 cents.

 

LE

[Lars Erik]

2 more pictures...

 

sorry about the grainy pictures, low light situation and had to use high ASA.

[Jason Torbitt]

I will get round to doing a review in the next few days - sorry!

[Jason Torbitt]

So, a quick summary of my findings so far with the Boxx:

 

- TX and RX are very lightweight, but the large surface area can be a headache sometimes. Not a problem for those with the V-lock plates, but I don't have those on mine, so it's a velcro job every time. Works well, but would be nice if it was smaller. Not a problem for tape/solid state/systems cameras, but more of a problem on 16 and 35 packages...where to put it can be a challenge. It's my personal preference to always put it on the top, rather than the base of the rig, as it makes much more sense to have as much line of sight as possible.

 

- There are four antennae on both TX and RX which are each 5 inches long. For normal video assist this works fine. For increased range it helps to spread the antenna at the RX end. I've been trialling this with a T-bar wind-up stand and spreading the antennae at the outer edges with low-loss coax from the RX to antennae.

 

- LCD display is white text on a blue background. Clear info. Menu and controls are push buttons which are encased in the same surround as the LCD display - very tidy.

 

- Range: I have the TX and handheld RX. I've used the RX both with a 7" LCD for use as a portable director's monitor, and I've also used the RX mounted on a stand either at video village or with the Vision Mixer if working on live events. I've had 80-100m out of it, maintaining reasonably good line-of-sight. Most notably I operated underarm handheld camera on a show in November, where the signal needed to pass through a few thousand people to reach the RX, which was mounted 3 metres high on a stand, 80 metres away. The signal didn't drop once.

 

- When you are on the edge of range, the signal doesn't freeze or go to black, it starts a process of digital break-up, where small squares don't arrive. This gets worse until the signal drops entirely and goes to black.

 

- Inputs - HD-SDI, SDI, component (on 3 x RCAs) and composite. DC input is through a 4-pin Hirose. Exactly the same arrangement on TX and RX. Audio can be sent down on a mini XLR too. There is also an instantaneous downconverter at the RX end - so you can output composite if needed.

 

Overall I am very happy with the performance of the Meridian, although I would like to do more longer range tests. One important item of note - Boxx are first rate with their support and communication. They respond to calls and emails straight away, get in touch with suggestions, maintainance advice and usage advice, and are always there. No problems whatsoever. I have a big show in January which I'm using the Meridian for, and Scott is coming along to take a look at how we work and to test some more things out. A classic example of how they are willing to work with their customers.

 

Photos and more details to follow when I have time - too busy right now to do it in detail. But overall, I'm very happy with it, it provides much improved production value, and helps everyone on set when you can deliver rock solid HD images 100% of the time.

 

Happy New Year to all!