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From Camera to Cloud: Sony’s Wireless Adapter the CBK-WA100
Just announced at the 2013 NAB show in Las Vegas is the Sony CBK-WA100 Wireless Adapter. This is a giant leap upward into the Cloud for Sony and many video crews near the Chicago area will be happy to hear this. The CBK-WA100 connects to any camera or any field deck through an HD-SDI and has two main functions. First, with the Sony application and Wi-Fi you can connect with any smartphone or tablet. With these smart devices you can control the camera settings, use as a camera monitor, and input metadata information. The more exciting prospect is the use of the WA100 to connect to the cloud to transfer footage. Using its LTE transmitter and a WAN connection the CBK-WA100 can send both high resolution footage in MXF/MP4 files, several types of proxy files, and metadata to a cloud service. Then any user can download the footage on their end. The wireless adapter will also let you record high resolution files and proxy recording simultaneously. Instead of building this capability into one camera, Sony chose to put this technology into a wireless adapter to retrofit current camera models and field decks. If you have an onsite media manager they can use the SxS field deck, with CBK-WA100 attached, to transfer files from the SxS card and send files to the cloud.
Although there have been wireless devices in the past that have connected to smart devices to send camera information and metadata, this is a major step forward to utilize cloud services to send high resolution files. Imagine shooting an interview onsite in Beijing and being able to access the footage via a cloud service within a day at your offices in Columbus, Ohio. It’s not only faster but less expensive than a satellite uplink, courier, or trying to FTP the footage after the shoot. Along with this obvious benefit, there a many times on location that being able to control or view the footage via a wireless smart device. The Sony CBK-WA100 Wireless Adapter is one of the first devices in which the cloud will became in an industry-wide deliverable.
Has your camera crew had a location or situation where you could have used Sony CBK-WA100? Please share with us your applications for it.
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