It's often been said that good things come in small packages, and never has that been truer than in the world of video production. Live mobile broadcast projects that used to require racks full of gear can now be accomplished with a reasonably powerful laptop. The biggest problem posed by these smaller, more portable systems is that laptops simply aren't built to capture video signal formats like SDI or HDMI directly from professional-level cameras or video switchers.
The most common transfer connection type for laptops is the old faithful USB, and while there are a number of smaller production cameras and video switchers that produce great results, almost all of them utilize SDI or HDMI exclusively. This means operators may have to make a difficult choice between the higher quality of professional-level gear or the convenience and portability of laptop-based broadcast systems. Thanks to the introduction of the AJA U-Tap USB 3.0 Powered SDI and HDMI Capture Cards it's possible to have the best of both worlds.
Signal Incoming
Long acknowledged as an industry leader in the broadcast and production markets, AJA is a company churches the world over trust to help execute first-rate, dependable results week in and week out. As the market for mobile broadcast solutions continues to expand AJA is responding with their new U-Tap capture devices. After spending some time putting the U-Tap through its paces, we believe it may be just what a number of churches and producers have been looking for.
Operators no longer have to make the difficult choice between the higher quality of professional-level gear or the convenience & portability of laptop-based broadcast systems.
Nothing's worse than having a specific connection-type force an important hardware decision like a camera purchase. With the introduction of the U-Tap those compromises are a thing of the past. The U-Tap comes in two versions, HDMI or 3G-SDI, converting either signal into USB for easy ingest and capture video and audio right on your laptop or desktop computer. The U-Tap also plug-and-play on both Mac and Windows machines.
The real selling point of the U-Tap, however, is just how small and portable this device really is. At it's 3.3-inch by 2.4-inch by 1-inch dimensions, the device has a footprint considerably smaller than a cell phone. More importantly, the U-Tap weighs less than a third of a pound. Another great feature is that they both draw power directly from the USB 3.0 interface. In practice this means that with a fully charged camera and laptop a producer utilizing the U-Tap could easily stream for hours without any external power at all. As an added bonus, the U-Tap SDI card features a second SDI connection for signal pass through in case your particular scenario calls for it.
In conclusion
After using the U-Tap on several projects, we were impressed at just how easy it was to implement. The only hang-ups we encountered were the occasional horizontalimage flip, which ended up being issues within the various software solutions themselves, rather than the U-Tap. The capture quality of the video and audio was uniformly high.
However, one important limitation is the fact that users are limited to only one U-Tap connection on a computer at a time.
The build quality felt exceptionally solid while still being extremely lightweight. But the user experience is not forgotten either. For instance, while the U-Tap requires the power from a USB 3.0 connection to function, if you accidentally plug it into a USB 2.0 port a small indicator light changes from green to red, letting you know that the U-Tap isn't broken—it's just connected to the wrong kind of USB.
For many working producers, equipment choices can be broken down fairly easily into two categories: gear that takes planning to transport and gear that's grab-and-go. Call it the “Backpack Test.” Both kinds of tools have their place, but professional-quality products that can easily travel in your laptop case without any additional strain falls in to a very special and much-beloved category all its own. Just like a portable recorder for musicians, producers that specialize in mobile production or live streaming just might find the AJA U-Tap to be a tool so useful that it finds a permanent home in their backpacks next to their laptops and headphones. It's that good.
The AJA U-Tap HDMI and U-Tap SDI currently retail for $349. To find out more about either device, .
