Teradek Bond 759

Teradek is an industry-leading designer and manufacturer of video streaming and point-to-point solutions. This year, they unveiled the Bond 759, designed for enterprise professionals with comfort, style and accessibility in mind.

"It packs a powerful punch because it utilizes H.265, the latest compression algorithm in the video market," says Jon Landman, VP of Sales at Teradek.

"Simply put, H.265 will give users the same video quality at about half the bitrate, saving them tons of bandwidth when broadcasting. Furthermore, in environments with challenging data throughout, the new compression standard will make it easier to deliver HD video feeds from start to finish."

How Is H.265 Supported?

H.265/HEVC comes with some interesting hurdles. As one of the newer compression standards, H.265 has yet to see widespread adoption in the ecosystem, with the majority of online platforms and enterprise broadcast systems still using the last-gen H.264 video.

So how is H.265 feasible in live streaming applications? Luckily, Teradek developed a solution to this: transcoding through their cloud-based streaming distribution platform, Core. When streaming H.265 video from Bond to Core, the video can be transcoded into H.264 and sent to the destination. This allows users to save a ton of bandwidth in the uplink while delivering a feed that’s supported by all major live platforms.

In addition to live streaming, the Bond can also achieve an H.265 video stream in point-to-point workflows. With the release of Teradek’s newest decoder line, Bond encoders can now send a high-quality video feed directly to the decoder without having to transcode in the middle. This allows both ends to minimize bandwidth consumption while maximizing video quality.

The Bond Backpack

In using the Bond 759 and newly designed Bond Backpack, it’s obvious they didn't cut any corners. Teradek took into consideration all of the ways the Bond could be mounted onto a camera and concluded that having the user wear it on their person not only protects the unit, but gives the operator a more practical space for their Bond equipment.

The other benefit of this unit is the sheer efficiency of it. Once you open the backpack, "not only do you have a battery inside the Bond, but you have the whole Bond being powered by a big Anton Bauer battery," says Landman. "It has a built-in backup switcher so when you need to swap the battery out, you don't immediately lose power to the Bond."

High-Powered USB Modems: Nodes

Included in the Bond Backpack are a complete set of specially-designed cellular modems called Nodes. Powerful and robust, the Nodes are able to receive 4G LTE signals far better than regular carrier-branded USB modems, and perform exceptionally well in congested areas. Combined with high-gain antennas, users can get "about 2-3 times the performance then you would get with a USB modem or an Internal SIM card.”

"Our friend John Humphress, a weather journalist based in Florida, called me and said: 'During Hurricane Irma, there were occasions where my cell phone had no reception and couldn’t make phone calls out. But because I had the backpack with the Nodes inside, I was actually able to receive data and get very good quality video.'"

Affordable and Reliable

Other technologies like the Bond Backpack in the market today can be $19,000- $20,000, while Teradek's version is on the market for just under $8,000. Jon further explained that this huge difference in price doesn't come at any loss of quality.

"Something that I've always said about Teradek is that when we decide to do something well, we become the leaders at what we do. We're a small, efficient group of employees but we're also an ambitious company. We react very quickly to market trends and that's why we've been so successful. We've come a long, long way from where we used to be, with bigger plans for the future."