Cube™ is shipping !

Rod can update you with some more verbose hyperbole, but I wanted to personally give you a few exciting updates.  If you ordered ~ 8/23 (and you live in the US), your unit will be on a UPS truck tomorrow. The rest will follow soon after.

The production units are substantially better than where we started with the Beta units.  Based on the feedback we had from Beta testing we made several important changes.  Here are some highlights:

• New WiFi Radio – we ended up opting for a more expensive, harder to find, but well worth it WiFi Radio with longer range,and practically no frame drops.  3rd party testers said “90% better video quality at long range”.  If you liked the last one, you’ll be blown away.
• Lemo power connectors - the terminal block was a wimpy mistake.
• More compact antenna – less obtrusive, same performance.
• Analog Audio input – for those using external mics, that does not embed in HDMI/HD-SDI.  Embedded still fully supported.
• Audio / Video / Power cable repositioned – to all be on one side
• Several software updates to make WiFi more stable, and video dropouts far less.
• Simplified Web UI and s/w configuration – my mother in law got it working.
• Reduced latency - independent testers pegged it at 5 frames. iPad app still in process, so mobile Safari still has several seconds buffering.
• Anti-Rotation lock – on hot shoe mount
• Many other tweaks we would love to share with you.

Lead time is around 10 days right now, until we sell out of existing stock.  Please order now to avoid disappointment, we will only get stock again in 6-8 weeks.

To all the Beta testers : thanks for your valuable inputs so far, if you haven’t yet, you need to complete the online results form.

Welcome to The Cube™ Revolution !

blue leader, out !

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“I just finished a 3 day commercial with 2 Red cameras. I was operating steadicam with my Red camera with the Cube attached. My camera was also used on jib which gave me time to see how the cube worked
Delay was about half a second. I was impressed with the image quality. I could judge exposure on the image. Video bit rate at 2Mb/s

The Cube was on the 2.4 Ghz channel the the Airport extreme and my laptop was connected to the 5 Ghz channel. Running ethernet cable is not feasible on many sets.
The airport was sitting on a cart and when the crane was further away started losing connection. The next day I put the Airport on a C-stand facing towards the crane and got great reception with the jib 75 feet away. The laptop was 30 feet away.
I did a steadicam shot and the DP pulled iris off the laptop. Would have been impossible with my modulus.” – Sergei Franklin – DP, Steadicam Operator

“Packaging and out of the box appeal is great, the device feels great to the touch.. You get an immediate feeling that you’ve purchased a high quality piece of gear.. The materials used feel very sturdy. Will be durable for a variety of production scenarios. Not a delicate flower.. Like the clever solution for the hot shoe attachment.”

“Performance is improved when configuring the Cube to infrastructure mode. A powerful router can really increase the range of the Cubes signal. This is where the Cube really begins to shine. The quality of the HD picture far surpasses that of devices at twice the cost.”

“All in all, the Cube is rugged, sexy and is truly a next generation device. With the proper setup schemes, it can be used for a great number if production operations including: Basic wireless camera to director monitoring, wide area crew and client monitoring and remote viewing by a client a world away. The Cube could also be used in a post facility for live transmission to client devices and laptops. With future latency improvements it could also be used for remote follow focus work and more.” - Scott Bryant – Founder and Creative Director, STEAM

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The journey began with the idea: Live HD for anyone. In the not-to-distant future, when true 4G wireless becomes a reality, anyone will be able to stream video over the Internet. Today, streaming HD over the web requires a bit more effort. For today, and tomorrow, Cube is the first link in your distribution chain, capturing that HD video, doing 200-to-1 compression in about a quarter of a second and streaming Blu-ray quality video over IP using only 2.5 watts of power. Amazing.

Cube represents freedom. The freedom to express yourself to an infinite audience. Today, in August 2010, DSLR cameras record beautiful high-definition video. The quality of video and elimination of film related costs has created an explosion in creativity as aspiring filmmakers can finally deliver professional quality images at a fraction of the price.

Red Digital redefined the concept of workflow, and Canon’s 5D Mark II is the affordable tool for the aspiring artist. Teradek is embracing this burst of creativity by providing an on-set monitoring tool that fits elegantly into the digital workflow and provides wireless monitoring suitable for both the independent filmmaker and the large motion picture production alike. And… we’re offering Cube at an extremely attractive price. To-a-man, every single one of our sales reps asked us to sell Cube for $3000 or more. Every single one. I’m not exaggerating.

We could do it too. But we want you, the visionary, the artist, the filmmaker working a job so that you can make films on the weekend “for the love of the art” to be able to afford such a wonderful tool.

So today, after 18 months of blood, sweat, arguments, and even one (massive office clearing) explosion we proudly introduce to you…

The Cube.

Join the Revolution today by reserving your Cube at http://www.teradek.com/cube.html.

Most likely, you’ll want the HDMI with WiFi or the HD-SDI with WiFi.

Heavy Metal – Cube Available Now! from Teradek on Vimeo.

Cube, the world’s first camera-top HD video encoder is available for pre-ordering today! Join the Cube Revolution today and be the first kid on the block streaming HD video to a lap-top or mobile device from your digital video camera.

Quantities are extremely limited, so order yours today.

www.teradek.com/cube.html

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Cube Streaming HD Video Vehicle to Vehicle from Teradek on Vimeo.

All in-car footage is 1080i @ 3Mbps using H.264 High Profile Level 4.1 compression.

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Cube Beta Testing from Teradek on Vimeo.

Teradek Beta Tester #1, Josh Gitersonke, brought a Red Camera and a really nice steadicam rig to the Teradek offices for range testing in the parking lot.

If you need a top steadicam guy, Josh is the man! http://www.framesperpixel.com

Cube is coming next week. www.teradek.com/cube.html

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Red Centre, the podcast dedicated to digital cinema, filmmaking, and cutting edge imaging, features an interview with Rod Clark (Teradek’s Director of Marketing) to discuss the challenges and capabilities of Cube. You can subscribe to Red Centre via iTunes, or link to the show here or link to the RSS feed here. Be sure to subscribe. Jason and Mike put on a great show.

Cube beta testing is progressing nicely with improvements being made to video quality, menu system, and connections. First production run coming soon!

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Pricing Announcement

The wait is nearly over for Cube™, the hotly anticipated release of the world’s first camera-top HD video encoder. Today we’re excited to announce pricing for Cube™. Six SKUs are available, although we anticipate most will go for the WiFi models shown below in bold.

CUBE-100: 1ch HD-SDI Encoder – $1,990
CUBE-120: 1ch HD-SDI Encoder, Built in WiFi – $2,090
CUBE-130: 1ch HD-SDI Encoder, Built POE PSU – $2,190
CUBE-200: 1ch HDMI Encoder – $1,490
CUBE-220: 1ch HDMI Encoder, Built in WiFi – $1,590
CUBE-230: 1ch HDMI Encoder, Built POE PSU – $1,690

Be a Beta Tester

We are offering a select few the opportunity to become part of the Cube™ Revolution early by joining our Beta Test Program. We value your input and realize that in order for us to remain a leader in IP Video innovations, we need to listen to our users and experience the Cube™ through your experiences with this exciting new product.

Sign up for this exclusive program today and help us continue to produce top quality innovative products for your application. Fill out this easy Application to see if you qualify as a Beta Tester.

Reserve your spot!

The pilot production run is reserved for beta testers, bloggers and media. The first production run will follow 2-3 weeks later. To apply for a beta tester position, reserve your media evaluation unit, or just reserve your spot in line for a production Cube click here.

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Teradek Cube Pilot Run – Sneaking Around the Factory from Teradek on Vimeo.

Nicol took his 5DMkII for quick visit to the production floor. The PCBs are done, casework and laser engraving are next, then we unleash the Cube.

To reserve your spot in line go to www.teamvideocube.com

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One of our biggest challenges with Cube™ is making service discovery easy for the non-network expert user. There are basically 4 different scenarios in which you can use Cube™:

• Ad Hoc Static
• Ad Hoc DHCP
• Infrastructure Mode DHCP
• Infrastructure Mode Static IP

For the non-network experts out there: Ad Hoc is a point-to-point connection between Cube™ and a device (iPad, MacBook, etc). Infrastructure is when Cube™ communicates to the device (or multiple devices) through a network access point. The WiFi router sitting next to your telephone on the kitchen counter is a network access point.

Each of the scenarios above presents a different scenario for discovering the unit on a network. To overcome these challenges the software team has cleverly devised a set-up wizard on the landing page of Cube’s web user interface. This will make setup as easy and intuitive as humanly possible. I made the analogy yesterday “Dorothy wants to get to the Emerald City, and the only time she gets screwed up is when there’s a fork in the path. We need to make the path to our destination as obvious and easy to follow as possible.”

With Cube™, you don’t have to be a network power-user to stream HD video. We’ll keep you on the right path to Oz.

The countdown continues! Cubes are just a week away from delivery to our select team of field testers, and general public availability is still slated for August 1st. Pricing and behind the scenes photos coming soon, so stay tuned!

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For the last few years we’ve been selling through the ProAV market and OEMs, so shipping product was a brown box affair. Wrap it in newspaper and duct tape… yeah whatever. Well OK, it’s not that bad. We actually worked with a cool vendor to develop packaging that suspends the product inside the box protecting it from vibration (but seriously, you don’t care about that stuff).

Cube™ is the first chance we’ve had to sell a product into a retail market. Nicol and I are both photo geeks and filmmakers, so we know that the community we’re building for aren’t just consumers. Filmmakers are enthusiasts and connoisseurs. Considering that, we wanted to make the buying experience really special. So for the first time ever we got to design some really cool packaging! Now you’re thinking… so frickin’ what.

I’ll tell you what. When you get your Cube™, I want to make it feel like Christmas morning. We had Jennifer, our awesome graphic designer and web master design the box. It’s got a cool internal foam clamshell to protect your new baby from the gorillas over at the UPS sorting center, and an area inside for cables and accessories.

Here’s a picture of the first prototype. The actual boxes will not be made out of printer paper and scotch tape.

Prototype Cube packaging

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