BirdDog announces global availability of the industry’s first scalable, rack-mountable NDI openGear card for broadcasters, live event productions and post production facilities.

The new BirdDog OG4 openGear card is, the company claims, the industry’s first scalable, rack-mountable NDI card, and features four independently configurable 12G SDI inputs and outputs. openGear is an open-architecture in a modular 2RU rack frame system that allows for OG’s from various manufacturers to work together seamlessly in the same frame.

With the global and immediate availability of the BirdDog OG4 openGear card, the company continues to execute on its comprehensive strategy to elevate the strategic significance of NDI-based workflows for broadcasters, live event producers, post production facilities, and corporate enterprise with the global and immediate availability of the BirdDog OG4 openGear card.

Here is some more information shared by BirdDog about the BirdDog OG4 solution:

•  Full openGear Dashboard support with 2 SFP+ ports for 10GbE connectivity and expansion options;
•  Support for all resolutions up to 4Kp60, including all HD resolutions
•  Encoding 4 independent channels of 4K NDI or Decoding 2 independent channels of 4K Full NDI;
•  Full 1080i support for all frame rates including 50, 59.94, 60
•  Independent control to mix and match frame rates and resolutions on each channel;
•  Industry standard SFP+ connection allows for short, medium, and long-range connections over fiber optic infrastructure.
•  Supports Ethernet protocols from 1GbE to 10GbE.

Features to simplify the NDI workflow

The BirdDog OG4 also includes a number of features that further simplify the NDI workflow for customers.

• Cooling: The OG4 frames include integrated cooling fans to provide maximum cooling for all cards and can be configured with dual, redundant power supplies for maximum reliability and uptime.
• Dashboard: BirdDog OG4 offers full support for Dashboard, the freely available unified control software for MacOS, Windows, and Linux.
• Encode and Decode up to 4Kp60: With support for all resolutions up to 4Kp60, including all HD resolutions, Encoding and Decoding 4K Full NDI has never been easier.
• Independent Channel Control: Each channel has independent control to mix and match frame rates and resolutions. Set channel 1 to 4Kp60 and channel 2 to 1080ip25. *Current firmware supports all encode or all decode. Simultaneous Encode & Decode will be added with free future firmware updates.
• SFP+ for 10GbE and Long Range: Industry standard SFP+ connection allows for short, medium, and long-range connections over fiber, and supports Ethernet protocols from 1GbE to 10GbE.

This spring at NAB 2022, BirdDog debuted a breadth of new NDI hardware, software and cloud-based workflow solutions, including a number of industry-first products that significantly enhance the broadcast, live event production and post production workflow experience. The global release of BirdDog OG4 signals its commitment to developing and delivering innovative, strategically significant and advanced NDI-based workflows for broadcasters, live event producers, post production facilities and the corporate enterprise.

The BirdDog OG4 is available immediately and is priced at $2,495.00 USD.