I have three criteria for gear: It must be easy to use, quick to set up, and improve my video or work life. I want to avoid fiddling with anything when I’m on set or a shoot.
Wireless video from a camera to a monitor has been one of my least favorite things to fiddle with during a shoot. When it works, life is grand. When it doesn’t, you live on a leash. Both are alright if I am being honest. I’ve been doing this for long enough not to be bothered by much. About all that bothers me is wasted time and slowing everyone down while someone finds a paperclip to reboot whatever wireless video kit you have on hand.
Recently, DJI launched a new video transmission system to make advanced software-defined radio (SDR) technology more accessible. DJI sent me a unit to test. After following their steps for updating the firmware on the then-yet-to-be-released unit, I turned on the DJI SDR, and it just worked. It was simple, quick, and easy.
DJI SDR Video Tranmission
DJI designed the SDR video transmitters for small and medium-sized crews. The exact crews you might have to sweat the wireless video tech when it doesn’t work because they can’t afford the best gear yet.
I’ve had the new DJI SDR Transmitter and Receiver on hand for a few weeks. The simplicity of the DJI SDR is a breath of fresh air in what can, at times, be a cumbersome process when it comes to Wi-Fi wireless video transmitters.
As with all things DJI, the new SDR Transmitter can be slid into and powered directly by the DJI RS 4 Pro, DJI RS 4, or DJI RS 3 Pro when mounted and used together. This eliminates the need for a separate battery for the DJI RS4 Pro gimbal because, obviously, their gear should work as an ecosystem and help us be better shooters.
Combining DJI SDR with RS Series Stabilizers
What you get when combining the DJI SDR and DJI RS Series Stabilizers is remote camera controls. The DJI SDR Transmission supports Force Mobile, virtual joystick, and gimbal recentering functions. When paired with a camera, it can support PTP control, displaying and adjusting aperture, shutter, ISO, and even triggering the camera’s photo-taking and video-recording functions through the app. It can also support CEC control of Sony cameras to bring Mirror Control mode into play.
My first test of the DJI SDR were not on a gimbal but in the hands of my seven-year-old daughter. I asked her to take the camera and SDR as far away as our backyard and common area allow, and she bounced out the back door and ran around, down a slight hill and to the greenway behind our neighborhood before I quickly called her back. More out of fear, she was out of my sight than out of DJI SDR transmitter range. This may be more of a funny anecdote, but I tend to find if my daughter can’t break it, or she can operate it, then nearly all crews will figure it out when the pressure is on. This is less of a scientific method and more of a bad parent method, but it works.
According to DJI, the SDR technology ensures stable video transmissions even in complex shooting environments. Think child bounding across a grass field, around a couple of fenced-in yards, and down a decent hill for my “complex shooting environments.” There is a trade-off for this reliability, and that is you only get HD. The DJI SDR transmits 1080p/60fps live feeds with a bitrate of up to 20Mbps and a delay as low as 35 milliseconds. I didn’t have quite the bad parent mind to let my daughter test out if the SDR transmits the full 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) away. She got around 500 feet away in a complex RF area, and the SDR did not fail.
The size of the DJI SDR is pretty amazing. It’s small. A single transmitter or receiver weighs only 145 grams or 5.1 oz. The DJI SDR will be your travel buddy. There are a couple of things I couldn’t test. I couldn’t test to see if the DJI SDR would connect to my iPhone because I am cheap and still holding onto my iPhone 11. I didn’t do any gimbal moves with the DJI SDR either because I didn’t have the right DJI gimbal on hand.
Lasting thoughts are pretty simple. The DJI SDR works very well and is easy to use. The size is small. Most importantly, the cost of a DJI SDR Tranmission Combo is only $549. In the world of wireless video $549 is pretty inexpensive.