Spark questions

A

AlanZ

New member
I am very happy to see this new device.

I have a couple of questions about the HDMI" version
  • What is the wireless protocol. Is it 802.11ac?
  • What is typical wireless throughput?
  • Could this be connected directly into an ethernet port on a computer (to act as a direct wired capture device)?
  • What capacity SD cards does it accept?
  • Does anyone have a screenshot of the web interface, so we can see configuration options?
  • Is a user manual available yet?
 
Can this device be powered via a PTap connection? If the goal is to be wireless it doesn't make much sense to have to plug into a standard outlet.
 
AlanZ said:
I am very happy to see this new device.

I have a couple of questions about the HDMI" version
  • What is the wireless protocol. Is it 802.11ac?
  • What is typical wireless throughput?
  • Could this be connected directly into an ethernet port on a computer (to act as a direct wired capture device)?
  • What capacity SD cards does it accept?
  • Does anyone have a screenshot of the web interface, so we can see configuration options?
  • Is a user manual available yet?
Click to expand...

What he said! Also interested to find answers to the above.
A.
 
ASD20 said:
Can this device be powered via a PTap connection? If the goal is to be wireless it doesn't make much sense to have to plug into a standard outlet.
Click to expand...
I honestly don't know, but that's an interesting notion. I'll inquire,
 
AlanZ said:
What is the wireless protocol. Is it 802.11ac?
Click to expand...
Yes - dual band, 2.4 and 5.8gHz, a/b/g/n.

AlanZ said:
What is typical wireless throughput?
Click to expand...
There are three bandwidth options (Low, Medium, High) to allow you to work on more congested networks. High is up to 1080p60 ... Medium is 720p, Low is SD. I don't think there would be any problem with a number of "High" bandwidth signals on a single wifi network, if there wasn't much else going on.

AlanZ said:
Could this be connected directly into an ethernet port on a computer (to act as a direct wired capture device)?
Click to expand...
You could capture directly into a computer, sure (the new (NDI) Studio Monitor application included with the HX driver has local capture capabilities), and then there's IsoCorder, etc..

AlanZ said:
What capacity SD cards does it accept?
Click to expand...
This isn't really my strong point, but I know the device supports SD, SDHC, SDXC, MMC and eMMC cards.

AlanZ said:
Does anyone have a screenshot of the web interface, so we can see configuration options?
Click to expand...
I'm attaching a few images below:

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AlanZ said:
Is a user manual available yet?
Click to expand...
Soon, almost certainly later this week.
 

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This is based on unconfirmed information but is probably correct:

Q. What is the wireless protocol. Is it 802.11ac?

A. 802.11 a/b/g/n 2.4G/5.8G dual-band

Q. What is typical wireless throughput?

A. up to 15MBit/sec (might be up to 25)

Q. Could this be connected directly into an ethernet port on a computer (to act as a direct wired capture device)?

A/ Don't see why not.
 
Steve,
Thanks for the replies.

So, in a situation where there is no existing local network, it appears that I could connect a gigabit network switch directly to a laptop computer and plug several Sparks into the switch.
Does this sound right to you?
It might be an interesting alternative to using devices like multiple Magewell HDMI to USB3 dongles.
Would there be any performance/quality improvement or degradation using NDI (for example in vMix) compared to a USB camera input via a Magewell type device?
 
Please let us be more specific about the wireless protocol.

Is it

802.11 a/b/g/n 2.4G/5.8G dual-band as stated above or is it (hopefully)

802.11 a/b/g/n/ac 2.4G/5.8G dual-band
 
AlanZ said:
So, in a situation where there is no existing local network, it appears that I could connect a gigabit network switch directly to a laptop computer and plug several Sparks into the switch.
Does this sound right to you?
It might be an interesting alternative to using devices like multiple Magewell HDMI to USB3 dongles.
Would there be any performance/quality improvement or degradation using NDI (for example in vMix) compared to a USB camera input via a Magewell type device?
Click to expand...

This is based on unconfirmed information but is probably correct:

I am guessing its going to be higher latency than Magewell, and the data is going to come in already HX compressed (where it comes in uncompressed via Magewell).
For a software based processing system which is based on uncompressed frames, there would probably be a larger CPU overhead compared to using a Magwell due to the HX decompression, but its not clear if this would be any more than coming in with regular 100mbit NDI.

You may not have a DHCP server in the scenario you describe so most likely the Spark boxes would need to be statically configured for IP address.
 
AlanZ said:
Please let us be more specific about the wireless protocol.

Is it

802.11 a/b/g/n 2.4G/5.8G dual-band as stated above or is it (hopefully)

802.11 a/b/g/n/ac 2.4G/5.8G dual-band
Click to expand...


802.11 a/b/g/n 2.4G/5.8G dual-band is correct as far as I can tell.
 
So its upper limit is 802.11n ? not 802.11ac?

That would be unfortunate, mostly in the ability to connect to networks with weak "n" signals but strong "ac" signals.
 
AlanZ said:
So its upper limit is 802.11n ? not 802.11ac?

That would be unfortunate, mostly in the ability to connect to networks with weak "n" signals but strong "ac" signals.
Click to expand...

Presumably you could connect it via ethernet to a wireless interface which does have ac
 
ASD20 said:
Can this device be powered via a PTap connection? If the goal is to be wireless it doesn't make much sense to have to plug into a standard outlet.
Click to expand...

This is based on unconfirmed information but is probably correct:

Power：DC 12V 1A
Power consumption ：4W Max
 
livepad said:
This is based on unconfirmed information but is probably correct:

Power：DC 12V 1A
Power consumption ：4W Max
Click to expand...
I have the same info, will just add that we have not tested this, so while I suspect it would be fine, I can't confirm it.
 
SBowie said:
I just checked, and it turns out Spark does support ac - the spec doc was out of date, sorry.
Click to expand...

Ah, that's so nice to hear. When all else fails, read the (most current) instructions!

Thanks for following up.
 
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Has the spark ever been tested over a wireless bridge? Which bandwidth options, if so?
 
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We are going to buy a cable cam like a dactylcam or a photoship one flycam. My question is, Would it be practical to try the spark as the video transmitter with a directional high gain antenna pointed down the cable? Instead of buying an $8000 wireless sdi system like a teradek or tomahawk.
 
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