Dan Miall on BirdDog & NDI

By Shiv Gilmore | Digital Marketing Assistant, Holdan

BirdDog took NAB by storm this year, launching a host of new NDI-based products and winning a bunch of awards in the process. Founder and CEO Dan Miall visited Europe in June and we took the opportunity to hold reseller-only events in our Glossop HQ and the Holdan Europe office in Amsterdam.

These ‘Meet & Greet’ events provided an opportunity to meet Dan, learn more about BirdDog’s latest announcements, get hands-on with the equipment and ask questions about where BirdDog is heading.

All About BirdDog

Dan began the day with a presentation that covered BirdDog’s beginnings, with an overview of the product range and the applications they address. He spent time explaining the new features of Silicon 2, a firmware update that is free of charge and applicable to all BirdDog products, including legacy devices. When combined with Cloud Connect, Silicon 2 enables devices to be connected globally, without the need for any computers, opening up a whole new world of workflow possibilities. All totally secure, totally reliable and with super-low latency – a key differentiator for BirdDog.

In addition, Dan Miall talked about the newly launched software applications that were announced at NAB 2022. These included Camera Director, a multi-cam automation tool, Central 2.0, a next-generation browser-based routing control application and an Adobe plug-in for Cloud Connect, Mac and server versions of NDI Multiview. He also spoke about DYNO, a new visual tool for testing network speed, performance and stability for a single NDI stream or multiple streams.

Dan introduced two new entry-level HD PTZs - the P110 and P120 - both with upgraded Sony Exmore sensor, a brand new OLED screen on the front to display system status and a new 360-degree mohawk tally design.

BirdDog Pod looks more towards the AV market. It’s an NDI to USB webcam converter that automatically detects NDI sources to connect to Zoom, Teams or any other conferencing software application that supports a USM webcam input.

Dan wrapped up the presentation with a glimpse of where he believes the company is going. There was no surprise that it all involves the cloud!

Hands-On Experience

Both in-house production set-ups we're built by our technical team, with our AV and BirdDog specialist James Tremayne designing the systems with the support of Nathan Plant and Terena Tekoeti to showcase how BirdDog’s equipment can be implemented into a production workflow using NDI, ready for remote collaboration using Birddog Cloud. They incorporated new products, like BirdDog Play, that were being seen in action for the first time in the UK.

Looking to the Future

BirdDog is already establishing itself as a trailblazer in the broadcast, professional video and AV industries. Its innovative approach to harnessing the power of NDI creates highly effective connected workflows, even on a global scale. Having the opportunity to spend just a few hours with the company’s founder and CEO was a hugely worthwhile experience, for our resellers and for our own technical staff. We’re looking to host more of these events going forward, so watch this space!