Haivision Makito X1 Rugged Delivers Motion Picture Magic for Team5 Aerial Systems
A specialized equipment rental company that serves the motion picture, television, and advertising industries, Team5 Aerial Systems answers both to the studios and advertising firms employing them as well as the industry’s premier aerial cinematography crew members using their equipment. Behind many of the most compelling aerial images produced worldwide, Team5 maintains an extensive inventory of state-of-the-art systems from gyro-stabilized helicopter mounts to certified jet platforms, longline rigs, and now: microwave video transmission systems.
Based in Burbank, California, Team5 has an international network of trusted partners it calls upon—from aerial coordinators to film pilots, to cinematographers and technicians—to collectively provide unparalleled expertise and overall support for aerial shoots around the globe.
The company’s mission is to assist in bringing together this coalition of specialists whose capabilities are no longer limited by the constraints of mainstream equipment. In a sort of symbiosis, this group continues to innovate custom solutions to meet the needs of their mutual clients’ projects.
Dylan Goss
Aerial Director of Photography
While serving big-budget blockbuster movies produced by the major Hollywood studios, Team5 will provide equipment and creative solutions for these specialized segments of aerial cinematography that use helicopters and airplanes. Always looking to meet the desires of the directors and producers on these projects, Team5 was looking to provide a reliable solution to give those on the ground a live confidence feed from an aircraft shooting on set. This stream (also known on set as video assist) enables the director and their team to see the same view as the camera, ensuring in real-time that the film is being shot and framed as desired.
With high profile productions using expensive aircraft to get the perfect shot of a stunt or scene which has often required months of preparation.
After a long and challenging path testing other vendor solutions, Team5 came across a legacy Haivision video encoder which they decided to put through its paces. Seeing an immediate improvement in performance, they reached out to Haivision for help with a solution. Pairing a Makito X1 Rugged video encoder on the aircraft with a Makito X4 video decoder on the ground proved to be a winning combination.
What particularly impressed Team5 was the solution’s reliability, low latency, and ability to cope in harsh conditions. Where other products had failed, the ultra-compact and ruggedized Makito X1 delivered exceptional reliability in the face of the challenging environmental conditions on board an aircraft, which can include dust, heat, and strong vibrations.
The quality provided by the Makito encoder and decoder pair has been so good that those receiving the images downstream, such as digital imaging technicians on set, have been able to view the confidence feeds in 10-bit color and high resolution. This allows additional team members to now review and sign off on exposure and lighting qualities in near real-time, decisions that were previously left without evaluation before post-processing. The hope is that this immediate feedback will prevent possible hiccups that can now be avoided using Haivision on set.
