A New 10″ Production Monitor from SmallHD
SmallHD recently released their newest production monitor, the SmallHD Ultra 10, a 10" Ultra-Bright Monitor designed to adapt to a variety of production scenarios. The Ultra 10 is the largest touch-screen monitor that SmallHD have released to date, and comes with all of the tools that their smaller on-board monitor series hold as well.
As a somewhat larger ultra-bright production monitor, the SmallHD Ultra 10 definitely seems to be targeted towards focus-pullers, larger mobile director monitors, and any situation that might need a rugged, portable, ultra-bright monitor. In terms of specifications the monitor comes with a brightness of up to 2000nits, 6G-SDI ports, 4 customizable function buttons, 4 customizable encoder nobs, a IP54-certified rugged form factor, and more ways to customize user pages and workflow settings. The Ultra-10 monitor can have a cable-less battery plate fitted to the back for V-Mount or Gold-Mount batteries, to ensure longer lasting up-time without having to constantly swap batteries. SmallHD also have plans to release an updated version of the Ultra 10 that comes with an integrated Teradek Bolt 6, for built-in wireless video transmission. This addition is great to avoid long cable runs to transfer video feeds, and also creates a much more ergonomic and mobile monitor, without having to attach additional video transmission units to the monitor itself.
The Ultra 10 has been marketed as a remarkably robust production monitor that can handle extreme production climates and weather scenarios. The monitor includes rubber shock bumpers around the chassis, as well as cap-seals to protect all electronic components from dust, water and any other environmental hurdles that can be thrown its way. SmallHD say that the Ultra10 can be operated safely in extreme climate temperatures ranging from 0°C to -40°C
The new powerful tools that the PageOS offers users is another exciting feature about the Ultra 10. One of the most noteworthy new page systems is Look-Around Camera Control, which allows viewing and adjusting camera-control functions directly from the monitor. One thing to note with the Look-Around Camera Control function is that it is currently only compatible with RED, Arri and Sony Venice camera systems, and requires an additional license purchase for each camera manufacturer to be usable with this function on the Ultra 10. Handheld Multi-View is another new tool added to the Ultra 10, that allows two camera feeds to be viewed simultaneously, whilst still using different page tool setups - all on the same screen at the same time. Teradek RT Integration has even been added, so that users can view lens data, set on-screen limits, and pinch-zoom the image scale - a feature that focus pullers will love. Lastly, four custom function buttons have also been integrated into the Ultra 10. While the monitor is fully touchscreen, having four customizable function buttons for quick setting changes is a nice quality of life feature to help streamline monitor adjustments.
In terms of price and availability, the base SmallHD Ultra 10 monitor price starts at $4499 USD and is available now, while the Ultra 10 Receiver (with built in Teradek Bolt 6) is not available to yet. SmallHD have been creating a host of great production monitors and accessories for years, and have proven their reliability and quality standard. Although they may not be the cheapest monitor options available, consumers looking to purchase one can have peace of mind, knowing that these monitors function at a high level.
