Convergent Design, one of the first companies to introduce a small and portable external recorder with the Nanoflash, just unleashed a brand new 7.7" OLED 1280 x 800 external monitor that also doubles as an external recorder capable of receiving 4K RAW as well as uncompressed and DNxHD formats. That's right, the company has decided that your external monitor isn't good enough, and your external recorder is a little boring, so the best of both worlds should be combined into one device to rule them all. Here is the introduction video from the company:
Just a few of the specs:
Display:
- 7.7" OLED, 1280x800, RGB 8-Bit, 3400:1 Contrast, 176° Viewing, True Blacks
Inputs:
- HD-SDI 3G ports: Single/Dual Link, 2-Inputs, 2-Outputs
- Odyssey7Q has 2 additional Bidirectional HD-SDI 3G ports
- HDMI Video I/O: HDMI 1.4a support
Video Formats:
- HD/2K RGB 444 8/10/12-Bit up to 60p/60psf,
- HD/2K YCC 422 8/10-Bit Up to 120p, QHD/4K 422 up to 30fps,
- ARRIRAW (16:9) 12-bit up to 60fps, ARRIRAW (4:3) 12-bit up to 48fps,
- Canon Raw QHD/4K 10-bit up to 60fps
- HDMI Video Formats: Up to 1080p60 422 8-bit
Recorder Options:
- Avid DNxHD up to 1080p30/1080i60, HD/2K Uncompreseed RGB 444 up to 60fps,
- HD/2K Raw up to 120 fps, ARRIRAW (16:9) up to 60fps, (4:3) up to 48fps, Canon RAW QHD/4K up to 60fps
- Odyssey7Q adds Four Stream recording up to 1080p30, 4K Support,
- High-Speed (120fps) and Simultaneous RAW + Proxy (DNxHD-36) mode
Recording Media:
- 2.5" professional server grade SSD in 240/480/960 GB sizes,
- 500MB/sec read/write speed, SATA-3 (6 GHz) interface,
- compatible with off the shelf USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt adapters
Other Monitor Capabilities:
- Focus Assist, YRGB Waveform, Histogram, False Color, Vectorscope, Zebras,
- Odyssey7Q adds ability to monitor four video streams in a quad-split display
There are still plenty of specs I'm not even including above just for the sake of clarity. The Odyssey7 can take 2-channel embedded audio, and the 7Q adds support for 8. Apple ProRes is curiously missing from the device, but I would imagine just like with anything else this is a licensing issue (though it's likely coming at some point according to this). I think the ability to rent licenses for a short period of time is incredibly useful. If you're someone who is constantly working with a specific camera, but maybe you need to use an Alexa in RAW for a couple of days out of the year, it's more convenient to just rent a license than to rent another external recorder.
It is a little confusing which features the two devices share in common, but it seems that the Odyssey7 can do pretty much everything the 7Q can do, but the 7Q just does more of it. Now, what about price? Well, they are officially introducing them at NAB this year, but we do know that the Odyssey7 is starting at $1,300. The website seems to indicate that this is just for the monitor, so the price will start adding up the more features and recording options you add to it. Nothing is listed for the 7Q, so it is probably much more expensive right from the start, especially considering their most expensive recorder, the Gemini, starts off at around $5,000.
Regardless, Convergent Design is giving users the option to start off with a basic package and work their way up as they need more functionality. The Gemini is a rental-only for many people, and I also see that being the case for the 7Q with all the bells and whistles added -- but we'll likely get more pricing information next month at NAB.
To read more about both devices, head on over to the Convergent Design website.
