Thunderbolt connection for professional video

After the past Nab and IBC there is no longer any doubt that the Thunderbolt connection created by Intel and Apple is going to become one of the standards in professional video. Why? Basically, Thunderbolt combines Express card and Display port technology in a connection of up to 10 Gb/s, allowing up to six devices to be connected in a daisy chain. This means that we will be able to use a single connection to connect video card, storage and several monitors (for example).

Thunderbolt opens the doors of post-production to the MacBook Pro and especially to the Imac, until now very limited by their Firewire 800 or Express Card connections. Apple holds the Thunderbolt patent for one year, which means that we will only be able to use this connection on Macs and that it will be expensive (for the time being).

Some of the latest devices with this connection are:

Hard Drives: Pegasus Raid, Lacie Little Big Disk

Video I/O cards: Aja IO XT, Matrox MXO2 (coming soon) and Blackmagic Intensity Extreme and Ultrastudio 3D (with which you can of course use DaVinci Resolve).

Monitors: For the moment only Apple’ s and with certain limitations, although more will surely come out.

Anyway, it seems that another new standard has been born, probably soon the patent will be released and many more cheaper devices for Mac and PC will be released (because the truth is that at the moment everything with the little lightning logo is expensive…). In any case it’s good that professional post-production is becoming more and more portable.

Here are the specifications of the Thundebolt given by Apple (which always looks nicer)