Introducing "motionBRIDGE"

Our plan was to wait with official news until our product is ready but due to the recent (and surprising) announcement of a product with some similar features by a good colleague, we feel the urge to disclose our progress and product as well, which we have been working on for quite some time and are close to the finishing line. There is a German saying „2 Dumme, ein Gedanke. The English counterpart sounds a bit nicer actually „great minds think alike“ :).

The cineoneLABS motionBRIDGE is an intelligent signal processing companion for your kit enabling you to mix, match, translate and even record, modify and playback different control signals (wired and wireless) to various outputs and output devices.

Our goal is to give Owner/Operators and Rentals the option to control as many target devices with as many different controllers as possible, so one investment will carry you through a big part of the rest of your career hopefully. In addition to giving you some special features you always wished for or didn’t know you actually wanted haha (more on that at the end)

We want to preface this announcement by saying that motionBRIDGE is a work in progress. While we feel strongly about its potential and have proof of concepts for most of the major features (which we will publish some of in the coming days) we are not quite ready to call motionBRIDGE “done”. Not everything in this announcement is finished, some things are working end-to-end, some of it is still on the whiteboard. That being said, we are not selling anything today, we are sharing the full picture because that is how we think about motionBRIDGE and hope you can share our passion for this little toolkit in a box. We will be posting more about the current state of motionBRIDGE in the coming weeks and months.

Current list of supported input devices/options: (Let us know what’s missing):

• Nodo Inertia Wheels

• Hammerhead Wheels

• Rexi Wheels

• DJI Masterwheels

• All kind of hobby RC Controllers

• ARRI Trinity Joystick (Trinity 1)

• ARRI MGT-1 / MGT-2 (TRINITY 2)

• ARRI DRW-1

• DJI Force Pro

• Zoom Controler like Bebob ZOE/Varizoom/GZoom (Canon/Fujinon ENG)

• Ethernet for future applications

• Custom wireless link for future products

Current list of supported output devices: (Let us know what’s missing)

• ARRI Trinity

• ARRI TRINITY2

• ARRI SRH

• ARRI SRH-360

• DJI Ronin 2

• DJI RS4 (and all other DJI RS Gimbals)

• DJI Ronin 4D

• Freefly Movi

• Freefly Movi Pro

• NBStabilizer Rock-A-Bye / Gen2

• PTZ Cameras via RS232

• Fujinon/Canon ENG Lenses (12pin/20pin Hirose)

• ARRI Cforce Motors (yes, read below :)

• Tilta Nucleus Motors

• USB (Mouse control for Mac/Windows)

• Ethernet for future applications

If you have some of the devices above in your personal or rental inventory, you will have the peace of mind to know that you can handle every situation you might find yourself in. If you own a set of lovely NODO Inertia Wheels, you will be able to control every kind of remote head with that set of wheels you and your muscle memory are trained on. The same is true the other way around, you can let the DP use their personal controller they are used to with the Remote Head you supply as a Grip/Service.

Maybe you own ARRI DRW-1 Wheels which are usually closed to the ARRI Ecosystem? Why not control the 2nd ACs Ronin2 with that! (yes, these days we are often surprised to learn who actually supplied the gear).

Or pan & tilt a PTZ Camera on the truss above at a live event with your DJI Force Pro to get that special shot the director wished for. Yes absolutely!

But wait, what's up with USB and Cforce Focus Motors?! That brings us to the special features:

FIZ Motors

As FIZ Motors are part of the motionBRIDGE target devices, you in theory could control them with all supported input devices. (Even if it doesn't make much sense in most situations, we are sure those situations do occur!)

But this also allows motionBRIDGE to act as a standalone on-camera translator to control non ENG zoom lenses with an external motor and an ENG zoom controller like a varizoom or bebop ZOE or vice-versa control a Fujinon/Canon ENG Zoomlens by another input device.

Controlling FIZ motors will also be interesting for the next special feature…

Motion Control

You can program, record, modify and play sequences of input signals with all the controllers and axes you want. This might be that specific pan/tilt move for a match-cut a Ronin2 would not be capable of on its own. You can also combine that with FIZ Motor positions. Or program a zoom only sequence lasting 3 minutes for the duration of an entire music video.

This is another area where our vision for motionBRIDGE boils down to giving you as many cool and niche tools to come up with solutions for the inevitable, challenging situations we find ourselves in from time to time.

Usb mouse control

Practice makes perfect. You can route every input to a USB mode that mimics a regular computer mouse, giving you the option to use dedicated Operating Training Software or play off the shelf games which are suited to learn precise control/aim. With Nodo Wheels and others this comes built in, but there are many devices which don’t, like ARRI Wheels.

Mix & Match Inputs

You can route any input to any output and have the freedom to mix and modify them. Maybe you are doing a super long take, where you want several remote operator stations to hand over control. Or you might mount a wired joystick on the handheld gimbal to be in charge of tilt, while remote wheels are used for pan and have the ability to overwrite operator inputs. That way the DP could also take quick control of the gimbal position during pre-lighting when it is resting on the stand without the need to reconfigure your tool. Which would usually be required in those situations but you already left your stand to check for crafty. …

So let’s put it all together. We tried to pack as many options in one single device (and more, which we are not announcing yet:) to be the best possible companion for you as a camera operator, camera rental or owner/operator.