Sling Media's new prosumer video production product, the SlingStudio, is a wireless, multi-camera video recording and streaming tool designed around tablet control, with a family of accessories to go with it.
The SlingStudio is a small white box loaded with Wi-Fi and video processing circuitry. It accepts wireless video feeds from up to 10 different sources, including smartphones and tablets, and provides a platform for mixing those sources into a single output for recording or streaming. It can wirelessly stream to video services (currently YouTube and Facebook, with more planned) on its own, or record all of the video it captures to an SD card or connected USB-C hard drive.
Instead of connecting a computer or using a built-in interface to manage video production, the SlingStudio uses a tablet app to control everything. The SlingStudio Console app lets you monitor four video streams simultaneously, swapping sources in and out from the 10 the SlingStudio can receive. You can create multi-camera views like split screen, picture-in-picture, and custom arrangements from the four streams, previewing them before sending that view out live either to a streaming service or as a recording on the SlingStudio's connected storage.
The SlingStudio is billed as prosumer video production equipment, making multi-camera video recording and streaming available to small businesses and other organizations that don't necessarily have the budget for a commercial production solution. At $999, the SlingStudio won't be an impulse buy from a consumer electronics store, but for groups that need video production and can't spend ten times as much for a Tricaster, it's an interesting alternative.
Sling Media offers several accessories to expand the SlingStudio's capability. The most important for professional video production is the CameraLink, a $349 box that wirelessly transmits video from your camera to the SlingStudio. It's an expensive option, but it means users who already have a professional video camera can integrate it wirelessly into the SlingStudio, providing better video quality than any phone.
The $149 SlingStudio Battery makes the SlingStudio completely wireless by giving it a self-contained power source. With the battery, the SlingStudio will run for up to three hours before it needs to be plugged in, letting users have totally untethered video production. Finally, the $49 USB-C Expander provides more storage and networking options via an Ethernet port and two USB 3.0 ports.
The SlingStudio and its accessories will start shipping this May, and will be available directly from Sling Media and from A/V equipment vendors like B&H Photo Video.