Rosendahl BONSAI-DRIVE-12V

The new Rosendahl bonsaiDRIVE is a miniature high quality portable video and multitrack audio hard disk recorder aimed at the film and video post production, video assist and multimedia markets. As an instant access stand alone recorder, it will certainly also find its place in the video monitoring and security industry.

bonsaiDRIVE was born from the idea of having a complete stand alone, synchronisable hard disk recorder as a portable media storage device, instead of a removable hard disk of comparable size and weight.

Running on 12 volts DC, the unit records uncompressed 4:2:2 PAL or NTSC video together with 10 audio channels on standard IDE hard disk drives.

A Huffman codec provides a lossless video compression of 2:1 resulting in a superior video picture and a data transfer rate of 10 Mbyte/s, which is well within the capabilities of standard IDE drives. The audio channels are arranged as an analog stereo pair and a digital 8-channel ADAT stream and are 24-bit at 48kHz sample rate. Professional synchronisation I/Os include timecode, Sony 9-pin remote control, MTC, MMC, video sync input, word clock output and GPIOs to allow perfect integration in postproduction or multimedia installations.

The front panel can be removed from the machine and used as a separate remote control with a standard 9-pin cable connection. A second 9-pin connector allows an additional external machine controller to be connected.

All configuration menus and settings are implemented as an interactive on screen video display, together with insertion of timecode and audio levels in the program video if required.

As each frame is recorded individually, jog, shuttle and playback from 0 to +/-200% can be realised with playback similar to a professional, analog VTR. Sync audio is output in all modes including reverse, job and shuttle giving a "Tape playback" feeling.

bonsaiDRIVE's firmware can be updated through any serial port of a computer (MIDI or COM). Loader programs for PC or MAC as well as the firmware files are available on this website (support section).

All recordings are organized as unique clips and can be arranged as a movie playback with an EDL. The timecode start value and timecode framerate can be selected  independent of the recording format.

Features
 • Records uncompressed 4:2:2 PAL or NTSC video on standard ATA-133 IDE drives and consumes only 40 GB/hour because of our lossless huffman codec
 • 10 uncompressed embedded audio channels, 48kHz, 24-bit, two analog, 8 digital in ADAT-format
 • Integrated synchroniser with LTC, MTC, MMC, Sony 9-pin, word clock, genlock
 • 12 volts DC versoin, very low power consumption, no fan inside
 • Removable front panel can be used as remote controller
 • Option port digital I/Os: 270 MBit SDI, Ethernet or IEEE1394

Specifications
 • Analog Video Inputs: Composite video 1 x BNC, or S-video (Y/C); 2 x BNC, or Component-video 3 x BNC. A/D: 10-bit uncompressed video
 • Analog Video Outputs: Composite video 1 x BNC and S-video (Y/C); 2 x BNC, or Component-video 3 x BNC. D/A: 10-bit uncompressed video
 • Analog Audio Interface: Stereo input +6dB 2 x RCA/Cinch. Outputs +6dB, 2 x RCA/Cinch. AD/DA: 48kHz, 24-bit uncompressed audio
 • Digital Audio Interface: 1 x ADAT 8-channel optical input, 1 x ADAT 8-channel optical output, 48kHz, 24-bit uncompressed audio
 • Storage Media: Single 3.5ÕÕ IDE drives, ATA-133, 28 or 28-bit LBA address mode
 • Sync Reference: Internal, External Black and burst video (1 x BNC) or selected video input
 • Word Clock Output: 48kHz, 3.5 Vpp @ 75 ohm, 1 x BNC, clock jitter < 1ns
 • Timecode: LTC input -40 to +20 dBu, 1 x RCA/Cinch. LTC output 1Vpp, 1 x RCA/Cinch
 • MIDI: MTC, MMC and Rosendahl sysex for firmware updates; MIDI input 5-pin DIN, MIDI output 5-pin DIN
 • RS422-REMOTE: Sony P2 protocol, Rosendahl Bonsaitalk, 3 x 9-pin D-SUB
 • GPI/O: 4 x TTL input, 4 x TTL output (50mA source and sink) 15-pin D-SUB