I’ve been thinking a lot about how to explain BirdDog Connect.
It’s one of those platforms that’s so capable, so flexible, that it ends up meaning different things to different people. For some, it’s a routing tool. For others, it’s a collaboration system. For others still, it’s the magic that makes impossible productions happen.
But at its core, Connect does exactly what its name says — it connects.
It connects signals, people, locations, and ideas. Whether you’re across a building or across the planet, it’s there to make things talk to each other, instantly and reliably.
And the funny thing is, that’s not about the tech acronyms — SDI, NDI®, SRT, RTMP, Dante, WebRTC, and all the rest. Those are just the languages Connect speaks fluently.
What it really does is remove the friction between them.
For Live Productions
If you’ve ever been behind the desk during a show, you know how chaotic it can get. Connect takes that chaos and gives it shape. It lets you build custom multiviews however you like, complete with tally, audio meters, and UMDs. You can route anything to anywhere, save a route as a QR code, and recall it instantly next time.
You can record every source in whatever format suits your workflow — even straight to ProRes, ready to drop into the edit. It’s not about showing off, it’s about making the live part of production feel like second nature.
For Post Production
Editing used to be lonely work. You’d send a cut, wait for feedback, send another.
Connect changes that. It lets you bring your Producer, Director, or Client into your edit suite — not via a chat window or a clunky share link, but right inside your timeline.
They can watch your output in real time, flip between your timeline view and the program monitor, or even see your face cam for a quick “yep, that’s the one” moment. It’s natural, like working shoulder to shoulder again.
You don’t need to send them software or instructions — just a branded link that’s yours. Simple, personal, immediate.
For REMI Productions
Remote production has been talked about for years, but Connect makes it feel real — and human.
You can be sitting in a studio in Sydney controlling a camera in London, seeing tally updates, hearing clean intercom, even moving the camera on a control surface, tweaking exposure or colour balance on the fly.
It’s all there, all live, all responsive — and without needing racks of gear or expensive cloud hardware. Sometimes your entire remote gateway is just a BirdDog PLAY device sitting quietly on a shelf, doing its thing.
You forget the distance, because the delay is imperceptible. It’s the next best thing to being in the room.
Monitoring and Control, Anywhere
One of my favourite things about Connect is how it scales down as easily as it scales up.
You can log in from a tablet and see your cameras live from anywhere. Pan, Tilt, Zoom, set Presets — all secure, all in real time. It’s a simple way to keep eyes on everything that matters, without dragging a laptop or a van full of gear along. It ‘just works’ whenever you need to drop in and check things.
From SDI to Cloud and Back Again
If your world still runs on SDI, Connect makes sure it stays part of the new one.
It integrates directly with Blackmagic I/O devices to move those physical feeds into the cloud — and back out again — without you needing to overthink it. It’s about keeping the workflow you know, while opening the doors to everything new.
The Invisible Part
Underneath it all, Connect does a lot you never see.
It’s built for speed, for efficiency, for keeping signals secure and synchronized. It takes all the modern formats and compressions and acceleration tech and just… makes them disappear into the background so your work can take the spotlight.
That’s what it’s really about — making complex production feel simple again.
Why We Built It
Connect came from a simple frustration: creative and technical people spend too much time wrestling with systems instead of creating. We wanted to build something that let you work the way you want to work — wherever you are, whatever you’re using, whoever you’re working with.
That’s what BirdDog Connect does. It connects everything — and everyone.
Dan Miall
CEO & Founder of BirdDog
