Convergent Design Service or how I had dinner with Dan at DVinfo.net

David Rogers · May 9th, 2009, 09:12 PM

This past week I was Augusta, GA for a film shoot. I am interested in a small HD field recorder and remembered Dan lives in Augusta. I contacted him the first day I arrived and set a dinner meeting for the next evening. We spent nearly three hours eating and talking Flash XDR.
I am impressed with the product, the willingness to discuss all about the Flash and Nano recorders and going into great details about how these products came into being. I found it refreshing to have such a one on one conversation with a member of this company. If you have need of such a product I say buy one. I will be in the near future myself. No its not perfect, but then nothing really is either.
Dan was very accomodating. I am not yet a Convergent Design customer, just someone that appreciates a company willing to talk candidly.

Thank you Dan.

Sincerely
David Rogers

Dan Keaton · May 10th, 2009, 03:06 AM

Dear David,

Thank you very much for the very kind words.

I do not consider it work to talk about our products and projects.

A few years ago, before I purchased my Canon XL H1, I went to Nashville with Rick Kelly to one of Canon's XL H1 "Road Shows". These were amazing events and they showed the very high quality HD-SDI images from the XL H1.

On the way back to Augusta, Rick and I discussed the future. We expected that someone would build a small device that was capable of recording HD-SDI. We were both very excited about the possibility of such a device.

Since I have a serious computer background, I did some calculations with the speed of the computers, and the transfer speed of disk drives, available at the time. It just wasn't practical back then, in my mind, with a single disk drive (in a battery powered, small camera mounted device), as SATA and ESATA disk drives were not available. And CompactFlash cards were not large enough in capacity to be practical either.

As much as we wanted a device like the Flash XDR or the nanoFlash it just was not feasible back then.

But now it is, and the quality of the 100 Mbps Long GOP images is way beyond what Rick and I ever thought would be possible. A lot can happen in just a few years and Rick and I are amazed that we are a part of it!

May 9th, 2009, 09:12 PM	#1
David Rogers Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Nashvegas, TN Posts: 79	Convergent Design Service or how I had dinner with Dan This past week I was Augusta, GA for a film shoot. I am interested in a small HD field recorder and remembered Dan lives in Augusta. I contacted him the first day I arrived and set a dinner meeting for the next evening. We spent nearly three hours eating and talking Flash XDR. I am impressed with the product, the willingness to discuss all about the Flash and Nano recorders and going into great details about how these products came into being. I found it refreshing to have such a one on one conversation with a member of this company. If you have need of such a product I say buy one. I will be in the near future myself. No its not perfect, but then nothing really is either. Dan was very accomodating. I am not yet a Convergent Design customer, just someone that appreciates a company willing to talk candidly. Thank you Dan. Sincerely David Rogers

May 10th, 2009, 03:06 AM	#2
Dan Keaton Inner Circle Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Augusta Georgia Posts: 5,421	Dear David, Thank you very much for the very kind words. I do not consider it work to talk about our products and projects. A few years ago, before I purchased my Canon XL H1, I went to Nashville with Rick Kelly to one of Canon's XL H1 "Road Shows". These were amazing events and they showed the very high quality HD-SDI images from the XL H1. On the way back to Augusta, Rick and I discussed the future. We expected that someone would build a small device that was capable of recording HD-SDI. We were both very excited about the possibility of such a device. Since I have a serious computer background, I did some calculations with the speed of the computers, and the transfer speed of disk drives, available at the time. It just wasn't practical back then, in my mind, with a single disk drive (in a battery powered, small camera mounted device), as SATA and ESATA disk drives were not available. And CompactFlash cards were not large enough in capacity to be practical either. As much as we wanted a device like the Flash XDR or the nanoFlash it just was not feasible back then. But now it is, and the quality of the 100 Mbps Long GOP images is way beyond what Rick and I ever thought would be possible. A lot can happen in just a few years and Rick and I are amazed that we are a part of it! __________________ Dan Keaton Augusta Georgia