Hedge and ProGrade Digital have partnered up. The integration with ProGrade represents Hedge’s first attempt to fully optimize camera ingest.
The whole rationale behind doing this is that your recording media is important and why shouldn’t there be an offloading system in place where everything has better communication and more information can be shared between the card, card reader, and the software you are using to offload your material? That is what Hedge is setting out to do.
Firmware can provide a wealth of information that’s useful for you, the end user. But as firmware tends to be quite vendor-specific, without a driver and app from that vendor, seeing and utilizing all of that information is a whole other story. A lot of hardware manufacturers are also known for not being that great at doing software, so their apps leave a lot to be desired. As there is no standard for talking to firmware, your system could end up riddled with vendor-specific apps that you’ll rarely use.
The reason Hedge decided to partner up with ProGrade ProGrade is that they add useful information to their firmware, which Hedge can then take advantage of. By integrating this into your offloading workflow, there’s no need to go hunting for apps or having to manage drivers. Hedge can therefore expose card-specific functionality, like sanitization (proper erasing) of ProGrade media.
Hedge 23.1 is the first of several releases in the pipeline that will leverage direct, firmware-level integrations. ProGrade cards and readers that display the ‘R’ icon on the label or box will be fully compatible with the Hedge app.
To be able to communicate with your media directly, you don’t only need a card with firmware enabling such comms, but also a card reader that plays along. The reader needs to understand how to pass messages between the host computer and the camera media, without being in the way or obscuring anything.
This is why it helps to go for a single preferred brand of both media and card readers – that way, you get the most out of your media. There is a good chance that a reader of the same brand as your media will perform better than a generic reader, as both have been tested thoroughly together, for the best possible performance. When it comes to exposing additional functionality like Secure Erase, it’s a requirement. For ProGrade cards, this feature is automatically enabled for memory cards that have the R present on the label.
The secure erase function will also be included in an upcoming version, along with further integrations for ProGrade products that will help monitor the performance of each camera card over time.
The new feature is included in Hedge 23.1, which is available today and is a free update for all current license holders.
