At Cine Gear 2023 in Los Angeles, we caught up with Tilta to look at their brand-new Zombie Rig Lite which is a boom pole support system.
The Zombie Rig Lite is a co-development project and it looks to be an interesting solution for boom operators or sound recordists. The premise behind it was to take the weight and strain off an operator’s back, arms, and shoulders.
Essentially it is best to think of it as a type of Steadicam for sound. Unlike some other solutions we have seen in the past, you don’t have to have your arms up above your head. You can operate the boom including adjusting both the height and the direction without any physical strain.
The Zombie Rig Lite uses a couple of clever mechanisms that allow the operator to rotate their hands to change the direction and angle of the boom.
There are also adjustable counterweights that you can use depending on the length of the boom.
The Zombie Rig Lite will work with any harness and sound bag and it looks to be a clever concept. While it isn’t going to be suitable for every type of sound recording scenario it will certainly help out operators in a lot of situations where they have to hold long booms for sustained periods of time.
Tilta hopes to have the Zombie Rig Lite available in the next month or so and they ae hoping to keep the price between $600-700 USD.
