A television EFP van in your...motor scooter?

Last year, Newtek got a lot of attention by turning a Mini Cooper into a tiny EFP vehicle, equipped with one of its Tricaster systems, camcorders, tripods and microphones. KiBAN International, a Japanese eLearning vendor, has just announced an even smaller EFP vehicle--well, actually, an EFP scooter.

The Panda Bird combines Blackmagic Design's electronics and a Honda Gyro Canopy three-wheeled scooter. It incorporates Blackmagic Design's ATEM Television Studio video switcher, HyperDeck Studio Pro dual-deck SSD video recorder and SmartView Duo dual 8" display, along with two camcorders, tripods and additional electronics. Camcorders are connected wirelessly to the ATEM Television Studio, and its built-in H.264 encoder can be used for live streaming from the Panda Bird directly to Ustream. The electronics package fits into 6RU, is powered by 12 volts and can be removed from the scooter for indoor use.

As you can see, there's no room to carry lighting and sound equipment; from the picture, it might not even be possible to fit in the camcorders and tripods. So, the Panda Bird is more an interesting exercise than a self-contained mobile production system. However, it does suggest that Newtek no longer has the miniature video production system business to itself.