Some of the world's most spectacular views are best seen from halfway up a wall of rock. That's a place where gear has to be reliable, whether it's crucial safety equipment or the cameras that let the rest of us experience the same dizzying panorama. It's also a familiar situation to alpinist Renan Ozturk, whose experience includes some of the steepest climbing challenges on the planet as well as documentary filmmaking and photojournalism covering everything from the freezing Himalayas to the African deserts of Chad.
Ozturk's connection to the outdoors, and the human stories that happen there, goes back to weeks spent camping in the great American national parks, painting from nature. It's perhaps no surprise to find his work featured in National Geographic, while his commercial clients range from active wear brands The North Face and Nike to Sony, Apple and Google in the world of technology. His documentaries have been recognized with screenings of Sherpa at TIFF and Telluride, and at Sundance, where the 2015 film MERU won an Audience Choice Award. Chronicling two attempts on Meru Peak in the Indian Himalayas, the film features fellow climbers Jimmy Chin and Conrad Anker, requiring documentary equipment to be hauled up the mountain's notorious Shark's Fin route.
From his base in southwestern Colorado, Ozturk runs production company Expedition Studios and specializes in remote, rugged locations. The beaches of Costa Rica's Mediterranean coast might seem relaxed by comparison, but on one recent commercial for a popular beer brand, things weren't quite as expected. The shoot looked like fun in the sun, as Ozturk describes it, but we actually had some of the some of the worst weather Costa Rica has had in six years of production. We dealt with constant rain, salt water and sand, which is the ultimate killer for gear.
We like to work small and light on top of mountains, at high altitudes and in extreme conditions, he continues. We've had really good results from SmallHD and Teradek kit from the beginning. I've seen how it all works together and how it gets better and better. In Costa Rica, Ozturk and his crew used Teradek's Bolt 3000 alongside the SmallHD 703 Bolt, which combines the display and Bolt receiver into a single unit that communicates fully with the Teradek RT lens control system.
With a camera package built around the RED Monstro, Ozturk used the MDR.X lens control receiver alongside the powerful MOTR.X and compact MK3.1 motors. As he puts it, One of the appeals of the MK3.1 motor is its size it's very small and lightweight, so it doesn't cause any issues on a gimbal. Meanwhile, the larger MOTR.X offers the ability to daisy-chain cables and keep the builds compact. Connecting one motor to the next also left ports free to connect the TOF.1 rangefinder, with the combined system capable of imperceptible micro-adjustments, maintaining perfect focus without visible corrections.
In some situations, though, only the practiced hand of a focus puller would do, and Teradek's integration with SmallHD became crucial. We were using the CTRL.3 hand unit on set, and the ability to have the on-screen overlays is very helpful, Ozturk confirms. You don't have to bounce your eyes between three different places, from the scene, to the screen, and then down to the controller as you would normally. It makes all the technical difference in executing difficult shots in constantly changing environments.
As if the beach sand and salt-laden ocean spray wasn't enough, ominous gray clouds gathered, spattering crew and equipment with rain and ensuring that both would both need to dry off multiple times throughout the day. The Teradek RT shrugged off the weather and made frequent lens changes easy. Cheaper systems, Ozturk says, are quite limited in their feature set. Being able to quickly change between lens maps is crucial for moving quickly and efficiently. Further, the ability to save lens maps and move them between controllers using the mobile app is unique to Teradek RT. It saves a lot of time during prep.
We're known for taking tools built for Hollywood sets and using them in harsh outdoor environments, putting them in places where the designers and manufacturers didn't expect them to go, Ozturk concludes, noting that familiarity remains key, no matter what the conditions. All this gear has become the gold standard, so people talk the same language and it all works together. Yes, we can be hard on our gear and this shoot was no exception, but everything survived with flying colors. These are burly tools.
teradek.com
North America Stories
29/05/2026
With InfoComm 2026 just weeks away, NDI is giving attendees plenty of reasons to...
29/05/2026
Reaffirming a partnership that has defined Canadian sports broadcasting since 19...
29/05/2026
Mobile/tablet is No. 2 device for watching TV, suggesting that the sports-production industry needs to take another look at the format
Ring Digital's Sprin...
29/05/2026
Berliner Ensemble, one of Berlin's five major theater companies, has expande...
29/05/2026
Solid State Logic will showcase its new compact, fly-away TCA Tour audio product...
29/05/2026
Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, passed away last month on April 12 ...
29/05/2026
Paramount+ will be the English-language U.S. home for Barclays Women's Super...
29/05/2026
Further strengthening its virtualisation strategy to fully support broadcasters ...
29/05/2026
Swiss broadcaster Canal Alpha has deployed Harmonic's award-winning, software-based XOS Advanced Media Processor to modernize playout operations across cant...
29/05/2026
PTZOptics will showcase a new generation of intelligent video workflows at InfoComm 2026, June 17-19, Las Vegas. Visitors to booth N8227 will see how PTZOptics ...
29/05/2026
Arizona's Family has launched the Arizona's Family Sports (AZFS) streaming app, a new direct-to-consumer destination for live, local sports. The app is ...
29/05/2026
Starting in 2027, DAZN will be the exclusive home of The Canadian Football Leagu...
29/05/2026
Comcast Business has detailed the advanced network infrastructure it has deploye...
29/05/2026
In two-day event, leaders from academia and industry explored solutions to chall...
29/05/2026
The Basketball Tournament (TBT), now entering their 13th year of competition, ha...
29/05/2026
Roku has launched FOX One as a Premium Subscription on The Roku Channel in the U.S. Roku customers can now subscribe to FOX One using their Roku account for liv...
29/05/2026
In its sixth year, the broadcaster's coverage has become a global brand and ...
29/05/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent ratings news and is derived from press re...
29/05/2026
Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, died April 12, 2026, at his home in...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Comparing 5 AI Video Enhancers for Restoring Old Video Quality
Kate Luvis May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Digitizing VHS, MiniDV, and other legacy formats doe...
29/05/2026
Studio Hamburg Builds New Post Pipeline with DaVinci Resolve Studio
Brie Clayton May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Workflow replaces a patchwork of legacy tools...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
At the Intersection of Music and Dance, an Epic Collaboration Boston Conservatory musicians and dancers found creative parallels in their recent performance o...
29/05/2026
Something fundamental has shifted in how people consume media. Audiences aren't abandoning television or radio content; they're just expanding how, wher...
29/05/2026
Back to All News
The Official Trailer of Physical 100 Italy, on Netflix From Se...
29/05/2026
Experimental HIV vaccine achieves a long-sought goal In a first for the field, all non-human primates given a new series of vaccines generated antibodies capabl...
28/05/2026
FOX Sports' MLB coverage dominated the night at the 47th Annual Sports Emmy ...
28/05/2026
One of the most memorable postseasons in baseball history would have had no memo...
28/05/2026
NBC's Sunday Night Football is among the most-decorated and most-watched pro...
28/05/2026
The 2026 Sports Emmys marked a watershed moment for Prime Video Sports. After bu...
28/05/2026
Hosted by ESPN Senior Writer Ryan McGee, the ceremony honored winners from athletic departments, conference offices, professional networks, production companies...
28/05/2026
Major rights-holders rolled out their 2026 college football slates today, offering a first look at marquee windows, kickoff partners, and conference distributio...
28/05/2026
The 4 Nations Face-Off, an international competition that launched in February 2...
28/05/2026
Soccer is a truly global sport, and, to match the U.S. viewing audience's in...
28/05/2026
The NFL Today, CBS Sports' top-of-the-line NFL studio show, has a storied hi...
28/05/2026
Prime Video is no stranger to innovation, and, within the realm of live streamin...
28/05/2026
The crack of the bat, the pop of the glove, and the cheer of the crowd: those are three prime examples of the glorious sounds fans hear on televised baseball ga...
28/05/2026
Every year, March Madness captivates the entire sports world. Nonstop action, un...
28/05/2026
NBA on NBC was an integral part to live sports production in the 1990s, and, when the league made these media rights available, NBC Sports saw an opportunity to...
28/05/2026
UmpCam is a technological wrinkle that has given fans unprecedented views of wha...
28/05/2026
T-Mobile and the United States Golf Association (USGA) announced a multi-year partnership, making T-Mobile the Official 5G Network Partner of the U.S. Women'...
28/05/2026
By Gina McIntyre
(L-R) Sara Dosa and Andri Sn r Magnason attend the Time and Water premiere during the 2026 Sundance Film Festival at Library Center Theatre ...
Some of the world's most spectacular views are best seen from halfway up a wall of rock. That's a place where gear has to be reliable, whether it's crucial safety equipment or the cameras that let the rest of us experience the same dizzying panorama. It's also a familiar situation to alpinist Renan Ozturk, whose experience includes some of the steepest climbing challenges on the planet as well as documentary filmmaking and photojournalism covering everything from the freezing Himalayas to the African deserts of Chad.
