Hollyland Pyro S review: a solid evolutionary step in wireless video

Phil Rhodes finds that the Hollyland Pyro S provides a good option for those looking for 4K30 wireless video links.

A few years ago, there were only a few ways to get pictures from camera to display wirelessly, and they all cost a month’s wages. Now there are a lot of options, increasingly separated by details such as latency and compatibility with devices like cellphones and tablets. Recent developments have pushed lag down to unprecedentedly low levels, and 4K (well, UHD) options are proliferating.

Hollyland’s $699 Pyro S (list price, often available cheaper - see below) is a recent example of the breed, handling 3840 x 2160 material transmitted at up to 30fps (there’s 60-frame HD, but not UHD). The Pyro S is packaged similarly to several of the company’s previous models, in a sturdy die-cast metal shell. Things like this are often offered in what we might call either landscape or portrait layout. Since most of them are really built to go on a cold shoe on top, rather than the back of a camera, the lower-profile, wider-than-tall options seems less top-heavy. The choice of packaging, though, will really depend on how anyone’s going to rig it. For some reason, its sister product, the HDMI-only Pyro H, is taller than it is wide, though the receivers are signal compatible.

Flexible rigging

Manufacturers have long since realised that flexible rigging is crucial, and the Pyro S can take power from either Sony-style NP-F batteries or a coaxial DC connector handling from 6 to 16 volts. The company gains additional points for not only specifying the voltage tolerance but also printing it by the connector. It doesn’t print the polarity, but that’s easy to meter. Great. There’s a hardware power switch (also great), and when we flip that switch we discover that the transmitter takes under fifteen seconds to power up, and the receiver under ten. Apply video, and the two devices will find each other in about as long again. It’s all agreeably hands-off.

Range and reliability are perennially tricky issues. This particular incarnation of Hollyland’s product has three antennae mounted on flexible stalks which seem more likely to bend and therefore less likely to break. It transmits on both 2.4 and 5GHz bands with automated frequency hopping to find clear air. Up to four receiving devices are supported, potentially including a combination of both Pyro S receivers and WiFi clients.

Radio performance will vary in complex ways in various situations, and as ever it’s hard to say anything substantive about the situation any particular production might encounter. Certainly, it is as good as most things in its price range and 4K does not seem much less reliable, though by rights it ought to.

The Pyro S can behave not only as a simple video link, but also as a source of streaming video. It implements the widely-supported RTMP standard, making it possible to do things as simple as viewing the stream with VLC on a connected laptop, or as complex as sending it to OBS as part of a live setup. In that situation, latency is likely to be less of an issue, since streaming distribution notoriously imposes enormous latency overheads of its own.

On set, we care more about how long things take. Focus pullers around a large-format camera might reasonably prefer UHD, and to make that worthwhile, the image might need to be larger than can reasonably be accommodated on-camera. That’s a reasonable application for a remote video link – if it can get the frames there fast enough. Hollyland specifies a 50ms latency, which works out to three frames at 60fps. That’s perceptible; it’s more perceptible at 24fps. Two things are both true at once: this is still not ideal (we want a frame or less), but it’s a noticeable improvement over the status quo in the same sort of market.

Price and conclusion

Bundle list price is $699, though you can find it cheaper (B&H currently offers it at $449). The 4K option (well, the UHD option, properly) imposes about a 20% price premium over non-UHD options, perhaps an Accsoon Cineview 2, which will accept and down-convert 4K input, but not transmit it. If you’re only interested in streaming to the crew’s phones, the extra resolution may not matter much.

Conversely, if you’re thinking of patching the Pyro S receiver up to a giant OLED so the focus puller can really see what’s going on, you might want all of the pixels. Bear in mind that the Pyro S will not input or output 4K over SDI; that’s HDMI-only, which is the only obvious hole in the feature set. It’s hard to see the most modern video links as revolutionary, but it certainly climbs a couple of branches up the performance tree, and that might be enough to catch the eye of anyone who’s getting into wireless video.

tl;dr

• The Hollyland Pyro S offers a solid option for wireless video transmission, capable of handling 3840 x 2160 material at up to 30fps, all housed in a sturdy die-cast metal shell.
• It features flexible rigging options, compatible with Sony-style NP-F batteries or a coaxial DC connector, with a quick startup time for both the transmitter and receiver.
• The device supports automated frequency hopping across both 2.4 and 5GHz bands and can connect up to four receiving devices, offering reliable performance in its price range.
• Priced at $699, often available for less, the Pyro S delivers improved latency of 50ms, making it suitable for remote monitoring, though it lacks 4K input/output over SDI.