NAB 2026 saw debut of tech that allows for “fibre” connectivity without a fibre

Taara Lightbridge at Cintegral live edit

Taara has revealed Lightbridge, a light-based connectivity solution that creates a “fibre” like conncetion without the need for fibre, debuted at NAB 2026 as part of Cintegral’s ST 2110 Fibre-over-Air solution. 

Taara Lightbridge can create a high-capacity wireless bridge between two locations to move data in real time without the need for laying cable. A use case is when productions are in remote locations, where until now footage has often had to be stored locally and physically carried to post for transfer, processing, and archive. 

The Taara workflow was displayed at NAB 2026, with one Lightbridge at the convention centre, and another at a production on a nearby golf course. Images were streamed in real time between the two locations, without the need for cable or an internet connection. This can work for real-time streaming of high-resolution 4K JPEGXS and 8K RAW data in both directions. 

For the Lightbridge to work, the two locations can be up to 20 kilometres apart and need to be within line of sight. If something momentarily breaks the connection, such as a bird flying through, Lightbridge will immediately detect the issue and resend the data, at such speed that it shouldn’t be noticeable to operators. It currently has some issues being used in heavy rain or fog, given the water refracts the light that is being used to send data. 

Taara was part of Google’s Moonshot programme, which has also included the likes of automated car company Waymo, and has since graduated to become its own company, with Google continuing to hold a stake. 

“You shouldn’t have to dig or lay miles of fiber just to tell a great story. With Taara, we aren’t building networks - we’re beaming them. We’re giving production teams the power to deploy fiber-class connectivity out of thin air, exactly when and where the shoot demands it,” said Mahesh Krishnaswamy, Founder and CEO of Taara.

“Our goal with ST 2110 Fiber-over-Air is to bring high-performance production workflows to any environment, without being limited by location,” said Dane Brehm, CEO, at Cintegral. “What Taara’s technology enables us to do is extend that capability to places where connectivity would normally be a bottleneck, allowing real-time collaboration between crews, directors, and editors on set.”