Technodolly

Overview

The Technodolly is a fully automated, telescoping camera crane manufactured by Technocrane (Supertechno s.r.o., Czech Republic). It combines the freedom of movement of a classic Technocrane telescopic arm with the repeatability of a motion control system: all axes – dolly (track), telescopic arm, pedestal, and camera head – can be recorded, edited, and precisely replayed.

This makes the Technodolly suitable for tasks where identical camera moves need to be reproduced multiple times, such as for VFX passes, greenscreen/bluescreen, "twinning" (a person multiple times in the same shot), as well as time-lapse and stop-motion work. The system is typically operated by two people: a crane operator and a software operator.

Construction and Components

• Telescopic Arm: three aluminum beams with precision stainless steel rails and rollers, driven by multiple electric motors; extending and retracting during the shot is part of the programmable movement.
• Dolly Base: motorized base on tracks, with a second motor for panning; can be moved on pneumatic tires.
• Camera Head (TechnoheadS): fiber-optic gyro-stabilized remote head for pan and tilt, with lens motors for focus, iris, and zoom; controls broadcast zooms (e.g., Fujifilm, Canon) as well as prime and cine lenses.
• Control Desk: joystick control and keyframe programming with spline interpolation; moves can be saved, triggered by timecode, and imported/exported as FBX files.

Technical Specifications

The following values are from the data sheet of the Technodolly 15 variant (Technocrane/Supertechno):

Note: Various rental companies also offer the Technodolly with different heights (e.g., 10 ft or 25 ft) and in metric data sheets; exact values should be checked with the respective provider depending on the configuration.

On-Set Usage

In the workflow, the operator first programs a movement via keyframes or records a manually operated move. The software interpolates a smooth camera move from this, which can be identically repeated any number of times. During playback, pan, tilt, roll, zoom, and focus can still be adjusted (override), and moves can be shifted, scaled, or rotated to adapt them to set changes. Timecode triggering allows a move to start synchronously with music or other events.