Since 2016, the Chinese company Ulanzi has been developing photo equipment and accessories, such as mobile phone stabilizers, rigs, microphones, LED lights, brackets, phone camera lenses, tripods, action cam accessories, etc. Their other brand, UURig focuses more on vlogging gear.
In the package and assembly
Today we are looking at a product that Ulanzi calls the “Live Broadcast Boom Arm”. This tabletop stand ships disassembled in a box with a few accessories. It only takes a few minutes to put all the pieces together and decide how to arrange the three arms.
The different components of the ULANZI Live Broadcast Multi Boom Arm (and the UURig clamp)
Build quality
The stand is all-metal construction with hard plastic knobs. Its assembly joints are nice and sturdy. The base plate that attaches to the table (rubber padding on top and bottom) is pretty hefty and holds the whole rig with no problems.
The included microphone support is probably the weakest part of the rig. It doesn’t look as sturdy as the other arms, but it is quite long, and it sits on a double-jointed arm, so you can position it in any way you need. The microphone arm comes with a plastic mic holder, but you can also attach a different type of mic with the 1/4’’ 20 thread.
Another accessory included in the box is a small metal ball head with a proprietary quick release plate. It’s pretty simple, but feels quite tough and holds a small camera setup with no problems.
Uses
This tabletop setup is mainly for a workstation to facilitate live streams, zoom calls, and talking head recordings, but we wanted to see if we can give it other useful functions in the studio.
We tried it during our recent food and product shoots, and we found some clever ways of supporting gear and products with different arms.
The most obvious usage for this rig is to position gear (like monitor, light, or BTS camera) nearby and with the ability to quickly change position, depending on the need.
As we mounted different accessories on the articulating arms, we found that these provide pretty smooth sweeping moves for the camera or lights.
Another helpful option is an overhead mount. This will probably work best with a very light camera setup or with a smartphone. Optionally, you could adapt the other two arms to mount other cameras, providing multi-angle closeups for tabletop demos, for example.
A different use for the ULANZI Live Broadcast Multi Boom Arm in our studio for shooting food videos
The UURig clamp
The other Ulanzi accessory we are working with today is this interesting UURig clamp. It’s pretty compact, compared to some other clams we have in the studio, but it has a really wide range of grip for its size. The clamp opens to 4.7cm(1.85’’).
Unlike other clamps, it features six 1/4″ 20 threads, plus two 3/8″ 16 connections, one of which is an anti-twist connection (using Arri locating holes). This Ulanzi unit is similar (but not identical) to the SMALLRIG Super Clamp, but isn’t as expensive.
The connection threads are on different sides of the clamp, so you can always find the best way to mount it, depending on your specific use. As a bonus, the UURig clamp comes with two male-to-male 1/4″ 20 and 3/8″ connection screws as well.
We have other simpler clamps in the studio that are about the same size as this UURig, but this one features a deeper claw design that helps to tightly grip a variety of surfaces.
The multi-threaded UURig clamp
Pricing
As for pricing, the Live Broadcast Boom Arm sells for just under $106
The UURig R060 Super Clamp sells for just under $23.
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