SWIT BIVO B-Mount Battery Lineup Announced – From 98 to 290Wh

by Olaf von VossSeptember 13^th, 2022

SWIT has just announced a new line of 14.4/28.8V B-Mount cine batteries. The SWIT BIVO B-Mount series consists of a 98Wh model, a 160Wh one, a 200Wh model, and finally a 290Wh battery. Especially the smaller 98Wh and 160Wh models are very interesting if you want to take them with you on the plane.

Back in March of this year, SWIT announced a new 290Wh B-mount battery, the HB-A290, and this new BIVO-branded series follows the design of that battery. In fact, the new BIVO 290Wh model looks mostly identical. And although the HB-A290 is already available, the BIVO branded version along with the three other batteries will enter the market at the end of this year.

The mid-range 160Wh and 200Wh models share the same housing, and only the smallest model (98WH) lacks an OLED status display to reduce the thickness of this battery.

SWIT BIVO B-Mount batteries

This new line of high-power B-Mount batteries comes in handy when working with recent cine cameras such as the ARRI ALEXA 35 for instance, as it needs more power to fuel its sensor and internal processing.

Speaking of which, SWIT is one of the first official partners of the ARRI B-mount system and to our knowledge holds a large stock of 290Wh B-mount batteries in Europe and many other countries. It also has a unique feature that prevents pressing the battery release button by mistake so causing an accidental camera shutdown is not possible.

These new batteries also sport both a 5V USB-A output and a 60W USB-C input/output, from which you actually can charge the battery. Two 16V D-Tab outlets are also on board.

Bigger lights can also benefit from this new B-Mount standard (originally developed by Bebob and ARRI). Since the B-Mount standard specifies two independent voltage values, these batteries can be used with a vast variety of different camera models as well as the aforementioned lights. Fortunately, the B-Mount protocol also prevents delivering 24V power to devices that can’t cope with it. Any host device will communicate with the battery attached and only if it specifically demands a higher output, it gets delivered with that higher voltage.

SWIT also has a new 4-channel B-mount battery charger, the PC-P461B. And to complete SWIT’s offering, there are also a variety of adapter plates to adapt new B-mount batteries to older V-mount devices. Some of them are also hot-swappable, meaning they have a backup battery, so you can replace the main battery without losing power (for about 2 minutes).

Pricing and availability

The new SWIT BIVO B-Mount batteries will be available at the end of this year, only the HB-A290 model is already available. This 290Wh model sells for $789 or for $3,985.20 if you want to get four of them, including the PC-P461B charger. The charger itself sells for $1,039.

As a nice touch, the batteries also sport a tiny LED light, so you can use them to find stuff in your gear bag.

Link: SWIT website

What do you think? Would you buy into B-Mount batteries anytime soon? Share your thoughts in the comments below!