A year of listening, learning, and designing better solutions for the creators we serve.
From the CEO, Tether Tools
To the creators, photographers, videographers, filmmakers, studio teams, and digital techs who rely on their gear to work when it matters—thank you.
As we close out the year, I want to speak directly to the people who shape our work and hold us to the highest standard: those creating under real pressure, where reliability isn’t optional and the shoot doesn’t wait.
This year, our focus was simple (but not easy): engineer workflow solutions that support the entire production process—from capture to delivery—across today’s USB-C cameras and modern production environments. Every test, every prototype, and every engineering decision centered on removing friction from your day and keeping your workflow moving when the pressure is on—no matter the environment.
A Year of Listening (and a Lot of Coffee)
2025 became a true listening tour.
Our team spent time with creators, photographers, videographers, studio teams, and digi techs across multiple U.S. cities and several countries. We were in studios, rental houses, production sets, events, and meetups—anywhere people were working, tethering, troubleshooting, and creating.
You let us into your workflows. You told us what breaks when the pressure is on: dropped connections, unreliable transfers, cluttered or unstable workstations, cables that don’t hold up, and setups that slow creativity instead of supporting it.
That kind of honesty isn’t always easy—but it’s invaluable.
So truly, thank you.
Your feedback directly shaped our Research & Development priorities and pushed us to design for real-world conditions: high-movement sets, challenging environments, power-hungry cameras, ever-increasing file sizes, and locations filled with electromagnetic noise.
Clearing Up a Few Things (Because We Heard You)
Misconceptions About Tether Tools
We heard recurring misunderstandings about who we are and how we build.
If you’re curious about how Tether Tools really got started, check out → Tether Tools – How it Started — it’s a great look behind the scenes.
A few moments we especially love:
- 5:10: FireWire days and early technical problem-solving
- 14:25: When Tether Tools was still a side hustle
- 27:31: A pivotal moment that changed everything
Back to the misconceptions:
We are not a private equity–owned conglomerate. We are part of the creator community.
We are a small, founder-run, engineering-driven organization. I founded Tether Tools as a working digi tech and photographer, solving real problems I was experiencing on set. From day one, this company has been built by people who live inside the workflows we design for.
Tether Tools has always been part of the photography community because I am—and our team members are. I spent countless hours working on sets, and after founding Tether Tools, I spent just as many back on set—building, testing, breaking, and refining products in real-world environments. I’ve worked alongside photographers, digi techs, rental houses, and studios, listening to what fails under pressure and designing solutions that hold up when it matters most. That closeness to the work, and to the people doing it, continues to guide every decision we make.
Our earliest products and solutions grew directly out of those on-set experiences—developed alongside fellow creators and digi techs, long before “tethering reliability” was an industry term.
That perspective still shapes how we build today. We build for pros and power users.
Owning the Real USB-C Challenge
USB-C brought a lot of promise—and a lot of complexity.
Most modern cameras rely on a single USB-C port for both:
- High-speed data
- Power Delivery negotiation
That shared architecture creates unavoidable interference during Power Delivery handshakes—especially when:
- Power Delivery can’t be disabled on many cameras
- Computers attempt to backfeed power
- Firmware negotiates current inconsistently
- Power and data traces sit close together
- Large RAW files need uninterrupted data paths
Power Delivery negotiation interference is the #1 cause of dropped tethered connections today.
Over time, sustained power throughput and backfeed can also degrade cables, leading to failures that feel random and unpredictable on set.
That level of instability isn’t acceptable to us—so we went back to the drawing board and redesigned tethering from the signal level up.
Engineering a New Standard
In 2024 and 2025, our engineering team worked closely with camera manufacturers, electrical engineers, USB-IF reference labs, and high-speed hardware specialists.
We mapped Power Delivery behavior across camera models, simulated interference patterns, and rebuilt the tethering chain to remove instability at its source.
Our products undergo:
- High-volume data-only stress tests
- Multi-point bend-cycle testing
- FMEA (Failure Mode & Effects Analysis)
- Environmental reliability testing
- Long-distance signal integrity analysis
- Automated Power Delivery behavior mapping and fuzz testing
(Learn more in the Optima Cables FAQs.)
Our Research & Development cycles include firmware studies, Power Delivery handshake analysis, PCB iteration, and component-level qualification—not mass-market shortcuts. They simply aren’t tolerated in our process.
Our release threshold is simple:
Would a creator or digi tech trust this during a 10+ hour commercial shoot?
If not, it doesn’t ship.
Introducing Optima 10G
Optima 10G isn’t an iteration, it’s a re-thinking of what professional tethering needs to be.
It’s built around:
- Power Delivery-free architecture to eliminate USB-C instability
- Isolated data lanes to reduce crosstalk, jitter, and packet loss
- Optimized performance for large RAW file transfers (50+ MB)
- Reliable long-distance tethering without dropped connections
- Ultra-low error rates validated under high-motion and high-interference conditions
Simply put, this is the most reliable tethering solution we’ve ever engineered—built for how modern cameras actually behave in real production environments.
Introducing AeroTrac: A Workstation Built for the Way You Work
Reliable workflows don’t stop at the cable—they depend on the setup you’re working from.
The AeroTrac Workstation System is a lightweight, foldable workstation designed for creators on the move. It gives you a portable, customizable workspace to move your computer—along with power, storage, and essential tools—wherever the shoot takes you.
AeroTrac adapts to your setup, not the other way around. Use integrated clamps and track-mounted accessories to organize and secure gear, configure it as a stand-alone workstation, or mount it to light stands, C-stands, tripods, or carts for maximum flexibility.
With universal compatibility across photo and video gear—and fast setup and breakdown—AeroTrac supports both tethered and untethered workflows without slowing you down.
For teams that want even more control, we offer open-source 3D print files so you can create custom accessories tailored to your workflow.
It’s not furniture. It’s infrastructure—built to move, adapt, and perform under pressure.
Trade-In / Trade-Up
To make it easier to move into our next-generation cable architecture, we introduced a Trade-In / Trade-Up program.
If you’re not fully satisfied with your current tether cable—whether it’s from Tether Tools or another brand—we invite you to trade it in and experience the Optima difference firsthand.
Support That’s Always Been There
Support isn’t something we added this year—it’s how we’ve always operated.
From the beginning, Tether Tools has been built around real people supporting real workflows. When you reach out, you’re not getting a bot or a script. You’re talking to someone who understands production, gear, and the realities of working under pressure.
Our customer and technical support teams are available 40 hours a week to answer calls, emails, and questions—because when something goes wrong on set, you don’t need a ticket number. You need a human who can help.
That commitment hasn’t changed, and it won’t.
Looking Ahead to 2026
Our philosophy hasn’t changed:
You push the limits. We engineer solutions to support them.
- Your pressure points guide our design decisions
- Your real-world challenges shape our roadmap
- Your need for reliability drives our engineering priorities
Thank you for your trust, your feedback, and your partnership.
2025 was the year of listening. 2026 will be the year we deliver the next era of workflow solutions—built for professionals who can’t afford interruptions.
With appreciation,
Josh Simons
Founder & CEO, Tether Tools
