It started with Boeing when on-board lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries were blamed for starting fires on-board the new Dreamliner jet. On January 16, 2013, the FAA issued an emergency airworthiness directive that grounded all 787s in the United States. Japan and Chile followed — grounding all Dreamliners in their jurisdictions as well.

Boeing went to work and quickly redesigned the batteries, prompting the FAA to approve the revised design on April 19, 2013, and lifted the Dreamliner’s grounding on April 26, 2013. The 787 returned to passenger service the next day.

Though the issues were fixed, Dreamliner’s problems scared the public and caused an industry crisis concerning lithium-ion technology. This prompted Tesla Motors, who uses hundreds of AA-sized lithium-ion cells in its automobiles, to push research for safer batteries.

“There’s a lot more technology to batteries than most people think,” said Graham Sharp, senior vice president of products at the Vitec Group, the company that owns Anton/Bauer, the video battery manufacturer.

“There have been huge developments in lithium-ion technology that’s actually been driven by electric cars. People like Tesla have been pushing Panasonic and some Korean companies to do more pure research into both the cell technology itself and the way the cells are packaged and the electronics around them. They have really advanced both the performance and safety of these batteries.”

It may come as a surprise, but Anton/Bauer uses the same AA-sized cells in its advanced video batteries as Tesla does in its cars. And Anton/Bauer’s new Digital Battery and Performance Charger Series, which started delivering before Christmas, were both beneficiaries from the problems at Boeing and the subsequent research that has led to longer-lasting, better performing and far safer lithium-ion batteries.

To understand modern video batteries, a little background is needed. First of all, lithium-ion is the battery chemistry that will be powering the video industry for at least the next five years. It has a very high energy density and provides the best performance available today at the lowest cost. Yet, the history of lithium-ion technology has caused governments throughout the world to place travel limitations of how many batteries may be carried in commercial aircraft.

Today, videographers are allowed to carry only two lithium-ion batteries of less than 100 watt hours each on airplanes. Because of this, nickel-metal hydride batteries (Ni-MH), which have no travel limitations, are still used where larger amounts of power are needed on locations throughout the world.

It is not that the lithium-ion batteries are inherently unstable or dangerous, but if a problem develops, it can get out of hand quickly. The batteries can burn without external oxygen. Once on fire, they can be very difficult to put out, because most ways of extinguishing fire involve removing the external source of oxygen.

In lithium-ion technology, the anode, electrolyte and cathode are constructed as a thin sandwich and then rolled to create a cylindrical canister, usually the size of a AA battery. Before a cell can be released to the market, it is rigorously tested. It’s crushed, pierced, heated up, overcharged and over discharged.

A single cell alone is very safe. Issues can arise when 12, 16, 20 or even 24 of these individual AA-sized cells are combined in a battery pack — as happens in batteries for video applications.

Video batteries are designed to make sure individual cells don’t interact with each other. If a video battery is accidentally punctured or crushed, causing an anode and cathode to touch, suddenly it is not just a single cell’s energy that could be routed through the defect. The whole battery pack could go up in flames. For this reason, video battery packs have always been very carefully designed for safety.

So what’s new in Anton/Bauer’s newly designed Digital Batteries? First, there’s an extra level of safety, prompted by the Dreamliner incident. The battery pack features a “double skinned” architecture where the cells are individually contained in an impact-resistant, flame-retardant plastic honeycomb, with a one millimeter air gap between them. This ensures no cells can touch and allows air to circulate to keep the pack cool.

This entire cell pack is “suspended” within the impact-resistant outer case, maintaining a five millimeter air gap around it. This provides a “crumple” zone to prevent crushing and accidental penetration of the cells themselves by a sharp object.

Thermal sensors continually monitor the battery, and if a rise in temperature is detected, a switch is opened to prevent further charge or discharge. Similarly, the charge and discharge currents are continually monitored by a microprocessor. If too much current is flowing, the battery switches off.

Last NAB, Anton/Bauer announced new lithium-ion batteries, but delayed delivery after learning of a new technology called Fuse-link, a new connection technology from vendors that emerged from the Tesla Motors research efforts.

“If for any reason there’s an incident with one of the cells, Fuse-link acts like a giant fuse,” Sharp said. “It melts and automatically isolates a single cell from the rest of the pack. Fuse-link was developed about the middle of last year. We had announced the new batteries at NAB and were going to ship in June. When we started getting prototypes of Fuse-link technology, we felt it was significant enough to wait. So we ended up shipping the first batteries in November, rather than June.”

The result, Sharp said, is the safest lithium-ion battery ever made. “We wanted to incorporate all of the latest thinking into the batteries we make to be sure that our customers could handle the batteries in an absolutely carefree way.”

In addition to greatly improved safety, Sharp said the new batteries are at least five percent more efficient with digital cameras. The batteries contain a digital filter that increases run-time and lengthens the battery’s life cycle. It eliminates a high-frequency ringing incurred with digital technology that can cause heat and consume unnecessary power. The batteries also utilize constant calibration technology to deliver a more accurate power status and adds a precision fuel gauge.

The new Performance chargers have also be redesigned, making them about 40 percent more efficient. “Anton/Bauer chargers have always talked with the battery,” Sharp said. “Within the battery we have a microprocessor that is constantly monitoring what the battery is doing and storing the number of cycles and how the battery is charged. With the new Performance chargers, we’ve taken that information exchange to a new level. From the minute the new battery is added to the charger, the charger downloads information from the battery as to how it has been charged historically, where its charge level is now and what its remaining capacity is.

“When you clip four batteries onto a four-position charger, the brain in the charger — the microprocessor — figures out the best charging algorithm for each battery and will always charge the battery that needs the least charge first. It always gives you a fully charged battery as fast as it can. We offer intelligent charging based on what the battery needs.”

Anton/Bauer’s new lithium-ion batteries, all of which will be shown at NAB 2015, mark a new level of battery technology for what many thought was a mature industry.

“Historically, we’ve redesigned our batteries every seven or so years. But going forward — because the battery itself is now electronic and has a microprocessor in it — we can update batteries very simply with a software change rather than a hardware design change,” said Sharp.

“There are huge new developments continuing in lithium-ion technology, being driven mostly by electric cars. In the future, we will redesign out batteries much faster, but it will involve updating software more than a physical redesign.”