Half way through now and I have seen more “workflow solutions” than I though possible. I do wish the marketing folks didn’t run a controlled vocabulary, a bit of variety would be great. In the next print issue I’m running a feature on workflows so I have no shortage of raw content to work with.
The new cameras from Sony and Panasonic look great, something for everyone from the digital cinematographer (F35, new 2700 and 3700 Varicams) right down to the budget shooter. Panasonic were showing prototypes of new AVCHD camcorders with long-GOP AVC recorded to SD cards. Sony had similar cameras recording HDV to CF cards. Although these are aimed at very much at the wedding and event videographer, you can bet they will appeal for many broadcast applications like documentary productions. more
This year Sachtler, now a Vitec brand, is celebrating its 50th year of offering support and camera head products to broadcasters and film producers. On display in a glass case at the booth was an original wooden-legged tripod designed by company founder Wendelin Sachtler circa 1958.
Fast forwarding to 2008, the company was highlighting its new SOOM HiPod system, a 12.7lb four-in-one camera support for electronic newsgathering (ENG) applications as well as the new Reporter 8 LED portable/onboard light and kit. The new LED light kit comes with two interchangeable LEDs — daylight and tungsten — and several other components, including an optical module to change the light’s beam angle.
In the Artemis range, the company showed enhancements for its ACT 2 spring arm, including springs that are easier to change out and new carbon fiber arms, which according to the company’s Ali Amahdi, allows the arm to be more stable as the speed of the user increases.
I just finished meeting with Shotoku Broadcast Systems. The company’s president, Naoki Ebimoto, was kind enough — and patient enough — to let me play with their range of pedestals and pan/tilt heads. (It’s one thing to get to see the equipment in person, but it’s so much better to actually be able to test it out.)
Shotoku’s latest launch to the U.S. market is the TRP-100 robotic pedestal. It’s designed for all studio applications, including news, sports and current affairs. I can tell you from my own experience that the pedestal is very smooth. It is controlled by Shotoku’s TR-8T Control System, and it allows full X, Y and height camera movement, as well as conventional pan and tilt motion.
It features a navigation system that is easily calibrated within seconds using a target-tile placed anywhere on the studio floor. Full manual operation, with or without power, is supported for all axis, optimizing flexibility of use and easy maintenance.
At Telemetrics’ booth, several robotic camera systems were on display including being used in the U.K. to help that nation’s Olympic swimmers train for the Beijing Olympics. Suspended above the training pool, a robotically controlled camera traverses the track at up to 11.48ft per second to capture the subtleties of a swimmer’s stroke so coaches have a better grasp of how to improve an athlete’s performance.
The company also featured a belt-track robotic camera system being used by Global Television in Canada with an Orad virtual set. Global Television operates the several of the systems installed in a variety of studios across Canada from its Ottawa control center, according to Telemetrics’ Anthony Cuomo.
One really cool new product is Sachtler’s SOOM, a multifunctional camera support system for Mini DV to HDV camcorders. The - system is composed of three parts: a center column, a tripod and a spreader. I think the benefit of this product is that it’s a one-stop shop, so to speak. more
Canon displayed their new DIGISUPER 27 and DIGISUPER 27AF HD studio lenses (models XJ27×6.5B IE-D and XJ27×6.5B AF, respectively) high end applications. Company officials pointed out that this lens incorporates almost 10 years of research and development on optics, lens coatings and mechanics for lens movement.
The lenses have a focal length of 6.5mm to 180mm. Other innovations in the studio lenses include a maximum servo-zoom speed of 0.5 seconds and a new optional remote-controllable macro-focus feature that allows the camera operator to perform macro focusing from the pan bar. more
JVC’s new GYHD200UB ProHD Professional HD camcorder provides selectable live transport stream output capability of either 1080 60i and 50i signals or 720 24p, 25p, 30p, 50p and 60p through the IEEE 1394 connection. The selected IEEE 1394 output signal can also be recorded into the ProHD DR-HD100 Hard Disk Recorder as either .m2t or .mov QuickTime files.
Offering full-frame 1280 x 720 progressive imaging and 720p recording as well as a 14bit A/D converter the GY-HD200UB provides great images. The selectable 60p and 60i acquisition capability of the GY-HD200UB makes the camera ideal for HD news and sports. Filmmakers and HD dramatic productions will appreciate the native progressive image capture and the “overcranked” recording for superb slow motion images during 24p final output.
JVC says the GY-HD200UB is immediately available with a suggested list price of $5,995, which includes a 16:1 Fujinon lens and Anton-Bauer battery system. A camcorder head only version, the GY-HD200CHUB is available for $5,695.
Little did I know when I showed up at my appointment today with Tony Iwamoto, VP of sales, marketing and technical services for IDX, that I would be checking out two particular products that were so new that they had literally landed in Vegas just in time for NAB.
For this first product, a little background. Last year, when I went to visit IDX, a provider of batteries, power products and chargers, I remember seeing the Elite line of lithium-ion batteries as well as a wireless camera transmitter/receiver system. The wireless system was being highlighted for its high picture quality and low latency, and when I mean low latency, I mean the latency was just barely enough to be perceivable. But it was still a pretty nice, functional system. I bring this up because at the IDX booth today, I was introduced to the CAM-WAVE system, an uncompressed HD/SD-SDI wireless transmitter/receiver system. more
I just watched a demo at the Maxell booth (C8428) for the new iDVR. I spoke with John Eulberg about the product. The unit connects via a bidirectional USB or eSATA adapter to a camera capable of delivering 10-bit, 4:2:2 master-quality video and native full HD video. It can store 160GB of data with a transfer rate of 540Mb/s.
John says that the unit was create to pass military toughness specifications. It has a drop protection of up to 4ft thanks to a hard plastic shell and specially designed shock isolation systems.
Space in 2GHz band is becoming tight, but Link Research wants broadcasters to knot that they’re not stuck. 7GHz is just as good as 2GHz in most applications, says Mark Anderson. I met with him and Newlin Warden to talk about Link Research’s current offerings: the L1050 HD/SD MPEG-2 encoder, the XPu mini transmitter for on-board applications and the L1500 wireless camera transmitter introduced last year.
The editors and writers of Broadcast Engineering post live from the 2008 NAB Show in Las Vegas as the news happens. Check back throughout the day for the latest in industry news, reports from press conferences and product introductions.
The new cameras from Sony and Panasonic look great, something for everyone from the digital cinematographer (F35, new 2700 and 3700 Varicams) right down to the budget shooter. Panasonic were showing prototypes of new AVCHD camcorders with long-GOP AVC recorded to SD cards. Sony had similar cameras recording HDV to CF cards. Although these are aimed at very much at the wedding and event videographer, you can bet they will appeal for many broadcast applications like documentary productions. more
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