144 Days and 193 Days

Pictorvision’s Eclipse with GPS Tracking Helps Holgate Go the Extra Mile

Eclipse offered Holgate superior stability through the patented XR Motion Management™ technology and it gave him the most advanced steering, stability and pointing capabilities available on the market. Plus it offered an absolutely level horizon and faster start-up and reset. “It also allowed me to capture many shots that required extreme precision and tracking,” he adds. On one particular feature, Holgate’s assignment was to capture a blind reveal shot of a government compound where the hero was being held captive. Shot on location in Santa Clarita, California, Holgate’s helicopter was to follow the picture vehicle on a dirt road and then “overfly it to take us over a knoll to reveal the compound,” he explains. “With the GPS tracking system I was able to see exactly where the compound was located by a reticle showing up on my monitor. I could also actively track the compound by switching from passive, which only shows where the target is without tracking it, to active, which locks the system on the target and holds it, no matter what the helicopter does.”

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Open Air Opera with Andrea Bocelli & Riedel RockNet

The two open-air concerts in New York and Belo Horizonte of Andrea Bocelli, one of the most famous tenors world wide, were two of the biggest high-class live music events in each city. The audio distribution within the two locations was one of the major obstacles, audio engineer Andrea Taglia, who was responsible for both shows, needed to overcome. While the location in the New York Central Park was of nearly 600 x 1,000 feet, the location in Belo Horizonte was even larger; including an over 1,300 feet long avenue next to the stage. To provide a satisfying audio distribution and reliable PA system, Andrea Taglia used six RockNet 100 devices at the events. For the event in Belo Horizonte, the Brazilian rental and live production provider Loudness was responsible for the audio system at the event, which consisted of one Midas LX3 and two Midas XL4 consoles as well as a L-Acoustics K1 system, while three towers of JBL Vertec 4889 were used for as delay towers on the avenue.

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Lawo mc²66 MKII Console Takes Flight at CMT's "CMA Red Carpet Special"

For this year’s pre-show, Keith Durham, an engineer for CMT (which is a unit of Viacom), was at the helm of the new Lawo mc²66 MKII console. He was assisted by engineers Browning McCollum and Marc Repp. Repp, who was very involved in the selection of the truck’s Lawo console, discussed some of the challenges the project presented. “While this truck was designed primarily for projects where the use of a separate audio mix truck is just not feasible, its ‘maiden voyage’ involved the interviews that took place during the pre-show,” Repp explained. “There was very little music on this show— other than the ‘bumpers’ that typically lead in and out of commercials. The real challenge, then, was the fact that there were numerous interview locations and each location had 5 wired and 5 wireless microphones. This created not only a lot of microphone inputs, but numerous microphone groups that had to be managed. Moving quickly from one microphone group to another and to seamlessly switch from a wireless to a hard wired mic—should the wireless system drop out or otherwise fail—were the most pressing tasks on this job.”

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Olympic Games 2012: Cycling Mountain Bike

Construction of the Mountain Bike course at Hadleigh Farm was completed in March 2011. Hadleigh Farm in Essex was chosen because it fulfills requirements as a technically challenging course. The terrain is hilly with open grass land covered by low shrubbery. The site offers some fantastic gradients for mountain biking and great viewing opportunities for spectators. The course is set against the backdrop of the 700-year-old ruins of Hadleigh Castle. Hadleigh Farm is owned by the Salvation Army. The venue covers a 550-acre site including beautiful grassland and woodland. It also includes the surrounding countryside of Hadleigh Castle Country Park. In July 2011 the Hadleigh Farm Mountain Bike International took place as part of the London Prepares series.The event featured 82 athletes and allowed LOCOG to test key aspects of its operations ahead of London 2012.

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Olympic Games 2012: Cycling Road

The organisers have provided a tough but manageable test for the riders. The Home Counties are not renowned for their jagged mountain ranges, but the nine long climbs up Box Hill in Surrey should sort the champions from the also-rans, and the home stretch up the Mall will be a great sporting moment. In the time trial, where men race 44km and women 29km, riders start 90 seconds apart, and the winner is the rider with the fastest time over the course, which will start and finish Hampton Court Palace in south-west London and take in the boroughs of Richmond, Kingston-upon-Thames and parts of Surrey. All Olympic teams are expected to train in the south-east and most in Surrey, although specific locations are not expected to be announced until just before the Games. This year’s Tour de France, which will take place just before the Games, will also provide road race squads with a chance to hone their tactics and test their conditioning.

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Have you booked your studios, production and transmission facilities for the Games in 2012?

SIS LIVE has just announced that it will be making its facilities in Corsham Street, London available for Olympic broadcast requirements. This unique SIS LIVE site offers:
•   A central London location, only 6 miles from the main stadium in Stratford and as little as 4 miles from the other events.
•    Excellent transport links by road, rail, tube and bus and is sited outside London’s congestion charging zone.
•    A fully integrated building to accommodate studio production operations and play out facilities. Current clients include Channel 4, William Hill and Coral TV.
•   Extensive satellite teleport facilities, including HD fibre connectivity to BT Tower.
•    Production space for up to 150 people and four studios
•    On site parking for up to 14 vehicles.
•    Space for edit and sound suites and graphics facilities.

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Red Bull Crashed Ice World Championship 2012

The rules are simple: Four athletes line up at the start and the first across the finish line wins. Speed, agility, perserverance, toughness and courage at speeds of up to 60 km/h are the ingredients needed for success. World championship points are up for grabs at each of the four stops of the Red Bull Crashed Ice World Championship: the winner collects 1,000 points and competitors all the way down to 100th (0.5 point) can collect valuable points. Whoever finishes the season with the most points after races in Saint Paul, (Minnesota, USA), Valkenburg (NED), Aare (SWE) and Quebec (CAN) will be crowned the 2012 Red Bull Crashed Ice World Champion. Sweden’s Jasper Felder is the most winningest athlete of all time with six consecutive race victories – a record that could last for eternity.

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Flogging Molly Travels The World With Soundcraft Vi1™ Console

When working with a group that has seven band members, a compact board with plenty of inputs and outputs made the Vi1 an attractive option. “I really didn’t want to have to get a bigger board, and the Vi1 gave me everything I needed and more with enough outputs to do a number of wedges and in-ear mixes,” Glas said. "Other competing boards in the same range couldn't work for us, since we needed a very compact console with lots of inputs and at least 24 outputs to mix our show". Chris McCleary, Monitor Engineer, added, “Mixing such a fast-paced show, the Vi1's intuitive layout allows me to make the fast mix adjustments demanded by such a vast musical diversity on stage." For Glas and many others who have relationships with HARMAN and Soundcraft, the support has been excellent. “After developing a relationship with HARMAN, they made it even easier to travel with Soundcraft by helping us source a Vi1 in Europe,” he said. “We brought our show files over and are even able to record using the MADI card in a convenient, efficient way. Everything about the board and the support we’ve received is excellent. I can’t think of a better fit for what we need.”

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HES Technospot Has the ‘X Factor’ in Hungary

Taped live in Budapest, X Factor Hungary is broadcast on channel RTL Klub. Budapest’s Perfect Design Factory KFT have designed the lighting and supplied the gear for the show’s current two seasons. PDF’s LD Peter Paricska chose 24 Technospots as a main lighting fixture because he needed a “fast, accurate and not so noisy” fixture with CMY color mixing capability and a bright beam output. Technospot more than met the tech requirements, he said. “The Technospot is quite a good fixture. It moves really fast. The CMY color mixing capability works quite fast as well. It is such a bright beam output, that sometimes we have to dim these units for the cameras for special effects - and then we completely adjust its color temperature and light output for the cameras. We try to create positions which make a good look for the audience as well as for the cameras.”

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Optocore Boosts Functionality for Muscat World-Class Opera House

Despite being classified as an Opera House, the main performance space converts from a theatre setting into a world class concert and organ recital hall. The technical infrastructure of ROHM has now been further boosted with the delivery of an Optocore optical fibre network system which will enhance connectivity and route signals to the many different performance spaces within the complex. At the same time a MADI bridge will enable recording from the proposed Capture/Production suite whilst using Optocore converters to link with a Midas XL8 front-of-house mixing console. In proposing the Optocore design, Bruno Silva, one of ROHM’s Deputy Sound and Broadcast Managers (formerly a manager at Kings Place in London), sourced the 20 Optocore components for the network from long-standing UK Optocore specialists, HD Pro Audio. He is one of three resident experienced sound engineers, who joined the project in September 2010. The remainder of the team comprises Head of Sound and Broadcast, Collin Chivers (formerly a manager at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden) and Joint Deputy Manager of Sound and Broadcast, Mike Compton (formerly a senior sound engineer at the Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford upon Avon).

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JVC Professional Unveils World’s First Handheld 4K Camcorder

High resolution 4K still picture imaging has been around for several years in DSLR cameras. Motion video capture with these cameras has always been done at a lower video resolution because of lack of processing power. Likewise, high end digital motion picture cameras may capture 4K images, but often provide a raw data output to an external storage array for later processing - again due to lack of processing power in the camera. There just hasn't been the ability to capture, process, display and record full 4K images in real time until now. JVC's exclusive Falconbrid LSI processing takes raw image data from the camera's CMOS device and dematrixes (deBayers) it in real time. Unlike many high end 4K cameras, the GY-HMQ10 is able to output 4K images to a monitor or projection system in real time with virtually no latency. This capability opens up applications in cinematography, medical microscopy, telepresence, specialised observation / surveillance, and live wide-view event coverage. Using MPEG-4 technology and a variable bit rate H.264 codec operating at up to 144 Mbps, the GY-HMQ10 records up to two hours of 4K video to economical SDHC or SDXC memory cards.

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With the FSB 6 Between Ice Coasts and a Shipwreck

When taking spontaneous shots, the patented Sachtler Speed Lock clamping system was indispensable. Set-up and disassembly were accomplished within a few seconds. This way the models didn't have to stand in the cold longer than necessary. Even on rocky, uneven ground, the Speed Lock 75 CF with mid-level spreader guaranteed a high degree of stability and torsional strength. "And for time-lapse photography, the Sachtler tripod was the perfect solid base for the OmniSlider," says Weber. The carbon-fiber tripod system is extremely robust and durable as well as very lightweight with a total weight of only 5.1 kg (11.2 lbs). In addition, the FSB 6 SL MCF comes in the practical DV 75 S Padded Bag and is thus easy to transport. Fabian Weber depends on his Sachtler FSB 6 SL MCF during all of his music video, short film and corporate image film shoots. "In terms of handling, it is compact, lightweight, stable, and smooth. Excellent quality for every filming situation."

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DP Johnnie Behiri Chooses 1x1 for Ballet Documentary

A Canon EOS 7D on a Sachtler DV8 SB tripod system and the Litepanels 1x1 fixture made up the basic equipment, which was only supplemented by some accessories. The choice of lighting was especially important to Behiri as most of the filming took place in ballet studios with plain white walls. "This was indeed a challenge because it would have disturbed the girls' routine and their behavior would not have appeared authentic if the ballet studios had been completely lit," says Behiri. "The combination of modern HD-DSLR film equipment and the versatile 1x1 enabled me to create the shots without exaggeration and to portray the protagonists in a very personal way. The 1x1 is versatile. I used it when shooting interviews, to film the girls while dancing or to emphasize room details." And Behiri continues, "the light was often used as a direct light. However, it was also used with the filters included in the kit to adjust the colour temperature or to spread the light. Independent of what the lighting conditions were like in the room and how much natural light came in from outside, I used the 1x1 as a key light, fill light or background light."

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Blackmagic Design Announces New Intensity Shuttle with Thunderbolt™ Technology

Intensity Shuttle features all the video connections needed to connect video cameras, set-top boxes, game consoles, large screen TVs and projectors to a Thunderbolt-enabled computer. The attractive inline design includes HDMI, analog component, composite and S-Video inputs and outputs. These high quality HDMI and RCA connectors are the worldwide standard for connecting digital and analog consumer video equipment. Thunderbolt™ enabled computers connect to Intensity Shuttle using a single cable that is capable of 10 Gbps data transfer speeds, that’s 20x faster than USB 2.0 and 12x faster than FireWire 800. Intensity Shuttle is powered over the Thunderbolt™ cable and, with no need for an external power supply, is a completely portable device that can be moved easily between laptop and desktop computers.

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Blue Microphones for the Mobile Community

Mikey Digital, a plug-and-play external microphone for recording stereo audio on the latest iPod touch, iPhone and iPad models using iOS audio apps or the video function.  Mikey Digital features automatic and manual gain control and a multi-source auxiliary input for direct recording of guitar and other sound sources. Mikey Digital features two custom-tuned condenser capsules for capturing studio-quality audio—the same capsules used in Blue’s award-winning Snowball and Yeti USB microphones. Mikey Digital users can switch between Automatic and Manual gain settings, allowing the automatic gain control to intelligently adjust to fluctuating volume levels or manually locking in a high or low sensitivity level.  Mikey Digital is also equipped with an LED clipping indicator that signals whenever volume levels are producing distortion, providing immediate feedback to adjust for best recording results.

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A Small Feature for a Great Sports Year!!

GoPro HD HERO2 has the following specs
• Camera Optics: 2X Sharper Professional Glass Lens, f/2.8 Fixed Focus, 170 Wide FOV (Including 1080p), 127 Medium FOV (In 1080p), 90 Narrow FOV
• HD Resolutions: 1080p: 1920x1080, 30FPS, 960p: 1280x960, 48FPS + 30FPS, 720p: 1280x720, 60FPS + 30FPS. SD Resolutions: WVGA: 848x480, 120FPS + 60FPS
• Video: High Performance,1 /2.3” CMOS Image Sensor, Light Sensitivity: .84 V/lux-sec, Video Format: H.264 codec, .mp4 File Format, Exposure Control: Spot, Center Weighted White Balance: Auto
• Audio: Mono, 48 kHz, AAC Compression, Auto Gain Control, Stereo External Microphone Input (3.5mm)
• Storage: SDHC: Up to 32GB (Class 4 or Higher)
• Average Recording time with 32gb SD card: 1080p30: 4 hours, 960p30: 6 hours, 720p60: 4 hours, 720p30: 6 hours, WVGA 120: 4.5 hours

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