LIVE CAPTURE GE AR .
upward-looking witness camera and a pseudorandom scattering of retroreflective ceiling dots – hence the name. StarTracker includes a plug-in for the hugely popular Unreal Engine, a combination used on Strictly Come Dancing for creating augmented-reality additions to a studio emptied of its audience by Covid-19 requirements. And, in something of a return to retro logo design, Mo-Sys provided a motion control system to ITV for its physical reincarnation of the channel’s on-screen identity. This was part of the ITV Creates project, inviting artists to work with a real-world chrome embodiment of the logo, as an equally real camera flies by. That seems appropriate given the current popularity for all things retro. At the same time, the push for ever more capability from broadcast cameras is likely to provoke greater crossovers. In the end, the underlying technology has never been more similar, and it’s only the facilities surrounding it that differentiate modern cameras. If there’s one thing we’ve rather overlooked, it’s HDR, which (finally!) does something to address the previously feeble colour and brightness range of home television that somehow persisted for decades. But, the push for more is likely to complicate the lives of broadcast vision engineers for quite a while yet.
used for the 2020 DFB-Pokal final played between Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen in the Berlin Olympic Stadium. The system handles upscale cameras, including the Sony HDC-4800 discussed earlier – a reasonably bulky option – with the sort of large box lenses lesser systems might struggle to accommodate. The company’s product range includes dollies, lifting towers, remote heads – and enough robotic camera support devices to allow the most automated studio in the world to equip itself almost entirely from Blackcam’s warehouse. THE COMMON DENOMINATOR It’s regular for stabilised platforms to find use in both single-camera and live broadcast work. Gyro- Stabilized Systems, which acquired Cineflex in 2017, seems particularly aware of the broadcast market and its often lighter-weight payloads. As such, the company’s credits don’t just include a huge list of prominent feature films, from Black Widow to Jason Bourne , but also sports broadcasters such as
NFL Network, Nascar on Fox and CBS college sports coverage. Nature documentaries sit somewhere between the two in terms of technique, with the BBC’s Great Barrier Reef and Blue Planet II also part of the portfolio. The least bulky Cineflex gimbal – the 512 – weighs in at 16.3kg, excluding payload. The technological lineage between it and the Cinema Mini 512 is clear, and there is naturally some crossover in ability. Either way, for aerial work, a lower-weight, less-obtrusive aircraft and longer flight capability make for the best results. Productions are now keen to attach stabilising mounts to things other than helicopters – like boats, cars and occasionally a surprised wildebeest. So, gimbals big enough to take professional cameras, sturdy enough to mount on helicopters, but still compact enough to be convenient have never been more relevant. LOOKING UPWARDS With a history mainly in remote head manufacturing aimed at high- end single-camera work, Mo-Sys also offers the StarTracker system. It’s designed for virtual studios, and a selection of broadcast robotics for crane, jib and dolly work. This equipment finds use both in live virtual production and on-set pre-visualisation for VFX-heavy dramas. It works on an unusual principle, involving an
GETTING GROOVY Covid-19 accelerated implementation of new broadcast technology, with Strictly Come Dancing (above) feeling the Mo-Sys magic
“The push for ever more capability from broadcast cameras is likely to provoke greater crossovers... underlying tech has never been more similar”
49. FEBRUARY 2022
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