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    Camera Corps chooses IBC 2014 for first European showing of Q3 and MeerCat

    By SHOOTUpdated:No Comments439 Views
    LONDON --

    Camera Corps will demonstrate the latest additions to its range of robotic camera systems at IBC 2014 in Amsterdam, September 12-16. Taking center stage will be the Q3 pan/tilt/zoom/focus head and MeerCat miniature camera, both introduced at NAB in April and now fully deliverable. Q3 and MeerCat can be integrated easily with all Camera Corps’ current control systems. Up to 96 cameras of various types can be joystick-controlled by up to four operators and four vision engineers.

    Camera Corps’ Q3 robotic pan/tilt/zoom/focus camera allows highly efficient broadcast television coverage from practically anywhere. Fully IP45 rated, it is designed for use in coverage of events such as outdoor and indoor sports, reality shows and live stage performances. Q3 retains the unobtrusive compact spherical housing of its Q-Ball predecessor, allowing easy placement within view of other cameras while retaining full control of vertical and horizontal shooting angles, focal length and focus.

    Just 104 millimetres high, 125 mm in diameter and weighing 2.5 kg, Q3 incorporates a high quality 1920 x 1080-native camera with a 2.1 million pixel 1/3 inch RGB Bayer progressive CMOS imager plus high-precision motorized pan/tilt/zoom/focus. An enhanced motor drive matches the precise acceleration and deceleration of much larger robotic heads when tracking moving performers on-air. The camera’s integral 20x optical zoom lens can be adjusted from maximum wide (59.4 degrees) to full telescopic (3 degrees) in just 3 seconds. Maximum focus time is 10 seconds.

    Q3 can deliver live video in all commonly used HD formats, interlaced and progressive, at up to 60 hertz frame rate. Output signal format can be selected from the operator’s control panel. The motorized head can perform an unlimited number of 360 degree lateral rotations. Video is transferred at 3 gigabits per second over high-quality slip rings to ensure complete freedom from cable-snagging. Pan and tilt speed are adjustable from an ultra-slow 360 degrees in 90 minutes to 90 degrees per second. Motion control sequences of up to 25 seconds duration can be stored to internal non-volatile memory.

    Additional features of Q3 include genlock input with remote timing adjustment,  smooth on-air operation of iris and master black, manual and automatical white balance adjustment, integral colour bar test signal generator and negative/positive/monochrome effects.

    MeerCat miniature remote broadcast camera

    Developed in response to demand from sports, reality-television and stage-show producers, MeerCat was first used on air at the April 2014 Thames Boat Race. One camera was mounted inside a thin metal pole at the rear of each boat, providing a forward view. Another was positioned at floor level, looking towards the cox.

    The MeerCat head is housed in a metal case with a very small footprint, 30 x 30 mm, and is only 93 mm in height. It can be attached to a quarter-inch mount for easy integration into narrow-profile locations. Lens protrusion is just 25 mm. High-quality NF-mount lenses are available.

    MeerCat can also be used as a wearable camera with a full high-definition live wireless link. Full control facilities including manual iris setting with adjustable electronic exposure can be performed remotely using the existing range of Camera Corps joysticks and remote panels.

    MeerCat incorporates a high-quality third-inch MOS sensor with 1944 x 1092 effective pixels. This can be switched to deliver 1080p, 1080i or 720p video at 50, 59.94 or 60 hertz frame rate. Video is output as HD-SDI which can be converted to an optical feed using a Camera Corps optical fiber interface. 




    Raoul Peck Resurrects A Once-Forgotten Anti-Apartheid Photographer In “Ernest Cole: Lost and Found”

    Friday, November 22, 2024

    When the photographer Ernest Cole died in 1990 at the age of 49 from pancreatic cancer at a Manhattan hospital, his death was little noted.

    Cole, one of the most important chroniclers of apartheid-era South Africa, was by then mostly forgotten and penniless. Banned by his native country after the publication of his pioneering photography book "House of Bondage," Cole had emigrated in 1966 to the United States. But his life in exile gradually disintegrated into intermittent homelessness. A six-paragraph obituary in The New York Times ran alongside a list of death notices.

    But Cole receives a vibrant and stirring resurrection in Raoul Peck's new film "Ernest Cole: Lost and Found," narrated in Cole's own words and voiced by LaKeith Stanfield. The film, which opens in theaters Friday, is laced throughout with Cole's photographs, many of them not before seen publicly.

    As he did in his Oscar-nominated James Baldwin documentary "I Am Not Your Negro," the Haitian-born Peck shares screenwriting credit with his subject. "Ernest Cole: Lost and Found" is drawn from Cole's own writings. In words and images, Peck brings the tragic story of Cole to vivid life, reopening the lens through which Cole so perceptively saw injustice and humanity.

    "Film is a political tool for me," Peck said in a recent interview over lunch in Manhattan. "My job is to go to the widest audience possible and try to give them something to help them understand where they are, what they are doing, what role they are playing. It's about my fight today. I don't care about the past."

    "Ernest Cole: Lost and Found" is a movie layered with meaning that goes beyond Cole's work. It asks questions not just about the societies Cole documented but of how he was treated as an artist,... Read More

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