GearBox, a U.K.-based rental company and part of the veteran broadcast technology supplier CVP Group, has acquired six LDX Première advanced imaging cameras and three LDX XtremeSpeed (LDX XS) 1X/3X/6X ultra-slow-motion cameras from Grass Valley, a Belden Brand. This purchase expands the United Kingdom rental market offering and exemplifies the strategic partnership the two companies have formed.
“CVP Group’s partnership with Grass Valley has opened a lot of new doors for us. By broadening our scope of offerings, our clients have the ability to grow their productions with an entirely new and versatile camera choice,” said Stephen Ratcliff, rental director, GearBox. “Also, with the purchase of the LDX XtremeSpeed cameras, we’re answering the growing demand in the UK for an ultra-slow-motion camera that can handle high frame rates,” he added. GearBox’s new LDX fleet will be utilized across a range of productions including in-studio and live sports.
Grass Valley’s LDX XS camera is the first handheld ultra-slow-motion camera and the first to deliver instant time-to-air with no internal camera storage requirement. It easily integrates into live workflows with 3X (1080p) and 6X speeds (720p/1080i), and includes a 1X live output for standard-speed acquisition. Both cameras are built around Grass Valley’s unique proprietary Xensium-FT CMOS imager, delivering superb picture quality, high sensitivity and high dynamic range for a variety of production applications.
Grass Valley’s future-ready XCU XtremeSpeed XF Fiber transmission system supports the large real-time bandwidth required by the LDX XS cameras without any compromises. The rack-mounted XCU cradle is fully compatible with the 3G transmission XCUs, which makes the XCU chassis easily transportable between trucks, studios and flypacks.
Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads — essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More