Mobile production provider NEP Group has equipped its latest truck, the M-15–a 4K unit featuring advanced IP delivery capability–with a range of FUJINON 4K UHD lenses. While build on the M-15 is in its final stages of completion, the new lenses are being used to cover Seattle Mariner baseball games for the Root Sports Northwest network. Currently, the eight FUJINON UA107x8.4BESM 4K Box Field lenses, three UA24x7.8BERM 4K UHD lenses and three UA14x4.5BERD 4K UHD Wide-Angle lenses complement Grass Valley LDK Series 4K UHD cameras on NEP’s M-5 for Seattle area baseball coverage.
In addition to being a fully 4K capable production truck, the M-15 will be NEP USMU’s second ST 2110-capable regional mobile unit. (SMPTE ST 2110 standards specify the carriage, synchronization, and description of IP streams for real-time video production and playout).
“We appreciate our longstanding relationship with Fujifilm and are looking forward to M-15 hitting the road, complete with our new 4K UHD lenses,” said Glen Levine, president, NEP U.S. “The IP system alongside the superior production tools will propel live coverage to a whole new level. For now, the lenses are already creating outstanding images of the Mariner games on the M-5.”
“Production teams and crews like the quality of NEP’s newest set of FUJINON lenses.” Speaking about the UA107x, Levine added, “We went with these lenses because of their 900mm telephoto and their ability to do tight shots from long distances. Camera operators have come back from the games happy with how tight they were able to go.”
NEP’s M-15 will be fully 4K capable. “The cost/performance ratio of the entire FUJINON 4K lens range makes them ideal for this new truck,” said Levine. “We always do a thorough cost evaluation, but we will never sacrifice quality to cut costs. These lenses offer great quality while being cost-effective.”
From Restoring To Hopefully Preserving Multi-Camera Categories At The Emmys
When Gary Baum, ASC won his fourth career Emmy Award earlier this month, it was especially gratifying in that the honor came in a category--Outstanding Cinematography for a Multi-Camera Half-Hour Series--that had been restored thanks in part to a grass-roots initiative among cinematographers to drum up entries. Last year the category fell by the wayside when not enough multi-camera entries materialized.
In his acceptance speech, Baum appealed to the Television Academy to keep multi-camera categories alive. He later noted to SHOOT that editors also got their multi-camera recognition back in the Emmy competition this year. Baum hopes that after resurrecting multi-camera categories in 2024, such recognition will be preserved for 2025 and beyond.
A major factor in the decline of multi-camera submissions in 2023 was the move of certain children’s and family programming from the primetime Emmy competition to the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences’ (NATAS) Emmy ceremony. For DPs this meant that multi-camera programs last year were reduced to vying for just one primetime nomination slot in the more general Outstanding Cinematography for a Series (Half-Hour) category. It turned out that this single slot was filled in ‘23 by a Baum-lensed episode of How I Met Your Father (Hulu).
Fast forward to this year’s competition and Baum won for another installment of How I Met Your Father--”Okay Fine, It’s A Hurricane,” which turned out to be the series finale. Two of Baum’s Emmy wins over the years have been for How I Met Your Father, and there’s a certain symmetry to them. His initial win for How I Met Your Father was for the pilot in 2022. So he won Emmys for the very first and last... Read More