One of Gearhouse’s many new Hitachi 4K SK-UHD4000 cameras
WATFORD, UNITED KINGDOM—Gear-house Broadcast provides equipment rentals and sales, outside broadcasts services, project solutions and systems integration. We work with broadcasters and rights holders on a global basis and are known for our reliability, expertise and early adoption of the latest technologies.
Our partnership with Hitachi has allowed us to consistently offer the latest high-end camera systems to our customers. We’ve also found that our camera operators are always happy when using Hitachi camera products, as the systems offer high image quality and have also been designed with the ergonomics of the operator in mind.
Another big consideration in a business such as ours is that Hitachi cameras are also engineered to be physically robust, which is incredibly important when production crews take to the road.
The real bottom line with any camera purchase is that the camera systems we select to send out on our projects are going to perform exceptionally every time. and the road always leads back to Hitachi.
PREPARING FOR THE NEXT LEVEL OF TECHNOLOGY
Our partners and customers are keen to make sure that they’re going to be ready for a 4K future, so we invested in the first 50 Hitachi SK-UHD4000 cameras while at the IBC Show last year. Now as the NAB Show approaches, we can speak with considerable experience to clients and those who might still be skeptical about the significance of 4K video in capturing events. We’ve observed that 4K is not a “revolutionary new technology” for consumers such as 3D was thought to be, but rather an evolution away from the high-definition broadcasts that we receive in our homes.
The use of a 2/3- inch mount on the camera means that existing HD lenses can be used with the Hitachi cameras and this is a huge benefit for us, as we’ve spent a lot of time and money choosing the best lenses for sports and live event entertainment productions.
BEST OF BOTH HD AND 4K WORLDS
Since acquiring these Hitachi 4K cameras we’ve subjected them to many tests and trials both internally and with our broadcast customers. At the Barclays ATP World Tour tennis finals last November, we set up a complete 4K workflow test setup that was constructed around the new SK-UHD4000 cameras. One part of that testing involved the ingest of 4K feeds into an existing high-definition workflow. The four-camera setup we created was designed to export both 4K and HD video feeds from the cameras and this workflow testing ran for the full week of the tournament.
These simultaneous dual high-definition and 4K feeds that the SK-UHD4000s provide enables broadcasters to begin capturing 4K content while still retaining the HD workflows they’ve already established. If you recall during the 3D heyday, broadcasts had to be planned and implemented with completely new and different cameras added to the existing HD camera equipment packages.
We’ve only had positive user feedback from our clients who have used our Hitachi SK-UHD4000 cameras. This information comes not only from the camera operators, but also from those further downstream in the production workflow. The Hitachi camera systems have performed incredibly well and are the perfect component for broadcasters to transition from conventional high-definition video to 4K broadcasts.
Kevin Moorhouse is chief operating officer at Gearhouse broadcast. He may be contacted throughprojectsolutions@gearhousebroadcast.com.
For additional information, contact Hitachi Kokusai Electric at 516-682-4431 or visitwww.hitachikokusai.com.
