Customers seeking switchables are snapping up HD/SD convertibles
SEATTLE
Camera makers who have been offering high-definition studio cameras for a number of years have been getting some good news lately: Customers are buying them.
"In the U.S., and even in Europe for that matter, I think we're seeing a conversion to high definition that's a lot quicker than we had imagined," said Mark Chiolis, product marketing manager for acquisition and production for Thomson.
Robert Willox, Sony Electronics national marketing manager for content creation systems agreed.
"The ratio of our sales, standard-def to high def, are exactly inverse of what they were two years ago," he said.
For Panasonic, the high-def migration is even more pronounced, according to Jeff Merritt, Panasonic's product line business manager for HD products.
"I haven't heard of a (non-upgradeable) standard definition studio camera sale in a year," he said.
Camera makers report many of the sales are driven by the outdoor broadcast van companies, who want to have HD equipment on hand when customers demand it.
Does that mean the buyers are producing programming in high definition? Not necessarily, said Alan Keil, vice president and director of engineering for Ikegami.
"Customers keep asking for 'future-proofed' products," he said "For high definition, it means simultaneous SD and HD outputs on all studio models. A lot of studios are still using the SD output."
Other camera makers report the same trend-people are buying HD cameras for current SD production.
"Our sales of high-definition cameras are primarily for standard-definition output now," said Panasonic's Merritt. He said buyers amortize their studio cameras over 10 years or so. "They're saving money by buying what will give them SD today, but is very affordably upgradeable to HD tomorrow."
Another manufacturer who offers an SD studio camera that can be upgraded to HD is Thomson, but they're finding customers are skipping the upgrade path.
"People who have placed orders (for the upgradeable standard-definition model) have, even before they're shipped, upgraded to the high-def cameras," said Chiolis.
Sony, Ikegami and Hitachi all offer their HD cameras without an upgrade path.
"Our approach has been to bring down the raw cost, charge you once for the camera, and you can enjoy both outputs now," said Sony's Willox.
He pointed out that this gives stations the opportunity to train their cameramen to operate the cameras in HD as well as shoot promos and other material that can later be used in HD.
MONEYMATTERS
Customers regularly ask that costs be held down. Emilio Aleman, product manager, broadcast and professional products for Hitachi Denshi America, said that the electronics of both an HD portable and studio-configured camera are identical.
By making its HD camera portable with a studio adapter, Hitachi offers a more affordable HD studio camera.
"People just want to have more bang for the buck," said Aleman. "[Our studio adapters] have just about every utility you would find on a hard-body camera."
These include color viewfinder, multiple return video, and two independent channels of intercom.
"There's a savings of about 20 percent (over the cost of a hard body camera)," he said. "You're buying one camera for basically two applications."
Ikegami also offers a similar system expander for converting its portable HD camera to a studio configuration.
"The demand originally came from entertainment production truck operators," said Ikegami's Keil.
Panasonic has a handheld configuration for its portable HD cameras.
"Within a matter of about 30 seconds it will come out of the build-up kit and be able to go on your shoulder for handheld, particularly applicable for the sports arena," said Merritt.
As far as user features go, customers have demanded everything of HD cameras that they wanted in their SD predecessors, and more. A lot of that is driven by the nature of the HD image.
"Everyone finds out how old their sets are, and how fragile their talent is, in front of an HD camera," said Sony's Willox.
This led Sony to include three different skin-tone detail zones in its HD studio camera, as well as a "negative detail" feature that allows them to soften other images within the picture.
Other studio camera makers offer similar ranges of skin-tone detail and other image controls on their products. In order to allow for the differences between SD and HD requirements, Hitachi and Ikegami offer separate paint controls for each output. Ikegami also provides Zoom Tracking, which automatically adds detail back into a shot as the lens zooms wider.
"Customers are asking for versatility and flexibility," said Ikegami's Keil. That extends to resolution, scan and frame rates.
Ikegami offers the HDK-790E as a 1080i native camera, and the HDK-720 as a 720p native camera. With an optional engine board for their CCU, each camera is able to yield either 1080i or 720p at a variety of frame rates.
In its LDK6000, Thomson offers a sensor chipset that can be switched between 1080 and 720, done by using software to combine the sensor's 4,230 vertical pixels in groups of four (for 1080 lines) or six (for 720 lines) to form what they call "super pixels."
A standard version of the camera offers both 1080i and 720p at the U.S. standard 59.95 frames per second; the Worldcam version offers 24fps, 25fps, 30fps and 50fps and 60 interlaced fps.
Sony's HDC-910 offers 1080 lines of resolution in both 50 and 60 interlace, allowing the same camera to be used for high-definition systems around the world, and decreasing the overal system cost..
"720p is not a worldwide standard," said Willox, though he said it is an important future agenda for the company.
Panasonic offers the AK-HD900 as a 1080i native camera, and the AK-HD931 as a 720p native camera, both with a variety of frame rates. The 931 can also utilize an option at the CCU to convert its 720p to 1080i.
Hitachi's SK-3300 utilizes 1080i imagers, but through the CCU output can deliver 720p, 480i or 480p. (The progressive signals require changing the CCU.) The company has also shown a 720p native studio camera for the past couple of NABs, but has not begun manufacturing one yet.
FOR TRIAX ONLY
High-definition camera customers are asking manufacturers to do a balancing act, of sorts, in transmission of the camera's signal to the base station. All agree that preserving the full quality of the high-definition signal, especially over long cable runs, requires fiber optic line in place of triax.
"We've tested, folks like CBS have done tests and found that a camera designed for fiber, then converted to triax, just doesn't have the quality you would expect of a native triax system to begin with," said Panasonic's Merritt.
However, citing the amount of existing triax installed around the world, Thomson's Chiolis said the company designed its HD camera for triax.
"Arenas, stadiums, studios, most of them are plumbed for triax today. Instead of having to rewire all of them, you plug the triax in one end of the camera and the other end into the base station, and you have an HD infrastructure," he said.
The dam holding back HD studio camera purchases may not yet have burst entirely, but the sales camera makers are seeing mean their faith and investment in HD is finally going to be repaid.
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