Canon U.S.A. has supplied its HDTV lenses, remote-control robotic HD cameras and a Canobeam Free Space Optics HD video transceiver system to NBC for the network’s coverage of the Winter Olympic Games.
An extensive quantity of Canon HDTV lenses will be used, including wide-angle, portable HDTV lenses, HDTV studio lenses and long-zoom HD field lenses with Canon’s Optical Shift-IS image-stabilizer technology. The network will also use Canon’s BU-45H remote-control robotic pan-tilt-zoom HD POV camera systems and the Canobeam DT-150 HD Free Space Optics wireless video transceiver system.
Among the hundreds of Canon HD lenses NBC will use for its Olympic coverage is the new HJ14ex4.3B. The lens combines an extended 14x zoom range with 4.3mm wide-angle capability. In addition, a newly developed Digital Drive unit provides improved operability and ergonomic advances for user comfort and convenient control of lens functions.
NBC will also be using Canon’s XJ27x6.5B HD studio zoom lens, which delivers a focal length of 6.5mm-180mm. The lens also offers an optional BWA-271 0.9x wide attachment. This zoom-through wide attachment enables users to begin with a wide shot and go telephoto without experiencing negative effects on light transmission. This feature alters the range of the zoom on wide settings by 10 percent toward the wide side, making a new zoom range of 5.85mm-162mm.
Canon’s BU-45H remote-control robotic pan-tilt 16:9 HD camera system will also make an appearance. Housed in a robotic housing made by Telemetrics, it features a Canon HD camera equipped with three 1/3in (1,670,000-pixel) CCD sensors, a Canon HD zoom lens with 20x optical zoom ratio (4.5mm-90mm), a remote-control neutral density filter, genlock input, HD-SDI output with embedded audio as the primary video and an SD composite NTSC feed for monitoring. The lens incorporates a built-in auto-focus function and Canon’s Image Stabilizer technology.
Also on hand in Vancouver will be Canon’s Canobeam DT-150 HD wireless video transceiver system, which uses point-to-point Free Space Optical light beams to provide reliable bidirectional, uncompressed 1.5Gb/s transmission of embedded digital HD video, audio and camera-control signals on a single HD-SDI stream with no delay.
The Canobeam DT-150 HD can relay embedded HD-SDI and SD-SDI video from multiple cameras or other HD/SD video sources, along with embedded return video and audio to the camera operator and even robotic camera-control data. It has a range of up to a half mile (1km) and features Canon’s auto-tracking feature to maintain beam alignment despite vibration due to wind, rain or unsteady platforms.
