When a popular TV station also operates a full-service HD video facility with two busy studios, maintaining an efficient production workflow is an important consideration.
At KGEB-TV in Tulsa, OK, this challenge is met by using Ikegami’s GFCam HDS-V10 Flash Memory tapeless HD camcorder. Employing three 2/3in CCDs, the GFCam HDS-V10 records 4:2:2 digital video in the MPEG-2 MXF file format on removable flash RAM media.
Long ingest times required when using tape formats impede efficient workflow. However, being able to do a fast file transfer of footage from the GFCam to a nonlinear editor has removed that impediment, said Bill Lee, director of engineering for KGEB-TV, the flagship station of the Golden Eagle Broadcasting Network located on the campus of Oral Roberts University.
Part of Ikegami’s new GFSeries tapeless flash RAM HD production system, the GFCam HDS-V10 is a rugged, broadcast-grade ENG camcorder that records to durable GFPak flash RAM cartridges manufactured by Toshiba.
GFPaks support tens of thousands of rewrite cycles and are available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB capacities. A 64GB GFPak can hold two hours of full-resolution 50Mb/s 1920 x 1080/4:2.2 HD video. GFPaks offer a remaining-capacity indicator, a high-speed SATA interface and a built-in USB 2.0 port for instant connection to nonlinear editing systems.
Another boost to workflow efficiency is the ability to log and insert metadata, which the GFCam supports via its ability to export thumbnail clips instantly using Bluetooth to a laptop application. The new Bluetooth capability “will completely change the logging of metadata files,” said Charmaine Lee, director of creative services for KGEB.
“It will be a wonderful thing to sit there with your laptop and input shot information as you’re rolling,” said Charmaine Lee. “Having the metadata all ready from the field when you come back will add a level of convenience.”
