Cameras: News and Updates

(Wayne, NJ) JVC Professional Products Company, a division of JVC Americas Corp., announced that Bisk Education, Inc. has added three JVC GY-HM750 ProHD cameras to its HD production studio in Tampa, Fla. The studio is used to produce a variety of courses for higher education programs across the country, and has been using the cameras since February.

One of the leading providers of online professional education, Bisk Education is an end-to-end solutions provider that partners with a number of schools and universities to produce lectures and other coursework. Many college and university courses for degree programs are streamed on the Web, but other content is delivered on DVD, particularly certification and continuing education programs.

Paired with Canon lenses, the ProHD cameras are housed in JVC KA-790G studio sleds and mounted on Vinten pedestals. Each camera includes a JVC VF-HP790G studio viewfinder for the camera operator, along with a 22-inch prompter for the instructor. According to Mike Knight, chief engineer, the studio also has a fourth JVC camera, a GY-HM700, which matches up well with the new cameras.

While the new GY-HM750s are used primarily as studio cameras, Bisk does use them occasionally for shooting in the field. "I think they're way slick. You have this small camera that feels and performs like a full-size broadcast camera," Knight explained. "As a group, many field shooters had literally refused to use these smaller cameras � and now it is quite the opposite. They love to get their hands on these smaller, lighter cameras that have the feel and performance of the larger cameras without the weight."

Bisk used to be a D-9 house, but now captures native QuickTime files on AJA Ki Pro recorders. Knight said the GY-HM750's native file recording of .MOV files, as well as its use of SDHC cards, were important features.

"Let us suppose that we were recording these through a switcher with a chromakey background, which we are," he explained. "Let us also suppose that we would like the latitude to replace the background with another background, which we do. The easiest way to accomplish this is to record to the on-board SDHC card with the raw green background. The camera's recorded images key as precisely as anything we've recorded with the external Ki Pro."

While the compact, shoulder-mount GY-HM750 is very effective for studio applications, it also offers the industry's fastest shoot-to-edit workflow by recording native HD or SD footage in ready-to-edit file formats on low-cost SDHC memory cards. It includes a 68-pin chassis connector that creates a clean, direct interface with various modules � no external cables needed. Other features includes variable frame rate recording, extensive image customization, two XLR audio inputs with phantom power, Pre Rec (retro cache) that stores up to 20 seconds of footage to help prevent missed shots of breaking events, and simultaneous recording to both SDHC cards for instant backup or client copy.

Resources:

http://pro.jvc.com