WAYNE, NJ (January, 2012)– JVC Professional Products Company, a division of JVC Americas Corp., today announced that Riverside Government Television (GTV), the government cable access channel for the City of Riverside, Calif., is using three JVC GY-HM790U ProHD cameras with CopperHead ProHD KA-F790 camera-mounted fiber optic transceivers for multi-camera productions in the field. The cameras are being used with a new mobile production van for live and live-to-tape coverage of local events.
Previously, with no remote production unit in place, GTV’s multi-camera shoots were limited, as footage from all cameras would have to be brought back to GTV’s offices in City Hall and edited. That changed late last year, when a new production van from Frontline Communications (equipped by the GTV team and systems integrator Rich Rosensweig of Vidiflo in Long Beach, Calif.) hit the road.
Now, programs are shot with JVC professional cameras, switched live, and recorded to AJA Ki Pro recorders. Programs are produced in HD and downconverted to SD for cable, but HD versions are available on the city’s YouTube channel.
During the last two months of 2011, GTV produced multi-camera coverage of several sporting and other local events. GTV broadcast a University of California Riverside basketball game and the city’s Festival of Lights live using a LiveU video-over-cellular transmitter. In December, a MotoSAT satellite transmitter was installed on the production van to provide further live capabilities.
Scott Brosious, senior communications technician, appreciates JVC’s fiber optic transceiver because it significantly reduces setup time. The unit connects directly to the GY-HM790U – no external cables required – and a single cable simultaneously transports bidirectional video, as well as two-way camera control, audio, sync, tally, prompter, and intercom signals between the camera head and the lightweight CopperHead Base Station in the van.
“I’m used to separate lines for everything,” Brosious explained. “This has made setup easier for the crew. We literally pull the one cable and we’re done.”
Two of the station’s three GY-HM790Us were purchased in 2010. Brosious said the third was acquired last September specifically for multi-camera productions. GTV also has a compact GY-HM100U and a full-sized GY-HM700U, which replaced tape-based Canon XL2s for ENG and other field work in 2009.
In the past, post production was slowed by hours of ingesting tape footage into Apple Final Cut Pro, but JVC’s native file recording allows GTV to import footage directly into the NLE timeline without transcoding. Brosious also prefers recording to non-proprietary SDHC media cards, because they are inexpensive and readily available.
Although GTV does not have a studio, it produces a variety of programs beyond live events. Official city meetings are shot at City Hall using an installed PTZ camera system, but all other productions are shot on location with JVC cameras. “Our ProHD footage looks amazing, a huge difference from the SD stuff we were doing before,” Brosious said. “It makes me wish I had an HD channel.”
