The San Francisco Opera said when it recently created its media suite, which is among the first permanent HD video production facilities for opera houses in America, part of the technical configuration were nine Fujinon HD lenses.
The lenses include three HA25X11.5 Berd ENG-style telephotos HD lenses; four HS18X5 Berd standard focal length, half-inch XDCAM HD ENG/EFP with double-extender; one HA25X16.5 Berd super telephoto HD ENG-style lens with zoom and focus; and one HA42X13.5 Berd super telephoto ENG-Style lens.
The lenses are mounted on Sony HDC 1500L and HDC X-310 cameras.
In addition, the San Francisco Opera also launched a second HD project in-house (literally) that’s known as OperaVision, which allows the live opera house audience in the balcony a much-improved view of the stage through close-up and mid-range ensemble shots televised closed-circuit on a pair of retractable 52-square-foot HD screens suspended from the ceiling.
Fujinon’s HD lenses are also being used by the opera society for several “outreach” programs, including last fall’s Opera at the Ballpark — a free live simulcast of Saint-Saën’s “Samson and Delilah,” which drew 15,000 to the San Francisco Giants’ AT&T Park.
Also for the first time, the San Francisco Opera last weekend (March 8) began releasing to movie theaters the first of several HD surround sound performances recorded earlier (similar to what the Metropolitan Opera in New York has done).
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