Winter Olympics: Hitachi HD Cameras Eyed for Home Coverage

Don't look now but the next winter Olympics is a mere several weeks away in Vancouver and Hitachi has been tapped to provide nearly 40 of its HD cameras for Canada's Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium.

The official Canadian broadcaster of the Vancouver games, the consortium will feature Hitachi's SK-HD1000 multi-standard, multi-format studio/field cameras for its coverage, Feb. 12-28.

CTV, Canada's Olympic Network and lead broadcaster within the consortium, said it chose the Hitachi HD units based on video quality, overall performance, and the flexibility of required features for both studio and field operations. CTV said it has about two decades of experience using Hitachi cameras, especially in the SD realm.

The SK-HD1000's are being installed this month on the consortium's studio sets at the International Broadcast Center in Vancouver, in preparation for the February games. They'll also be deployed to various hockey, figure skating, curling and other venues.

The Canadian consortium is a partnership between CTV and Rogers Media, and will provide multi-platform coverage of every second of Olympics competition in all sports 24/7 (an estimated 4,500 hours) in English, French and other languages on multiple platforms.