FLORIDA Channel Covers State Legislature with Hitachi Cameras

WOODBURY, NY—Legislative television service The FLORIDA Channel has purchased three Z-HD5000 HDTV cameras from Hitachi Kokusai to enable high-quality video acquisition for its studio productions. The new studio cameras join 26 Hitachi DK-Z50 box cameras installed earlier in the Capitol building’s chambers and committee rooms. 

Located in the state Capitol building in Tallahassee, The FLORIDA Channel is a public affairs programming service funded by the Florida Legislature and produced and operated by WFSU-TV, the PBS member station owned by Florida State University. It features programming covering all three branches of state government, and is Florida’s primary source for live, unedited coverage of the Governor and Cabinet, the Legislature and the Supreme Court. It produces more than 2,500 hours of original programming each year that can be seen on PBS multicast channels, cable systems and PEG (public, education and government access) channels across the state. The FLORIDA Channel also offers 18 web streams that provide live coverage of all proceedings. 

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Complementing its live session feeds, The FLORIDA Channel produces studio programs including live “Capitol Update” newscasts, the “Florida Face to Face” interview series, and “Perspectives,” which lets members of the Legislature introduce themselves and discuss their priorities. When the channel recently performed a total overhaul of its production studio—including a new set, new lighting, new teleprompters and more—they took the opportunity to also replace their decade-old cameras as part of the project. 

Picture quality was similarly a key factor when The FLORIDA Channel first selected the DK-Z50 box cameras to replace outdated, non-widescreen models in select rooms. 

Eight DK-Z50 cameras are now used in the House chamber, with six more in the Senate chamber and another six in each of the two largest committee rooms in the Knott Building. All of the DK-Z50s are paired with FUJINON HAs18x7.6BZD-T5DD zoom lenses and operated robotically on Ross Video CamBot 500 Series pan/tilt heads. 

Tom Butts

Tom has covered the broadcast technology market for the past 25 years, including three years handling member communications for the National Association of Broadcasters followed by a year as editor of Video Technology News and DTV Business executive newsletters for Phillips Publishing. In 1999 he launched digitalbroadcasting.com for internet B2B portal Verticalnet. He is also a charter member of the CTA's Academy of Digital TV Pioneers. Since 2001, he has been editor-in-chief of TV Tech (www.tvtech.com), the leading source of news and information on broadcast and related media technology and is a frequent contributor and moderator to the brand’s Tech Leadership events.