SOUTHWICK, Mass.—When the pandemic hit, Temple Baptist Church in Hattiesburg, Miss., chose to upgrade its production equipment and infrastructure knowing that video would be a key part of serving its congregation during lockdown. Among the upgraded products brought in was four of Hitachi’s SK-HD1800 broadcast camera systems.

Entering 2020, Temple Baptist Church was still using standard-definition video equipment for most of its production. But when the pandemic struck a decision was made to upgrade its video infrastructure. 

Tanner Cade, the church’s media director, selected the SK-HD1800, which features native 1080p support, expected to help with eventual upgrades to 4K, and global shutter technology, which allows for flicker-free capture.

The church began using the cameras in October 2020. Live video of the services are projected through Barco Ultra HD laser projectors onto a 24x13.5-foot screen. “The clarity of the IMAG picture, even from the balcony seats, makes people feel much more engaged when they come to our services,” said Cade.

The Hitachi-acquired video is shown throughout the campus on large displays. Footage is also recorded for broadcast on WHPM, the area’s local Fox affiliate, and streamed live through the Resi platform to the church’s website, social media channels and mobile app.

Cade also praised the SK-HD18000s ease of use for the mostly volunteer production crew and the ability to take the cameras around campus to shoot high-quality images in different areas.

“The Hitachi cameras have brought our church to a whole new ballgame of video quality that our staff and volunteers are fully embracing, and that our members love,” said Cade. “We’re excited to bring our members the same quality of work here at the church that they see at home on television, particularly as it’s their giving – even during a difficult year – that enabled this upgrade. We’re excited about the future of what the cameras can bring not only to our weekend services, but many other new opportunities for us during the week.”

For more information, visit www.hitachikokusai.com.  

HILO, Hawaii—Nã Leo TV (NLTV) is the public access television station run by Nã Leo o Hawaii (NLOH), the nonprofit leader for media services on the “Big Island” of Hawaii. We provide public, education and government programming for the entire island across three cable channels, website and mobile app.

In the spring of 2019, we started looking at new cameras in order to produce more live events such as high school sports, but our existing prosumer-level HD camcorders weren’t up to the task. Our president wanted a higher quality standard, and to meet the demands of live sports, we needed cameras that would respond well in low light and could zoom all the way down a football field.

Our previous cameras also required tons of cabling—including separate video, communications and power—that was cumbersome for field use. I wanted the simplicity of a single SMPTE fiber cable for each camera, the higher quality of 2/3-inch sensors and the ability to use longer, B4-mount lenses.

A STEP UP IN QUALITY

Oahu-based Da Crew Production and Engineering Group arranged a side-by-side comparison between three major camera brands, and I liked what I saw with the SK-HD1800 model from Hitachi Kokusai. Watching on broadcast monitors and multiviewers, some people couldn’t see the difference between it and more expensive competitors, and the rest of us pointed to the Hitachi camera as having the best quality.

We purchased four SK-HD1800s in June 2019 and started using them in our studio and field productions last summer. We transport the cameras around the island in our 24-foot production trailer, which is parked next to our 18-foot high, 50x25-foot main studio. This lets us use the trailer as the control room when shooting in the studio.

We usually use three of the cameras on Cartoni or Sachtler tripods, with one operated handheld. We have three Fujinon ZA22x7.6BE lenses, one Fujinon HA14x4.5BERD-S super-wide lens and one Fujinon XA99x8.4BESM box lens that we use for sports.

We have been very pleased with the quality produced by the Hitachi cameras, and their low-light handling has been awesome. A lot of our high school stadiums aren’t very well lit, but we’re able to run the cameras at 6dB gain or less and get very good-looking results.

THE LITTLE DETAILS

I really value the setup simplicity and ease of use of these cameras. As a public access station, we have a lot of volunteers—including high school and college students—who may not understand all the technology, but I can get someone with little or no experience up to speed and comfortable with the SK-HD1800 in just minutes. I also like how the structure and language of the menus are essentially common sense, avoiding the need to dive into too many different buttons and submenus to get at the features I’m looking for.

The ability to control everything remotely from the truck over SMPTE fiber is fantastic, as is using the Ross Dashboard software on a Surface Pro tablet to adjust video settings. The cameras are also much lighter than others I have used, which is great for field use.

While social distancing cut short our spring sports season and temporarily reduced the number of productions in our studio, we’re enjoying the improvements the SK-HD1800 cameras have delivered. They have enabled us to take on more types of production projects and have enhanced the quality of our programs. Everything looks much better with these cameras, and people have noticed the difference in our broadcasts.

Matt Cordero is production manager at Nã Leo TV. He can be reached at mcordero@naleo.tv.

For additional information, visit www.hitachikokusai.us. 

WOODBURY, N.Y.—A new entry to Hitachi’s lineup of cameras has been unveiled, with the SK-HD1800 studio and field camera now available for customers. This new model features the CMOS imaging technology present in the Z-HD5500 camera and a motorized, four-position filter wheel.

The SK-HD1800’s global shutter, progressive-scan, CMOS imagers are able to adapt to a range of LED lighting conditions. The camera also supports HDR specifications, including HLG and HPQ, which is compatible with the HDR10 open standard.

Users can pair the SK-HD1800 with a CCU from Hitachi’s CU-HD1300 series to create a flexible camera system that supports a variety of production infrastructures and output requirements. There is support for SMPTE fiber and digital triax connectivity, and can be combined with a dedicated fiber or triax CCU or with the dual-cable CU-HD1300 FT for deployment flexibility.

An optional 4K output module for the CU-HD1300 can transform natively-acquired 1080p video from the SK-HD1800 to 4K/UHD resolution and outputs the result over single-link 12Gbps SDI or quad-link 3G-SDI connectivity. A SMPTE ST 2110 option for the CU-HD1300, meanwhile, allows for seamless integration of the SK-HD1800 camera into next-gen IP-based production workflows. Both the 4K and SMPTE ST 2110 transport options support SK-HD1800’s HDR capabilities.

In addition, CU-HD1300 has a firmware option that enables users to optimize to acquire HDR and SDR video simultaneously with a single camera.

Now available, Hitachi will also display the SK-HD1800 model at its booth, C4409, during the 2019 NAB Show.