F&F Productions stays with Ikegami HD production gear

Veteran mobile production company F&F Productions has outfitted its entire mobile fleet with more than 80 Ikegami HDK-79EC camera systems to cover a variety of live sporting events throughout the year. F&F Productions debuted its latest mobile unit, the 53ft-by-16ft GTX-16, at this year's U.S. Open in New York, and it carried a full complement of Ikegami cameras and HD LCD and CRT monitors on board as well.

The cameras feature three 2/3in 2.5-megapixel CMOS imaging sensors that offer native multiformat HD acquisition in the 16:9 aspect ratio.

George Orgera, President and CEO of F&F Productions, said he likes the camera's ability to be used in a variety of HD formats, allowing his crews to support several different client needs.

Incorporating Ikegami's proprietary Chip C4 ASIC video processing technology, the HDK-79EC can be used with either triax or SMPTE fiber camera cable. Additional system components include the Ikegami CCU-890M camera control unit and SE-79D System Expander for studio camera build up. The CCU-890M supports multiple camera cable types with built-in triax and fiber cable transmission systems.

Monitors used on GTX-16 include two of Ikegami's 17in HLM-1750WR HD LCD models and three 15in multiformat color CRT monitors. The HLM-1750WR supports multiformat SDI input as well as DVI-D and VBS inputs as a standard feature (and 3G-SDI as an option). The monitor also provides a vectorscope and waveform display, adjustable horizontal or vertical color-coded embedded audio meters, and — as an option — an embedded audio output.