Russia Today D.C. HD broadcast center selects Ikegami digital cameras, monitors

International broadcaster Russia Today TV (RT) has established an all-digital HDTV broadcast center in Washington, D.C., to enhance its international video news coverage.

New Jersey-based Azzurro Systems Integration (ASI) designed and built the facility, which includes two studios, two control rooms, five edit rooms and an 80-seat newsroom. ASI chose eight Ikegami HDK-79EXIII digital HDTV studio camera systems to meet the demands of RT’s eight hours of daily live news programming.

The HDK-79EXIII is Ikegami's top-of-the-line digital HDTV studio camera system, which is engineered for picture quality, functionality and reliable performance. Five of the cameras have been installed in RT’s main newsroom studio. The remaining cameras are serving a smaller, second studio.

Ikegami’s HDK-79EXIII incorporates newly developed 2/3in 2.3-million pixel 1080i AIT CCD image sensors that achieve a horizontal resolution of 1000 lines and an S/N ratio of 60dB at f10. The camera digitizes video signals with 14-bit A/D conversion and up to 38-bit internal digital-processing circuits. The HDK-79EXIII, designed as a portable companion studio camera system, can be used for multistandard, simulcast broadcasting in HDTV and SDTV.

ASI also installed dozens of Ikegami HLM-1711WR SD/HD flat-panel monitors throughout the RT facility.