MLB taps JVC ProHD, Canon for Hall of Fame ceremony

By Andrew Lippe

The crew at the National Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum in Cooperstown, New York, will record this year’s ceremony using a JVC GY-HD110 ProHD DV camcorder with Canon lenses but the museum will be waiting until HD catches on before truly tapping the equipment’s HD capabilities.

“There are still many people that do not
have high definition players [for high-def DVD playback],” said Benjamin Harry media archivist for the National Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum. “We will wait until more
people ask for high definition content.”

With regards to archiving the Museum is also sticking with SD tape
until HD becomes more robust. Even though they are a few years behind
on cutting edge technology the move to digital is likely in the future.
“A transfer like that will take time,” added Harry.

This Sunday ESPN Classic will broadcast he 2007 Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony of Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn and it will be streamed live at www.baseballhall.org and rebroadcast Monday on ESPN2. “Our priority was to have clips visible on the Web,” said Harry.

The Ceremony takes place at the Clark Sports Center, which is located right near the historic National Baseball Hall of Fame Museum. Video highlights of both Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn will air on a Jumbotron prior to their induction. Then Ripken Jr. and Gwynn will address the estimated 15,000 fans in attendance before they receive their HOF plaque.

When it was announced earlier this year that the newest inductees to Cooperstown were to be Baltimore Orioles iron man Ripken Jr. and San Diego Padres legend Tony Gwynn the production department at the Hall of Fame located many of the players clips from their own database. Any other footage they needed was sent over by Major League Baseball. “The production department crew wears a lot of hats,” said Harry. The production crew interviews former players and creates videos and sound clips year round. During the year, the Hall of Fame even contributes to the XM radio show, “Voices of the Game.”

Many Ripken Jr. and Gwynn highlights are packaged onto a DVD for fans for $21.95. The DVD chronicles the Hall of Fame Weekend and includes the speeches
of the inductees, highlights from the Hall of Fame Game, and clips
directly from the Museum. “We do the bios on all the hall of fame inductees,” said Harry. “Right now all DVD’s are created in regular SD format.”