F&F Outfits Full Fleet with Ikegami Cameras

F&F Productions has outfitted its entire mobile fleet with more than 80 Ikegami HDK-79EC camera systems, all of which employ three 2/3-inch 2.5 Mega-pixel-specified CMOS imaging sensors. Keeping pace with the growing demand for its HDTV production services, F&F will debut its latest mobile unit – the new 53-ft. by 16-ft. Double-Expando GTX-16 – at this year’s U.S. Open.

“As our business continues to grow, we rely on the latest HDTV cameras from Ikegami for the flexibility to be able to produce content in 720p, 1080i, or whatever format our clients request,” comments George Orgera, President and CEO of F&F Productions, one of the oldest privately held mobile production facilities providers in the United States. “With the Ikegami HDK-79EC and its CMOS technology, we have that flexibility and are native in all of these formats. The Ikegami HDK-79EC is the best available. Its CMOS imaging technology not only delivers sharp, multi-format HD, it’s also lighter-weight and consumes less power.”

The Ikegami HDK-79EC camera

Configurable for either portable use or as a “hard” field/studio camera, Ikegami’s HDK-79EC’s 1980H by 1080V active-pixel CMOS sensors are switchable between interlace and progressive readout modes. Providing a full 16:9 aspect ratio, the HDK-79EC’s CMOS sensors provide 1080/60i, 1080/24p, and 720/60p HD as well as optional 50Hz formats, 1080/50i and 720/50p, high-speed dual-link 1080/60p, and Super Slow Motion, 720/120p and 1080/120i.

Incorporating Ikegami’s 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 full-digital 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.

“In this day and age, a lot of stadiums – especially at colleges – are still triax,” Orgera notes. “We have Ikegami’s triax adapters and fiber adapters for the cameras, so we can go either way. Ikegami enables us to go a lot farther on triax than any other manufacturer. With Ikegami, you can’t tell the difference between the two. I have no doubt that Ikegami has the best triax system.”

Orgera also noted the durability of Ikegami’s equipment at F&F Productions’ many locations. “We were in Vancouver for the Winter Games, and these cameras worked beautifully in the cold with no problems,” he says. “We also travel throughout the South, where summer temperatures can be brutal, but our Ikegami HDK-79EC’s continue to work beautifully.”

Having debuted its GTX-15 mobile HDTV production truck two years ago at the U.S. Open, F&F Productions is set to make history yet again when its new GTX-16 truck rolls up to this year’s tennis championship to provide production services for CBS. Incorporating the latest in HDTV production technologies, F&F’s new GTX-16 offers nearly 7 feet in headroom and a double blow-out production area for maximum comfort and convenience of network technical and production personnel.

“Several Ikegami LCD monitors are also in our new GTX-16 truck,” Orgera adds. These include two of Ikegami’s lightweight, low-power-consumption, full 1920 by 1080-pixel, 10-bit, 17-inch HLM-1750WR HD monitors. The HLM-1750WR supports multi-format SDI input as well as DVI-D and VBS inputs as a standard feature (and 3G-SDI as an option). Additional Ikegami monitors in GTX-16 include three 15-inch multi-format color CRT monitors.

“We switched to Ikegami cameras a long time ago,” Orgera says. “Right out of the box the Ikegami cameras work and they work like that forever. The Ikegami HDK-79EC CMOS camera is the sharpest and best there is. Their support is by far the best in the industry.”

For more information, visit Ikegami online at www.Ikegami.com.