Virginia Tech Expands Sports Production With Ikegami Cameras

At Virginia Tech, a common thread among the 31,000-strong student body is a passion for athletics as well as academics. The university’s video broadcasting department has shown that it also takes its sports seriously, with the recent addition of four Ikegami HDK-77EC2 HD Native CMOS camera systems.

Virginia Tech’s video broadcasting department added four Ikegami HDK-77EC2 HD Native CMOS camera systems to their arsenal.

EMP Unit 3 is the latest in EMP’s four-truck fleet to feature HD Ikegami cameras, and will see heavy use nationwide for college sports and entertainment broadcasts on major networks. “Ikegami has always performed extremely well in the many different environments that EMP has worked in,” says Mike Miller, Vice President of Earl Miller Productions, Inc. “We’ve been an Ikegami user for 25 years and we remain loyal to them, both for their performance in the field and their excellent support.”

From football to men’s and women’s basketball, highlight reels, recruiting videos, videoboard packages, and much more, Virginia Tech is responding to a sharply higher demand for its sports programming. “The number of productions we do has increased exponentially,” says Tom Booth, Director of Video Operations, for Virginia Tech. “A few years ago we streamed maybe a dozen events on our Website – now it’s over 50 per year. To keep up the pace, we needed an outstanding HD camera that was also an outstanding value, which is what led us to the Ikegami HDK-77EC2.

Ikegami’s HDK-77EC2 is an economical docking-style portable multi-format HD camera with advanced CMOS imaging sensors for 1080i/720p HD format flexibility, lower power consumption, and reduced operating temperature. In addition, the HDK-77EC2 has the versatility to quickly switch between fiber or triax cable use if needed.

When they’re being used to shoot Hokies home football games at the 66,233-capacity Lane Stadium, or basketball at the 10,052-capacity Cassell Coliseum, Virginia Tech will deploy two of the Ikegami cameras on the field as portables, with the other two placed at fixed points. No matter what the vantage point, the Ikegami HDK-77EC2’s 2/3-inch CMOS sensors achieve superb picture quality, with their extremely wide dynamic range.

“The image quality of our HDK-77EC2 cameras is excellent,” Booth notes. “They are consistent from camera to camera, which is important because we’re always switching live. Virginia Tech’s school colors are quite vibrant, and these cameras get that across in a whole new way — what we see onscreen is very crisp, and the colors are sharp.”

Ikegami’s long history of dependability was another key factor in Virginia Tech’s decision to upgrade to HD with the HDK-77EC2. “Ikegami’s track record was the determining factor,” confirms Booth. “These cameras are constantly getting dragged around, banged up, and rained on, but we’ve never had to send a camera off for repair.”

From high performance to cost-effectiveness and complete dependability, the Ikegami HDK-77EC2 is proving to be a smart investment for Virginia Tech. “Cameras you can count on are critical,” Tom Booth says. “The HDK-77EC2 looks terrific, is consistent, and reliable – that’s big for us.”