The Salvation Army Expands Video Production With Ikegami HC-HD300 Cameras

The mission of the Salvation Army is “doing the most good,” an objective that broadcast-quality video production helps them achieve. The renowned international charitable organization is spreading the word about its accomplishments and initiatives better than ever with a new HD studio, equipped with the superior imagery, flexibility and control of three new Ikegami HC-HD300 CMOS Camera Systems.

The Salvation Army’s expansive new territorial headquarters in Des Plaines, IL, has many important jobs, including producing everything from Public Service Announcements (PSA’s) to events and corporate training videos. “I think people would be surprised to see the high-level studio that we have here,” says David Q. Andrews, Visual Communications Director for The Salvation Army, Central Territory. “We try to make the most of everything we have, and producing video in-house is our way of making the most of the donations that people are entrusting us with.”

“When we were budgeting for our dream studio,” Andrews continues, “it was our goal to look at every camera that had the image quality, size, form factor, operator control functions, optical fiber capabilities, and price range we wanted. The Ikegami HC-HD300 had all the features we were looking for, at a very competitive price.”

The Ikegami cameras are central to the Salvation Army’s spacious new 38 x 30-foot studio that also features a VO booth, greenroom, meeting space and a large storage area. “We had been shooting in HD before, but we have expanded what we can do considerably,” Andrews says. “The imagery that we get from our Ikegami HC-HD300’s is fantastic: They look very crisp and clear, with excellent color depth. These cameras have also been very easy to set up and very easy to use.”

A highly flexible, docking style camera that represents Ikegami’s most affordable HD studio camera system, the HC-HD300 is ready for the studio or field. It features a newly-developed 2.5 million pixel 1/3-inch 3-CMOS optical block design, in keeping with the outstanding imagery and same rugged construction of the broadcast-ready Unicam HD line.

Ideal for broadcast TV stations, as well as educational, corporate and house of worship applications, the highly versatile Ikegami HC-HD300 also works in conjunction with a camera control system consisting of the FA-300 Fiber Adapter and BSF-300 Base Station, utilizing OpticalCON DUO connectors and SMPTE hybrid fiber/copper camera cable.

The Salvation Army counted on the fiber connectivity of Ikegami’s HC-HD 300 to realize their vision of a flexible broadcast center that would be useful building-wide. “We want to make sure we had connections running everywhere,” Andrews explains. “We knew we could use Ikegami’s optical transmission design to complete a fiber-to-fiber network running to the different rooms within this facility. The ability to patch those cameras in from multiple locations is a tremendous timesaver.”

The Salvation Army has experienced Ikegami’s renowned commitment to customer support from the beginning. “Ikegami has been with us throughout this entire process,” Andrews notes. “Their team understood exactly what we needed for setup and installation in our facility. They commissioned the cameras, trained us and were even onsite for our first production to make sure everything was working right. The after-purchase support has been fantastic.”

As the Salvation Army spreads the word about its vitally important work, Ikegami has been a powerful partner in honing their presentation. “The Ikegami HC-HD300 is a really high quality camera with all the features that we wanted, at a price we could afford,” David Q. Andrews concludes. “Our new facility wouldn’t have achieved this level of excellence without Ikegami.”

Ikegami is a leading supplier of high quality professional broadcast equipment. TheIkegami name is recognized globally for its state-of-the-art television cameras, medical cameras and CCTV equipment. World-class CMOS imagery, 4K and 8K techonolgy, multi-format flexibility, and unparalleled customer support define theIkegami experience for users in broadcast, sports venues, mobile production, houses of worship, education, corporate and many more applications.