TVBE_Dec FC_P8_news 15/12/08 10:04 Page 1 Inside:TVBNews Workflow analysis, Camera Special, Scarlet and Epic

Europe’s television technology business magazineEUROPEwww.tvbeurope.com DECEMBER 2008 £5.00/€8.00/$10.00 Hi from slo-motion Sports OB Slo-motion is an integral part of any sports broadcast, and frame-rates are increasing all the time. Andy Stout went to Twickenham to see Arri’s impressive Hi-Motion camera in action at the Rodrigo Vazquez’s Inside Hamas story was the result of a four-week international rugby arena shoot and unprecedented access to one Gaza police unit Twickenham, Saturday 15 November, and things are not Unique event honours going well for the England rugby team in their match against Australia. Sitting in Telegenic’s brand-new triple-expanding T16 freelance camera spirit truck, 11 VT operators drive the “We thought we knew all about slo-mos, but the Arri camera shows us a battery of EVS XT[2] production world that we had never seen before,” says Sky Director Martin Turner and playout servers that a mod- Rory Peck Awards ern sports OB relies on and all wince as one as England Fly Half By George Jarrett Danny Cipriani is poleaxed by For every European free to bemoan a crunching Australian tackle. the social ravages of the credit “I’ve got it on Hi-Motion,” crunch, there are hundreds of shouts VT Op Martin Cracknell, trapped, desperate people in and the next moment the point of Zimbabwe, Palestine, Somalia, impact is played out to the world Afghanistan, North Korea, Tibet, feed at a smooth and all too vis- Pakistan, and the Congo who, Farah Duguf’s Two Weeks in ceral 200fps. If the tackle looked every day, face the death crunch. Mogadishu mixed street battles and painful before, thanks to Arri’s They might be ethnically civil war deprivation images Hi-Motion camera, it now looks cleansed, starved to death, considerably more so. caught in a suicide bomb blast, concerning the wars in Afghanistan “We thought we knew all shot, or burnt to death. They and Somalia, and the plight of about slo-mos, but the Arri cam- know that schedule so much bet- petrified North Koreans bidding era shows us a world that we had Intrepid reporter Andy Stout (far right) covers the action for TVBEurope ter than us, despite the fact that for freedom by crossing the never seen before, such as the we get to see everything grim, Tumen River into China. moment of impact,” comments wide. From the initial prototype cruel and unjust on TV. The honour of hosting the Martin Turner, match director unit that was deployed in 2006, Acquisition Special For those not wholly involved awards night fell to Fionnula and executive producer-rugby at there are now 17 units of the TVBEurope is the only trade in the 24/7 TV news business and Sweeney of CNN International, Sky Sports. “It’s that ‘Wow camera working worldwide, with media to systematically track new its obsessive hunt for headline who reminded her audience that, moment’ that Hi-Motion gives 10 being supplied out of Arri’s developments in the acquisition stories, this is the type of accu- “This is a unique occasion with us, though you have to be careful UK headquarters in Uxbridge. space each year. Part One of our mulative impact you might get the reputation for rewarding the to use it at the right editorial Seven alone were deployed out in annual Acquisition Special looks from attending The Rory Peck essence of the freelance spirit.” moment, of course.” Beijing over the summer covering at all types of cameras plus Awards. The 2008 version She went on to promise com- Suffice to say that the Arri an impressively diverse range of monitors and prompting systems attracted 41 entries from 36 pelling and disturbing pictures, Hi-Motion camera is providing Olympic sports. — Fergal Ringrose sources, and the three winners more and more ‘wow moments’ Section starts page 26 produced exceptional stories Continued on page 8 for sports broadcasters world- Continued on page 8 TVBE_Dec FC_P8_news 8/12/08 11:29 Page 8

TVBEUROPE NEWS & ANALYSIS

For studio work, meanwhile, fantastic, but the speed in rugby is Hi from once the director has shouted generally only about 15-20mph, ‘Cut!’ the sequence can be instantly 30 or 40mph at the most for a really reviewed in HD from the Hi- snapped pass, so only 300fps is slo-motion Motion, and can be played out to ever really needed. a deck such as the Sony SRW-1 “It’s perhaps in the fine detail Continued from page 1 HDCAM SR portable VTR. If analysis where it really makes the progressive recording is required difference,” he continues. “Also, The camera’s genesis lies with rather than interlace, using the rugby is a game part-verified by a Japanese high speed camera special- dual-link HD-SDI outputs from video referee, so to have a tool ist, NAC, which was fulfilling a the Hi-Motion the production can like this that he can use can prove specific brief for NHK — namely to record straight onto the SRW-1 invaluable in helping him make develop a high speed digital cam- and tape. the right decision.” era for capturing high-speed action for TV drama. This led to a part- cameraman behind the lens at something interesting happen on “Rugby is a game part-verified by a video referee, so to nership with Arri Media to develop Twickenham and one of the most the pitch, they hit search on the have a tool like this that he can use can prove invaluable a production model, which was highly regarded slo-mo camera Hi-Motion control panel which achieved using a combination of operators in the country. “The pic- takes the RAM recorder out of in helping to make the right decision” — Martin Turner specially developed components tures we get out of it are really good record and jumps straight to a cue and software and off-the-shelf quality and it also has one of the point. They then hit play and the Scrumming down So, from 0 to 17 in just over parts from the likes of Panasonic few colour LCD panel viewfinders previous 22 seconds, or part there- It’s worth pointing out that the two and a half years. Where does and Fujinon. The result is a super that’s genuinely crisp and sharp.” of, is played back at 25fps straight Hi-Motion is far more than just a Hayford see the camera going slo-motion camera that runs at The camera records in native from the CCU base station and gimmicky device. During the next? More units are an obvious between 12-300fps, making it HD using three 2.2 megapixel into one channel of the EVS. England vs Australia match, Turner possibility in the future — though handily adaptable from fast mov- CMOS sensors. Pictures are The operator marks in and out used Hi-Motion replays three he’s at pains to point out that Arri ing sports to slower ones (though recorded directly as uncom- points on the EVS panel and times in the first five minutes alone. has no plans to manufacture and it also now boasts an extreme top- pressed RGB in the camera head clips up the slowed down event. “We have three replay modes sell the camera — but for the end 600fps capture option). onto 48GB of RAM, providing Impressively, within six frames of now,” he says. “Normal slo-mo, meantime he sees a tighter inte- “It’s a very robust unit,” com- 22 seconds of slo-mo at 300fps the XT[2] channel going into the Sony HD Tri-Motion cameras gration with EVS on the cards. ments Arri Digital High-Speed and 11 seconds at its maximum record the item can go out to air, [two were used in the corners at “One area we are examining in Manager Andy Hayford. “In two capture rate of 600fps. This is making it often the first replay Twickenham], which provide fan- particular is integrating the two and a half years of operation we’ve piped using industry-standard after an incident to be aired. tastic quality but only slow you systems much more tightly so that only had one failure, and that was SMTPE hybrid fibre to the CCU Alternatively the clip can just be down to a certain level, and then the operators are only using one heat-related due to the camera and then onwards to air, HD held on the EVS network for use the extremely high quality of the panel, rather than ours and EVS’ sweating inside a cover at the EVS or HD VTR. in analysis, highlights, or closer or Hi-Motion. A great reaction shot as they have to do now. Both com- cycling time-trials in Beijing where Typically in sports OB, it title sequences. Once safely record- is great in slo-mo, but it’s even bet- panies are working on that at the its temperature climbed to 60˚.” records to an EVS XT[2], using ed, the Hi-Motion is switched back ter in Hi-Mo. You need to use its moment and, when we crack that, “It’s a nice camera to oper- one channel for record and one for into record mode and the whole highest speeds for the right sort of that should improve an already ate,” says Bob Blockley, senior replay. Once the operator sees process starts again. action though. Cricket at 600fps is efficient workflow.”

“When that incident happened I with 15 years’ experience, he was icant news story, was collected by Unique event honours was 80m away taking fire from able to swap between the warring another hero of the Zimbabwean two sides. The Taliban overran sides running street battles. media community — Mike Saburi freelance camera spirit the lines and those people were “If you are working as a — for his Reuters story Zimbabwe: Continued from page 1 shot dead from 20ft.” cameraman in Mogadishu you What the future holds. Unlike ‘D’ he A tall man, Hetherington is are always in danger, so you must can work openly. the first storyline in a stunning set honest enough to say he stoops stay away from your family,” he of clips featuring a man who had behind the shortest guy in the field. said. “I sent them to Djibouti. just spent 10 million Zimbabwean “In my work I always seem “It is usual that both sides will Something lower cost dollars on a cabbage. Bigger to be embedded. I seek to be have some kind of animosity, so I Sony had entered another three- ones would have cost him 20-25 emotionally embedded with my just try to hide as much as I can,” year event sponsorship term with million dollars. subjects as well as physically he added. “There are no more the Peck Trust, and Naomi The Rory Peck Award for embedded, because I want viewers journalists left behind. Everyone Climer, VP of Sony Europe, was Features saw Vaughan Smith’s as close as I can get them to the was running away from the bul- quick to compare the early days Grenadiers Fighting in Helmand nuanced, emotional experience of lets, but a few brave cameramen when it thought sponsorship was and Rodrigo Vazquez’s Inside any story,” he said. remained. I was one of them, and ‘the right thing to do’ to the deeper Hamas lose out to Tim He was not really covering the I decided to show the international sophistication of today. Hetherington’s The Other War. war as a journalist, because long community what was going on. A “I feel that the relationship is Hetherington was embedded with projects are his driver. Hether- woman even asked me to film her deeper then just sponsoring the soldiers from the second platoon ington is also an anomaly in that starving children.” awards. I really feel that we are of the 173rd Airborne division in he contributes to Vanity Fair Duguf intends to continue For The Other War, Tim Hetherington wrapped up with the Trust in some the Korengal Valley, and his magazine, but the broadcast work with his job until dead, but he kept shooting in extreme conditions way,” she said. “In the early days report includes a Taliban ambush was commissioned and part may move from news to docu- and managed to produce a filmic when we worked together it was in which two American scouts are financed by ABC. mentaries. Talking of the local quality to his pictures very much global, but on the other killed and a distraught friend is Vazquez’s story — the legisla- broadcaster who fed his images to hand, even in Europe, we felt the only allowed a few seconds to tive council of Hamas pitched ITN/C4, he said: “Whatever he station, it required the camera team coverage was not as broad as we grieve. The judges praised the fact violently against the Palestinian broadcasts, somebody will be to risk arrest by the Chinese and sit would both like; there were parts that Hetherington had kept people — was the result of a four- unhappy and they will attack. hidden through all weathers. of the world that we were not get- shooting in extreme conditions week shoot and unprecedented Whatever you broadcast, you They tracked some of the ting good representation in.” and managed to produce a filmic access to one Gaza police unit. create your own enemy. thousands of refugees who flee Entries from Argentina, quality to his pictures. “This is the most difficult time the North, the most compelling Mexico and the US suggest that In partnership with Sebastian that I have experienced in images being infrared shots of the awards are boosting awareness. Younger, Hetherington shot 140 Running from bullets Mogadishu. It is a close call all people carrying their clothes to “We and the Trust have done a hours on location and under In a final contest between a the time,” he added. keep them dry as they tiptoe over lot of work to try and bring in Taliban attack, plus 100 hours of Kenyan, Nepali and Somali, The Sony sponsored Impact a frozen Tumen River. more nationalities, and one way of interviews with soldiers. His Abdullahi Farah Duguf’s Two Award — for a news story that Jung and Han shot almost 300 doing that is to invite different intention is to produce a feature Weeks in Mogadishu took the changes policy or exposes some- hours of footage, and sent their nationality judges,” said Climer. length documentary. Rory Peck Award for News ahead thing that was not previously rushes back to South Korea by “The Trust’s intention is to make “What you saw was front line of Subina Shrestha’s Down the known — was collected by the many routes. They beat Jezza sure every freelancer knows they grief. That valley where I spent Irrawaddy Delta (after Cyclone South Korean journalists Jung In Neumann’s Undercover in Tibet and are here, and that people who need the last year going in and out of Nargis had wreaked havoc) and Taek and Han Yong Ho for their ‘D’ and Ginny Stein’s Mugabe’s help can get it, no matter where experienced 80% of all the fight- Clifford Derrick’s Kibera Slum. 10-month project Korea: Out of the Calling Card. they are. We get incredibly rich ing in Afghanistan; and it is Duguf’s story mixes street bat- North. A mixed media project cre- The Martin Adler Prize, honour- feedback from the freelancers, and where 70% of American muni- tles with images of the deprivation ated by the Chosunilbo Daily, ing a freelancer who has told, or obviously they are always asking tions are dropped,” he said. caused by civil war. A cameraman which has aspirations to run a TV played a vital part in telling a signif- for something lower cost.”

8 www.tvbeurope.com DECEMBER 2008