TV Technology - January 7, 2009 - (Page 14)

NEWS Doing More With Less Gear needs to be low cost, more efficient for today’s news crews by Craig Johnston SEATTLE s somebody who spent about seven years shooting TV news during some of television’s halcyon times, this writer still never remembers anybody suggesting he start doing less with more. But now that the TV business has been slammed with the worldwide economic crisis on top of an already shaky media business climate, news photogs are being pushed even harder to do more with less. Equipment vendors who supply peripheral gear for these electronic news gatherers have offered up suggestions on how their equipment can help them become even more efficient. A light combinations drawing up to 35 watts. It features an LED capacity indicator it calls the Power & Time Circle. It uses five LEDs to display charge status in terms of percentage. BATTERIES Power is a good place to start, because without power for the cameras and, in darker locations, portable lights, there are no TV images. In spite of tighter lithium-ion battery air transport restrictions, Frezzi Energy Systems President James Crawford reported he’s getting firm orders for the company’s new 200 Wh lithium-ion batteries. “I think we’re seeing a return to the one-man-band in TV news, and we have demand for the 200s from people shooting news in big cities,” he said. “They have power-hungry HD camcorders and lights to run, and they need a battery to handle that.” Such a 200 Wh battery can deliver eight hours of runtime with a 25-watt camera load. Frezzi also offers lower Wh lithium ion batteries to stay under air transport restrictions. PAG engineered its L95E lithium ion battery pack to provide a lightweight power source for camera and An FLB-200 lithium ion battery powers a shoulder-mounted professional camera rig along with a Frezzi Mini-fill On Camera light. “It comes with a V-mount, which is what most of the Japanese cameras now provide,” said Steve Manios, president of Ste-Man, which markets PAG products in the U.S. “The small size of the L95E allows a camera operator to put two in the camera bag and operate most news camera and light packages for the whole day.” The theory at Anton/Bauer is that a news cameraman can be most efficient if he has exactly the right battery every time he goes out on assignment. “If you’re going to be climbing mountains all day, then I’ve got the Dionic 90s, the smallest, lightest and most powerful battery, inch for inch, pound for pound,” said Paul Dudeck, Anton/Bauer head of North American sales. For a shoot that is going to take the news photog away from a recharging station for a period of time, or who is going to have a long, uninterrupted run of the camera, Dudeck suggests the lithium-ion Dionic 160. For someone traveling by airline who needs power but not the restrictions on lithium ion cells, he pointed to their Hytron 140, which uses nickel metal hydride cells that are not subject to air transport regulations. Higher power consumption from new HD camcorders sent IDX to the drawing boards to develop a pair of Endura batteries: the E-7, a lightweight 68 Wh lithium ion battery pack, and the higher capacity E-10 93 Wh lithium ion battery pack. “Our batteries can handle a high power consumption load while remaining lightweight,” said Tony Iwamoto, IDX executive vice president for sales and marketing. IDX’s V-mount battery packs are available in a power-link version that allows them to be stacked, piggyback on a camcorder to add together their capacity, or in a less expensive non power-link version. Iwamoto said IDX will add a new model to the Endura line at the 2009 NAB Show. LIGHTS that to a 50 watt tungsten lamp.” News photogs need to change their lighting techniques to keep their new HD camcorders from adding 10 years to the faces of the reporters and interview subjects. So, many of the recent developments in newsgathering lighting equipment have been coming up with softer lights. Lowel Lighting’s Riva soft-box style light has been a soft-lighting solution for news shooters for a number of years, not the least because it can be set up in under a minute. “There are a number of people who just use one Rifa all by itself as their light when lighting interview and standups,” said Lowel Director of Communications Duane Sherwood. Rifa comes in four sizes. So that a news shooter doesn’t have to carry a number of different on-camera light fixtures, Anton/Bauer designed its Ultralights to accept a number of different lamps in the same fixture. “We’ve always had the ability to change the output without changing the light fixture,” said Anton/Bauer’s Dudeck. “We give you the option to use what you need. If 90-percent of what you do is fill lighting on faces outdoors, you can leave in the daylight lamp. But when you go inside and have to fill light, you can put in a 20 watt tungsten lamp. When you need to light a bigger space, you can change Lowel Light Rifa eX With Lowel’s original Rifa, the type of lamphead was determined at purchase, and the user was locked into that style lamp. Lowel has upgraded that to the Rifa eX (exchange), with interchangeable lamphead assemblies, allowing a quick change from tungsten light sources to daylight balance fluorescent sources. The eX upgrade can be done at Lowel’s factory, or an upgrade kit allows the user to do his own upgrade. Kino-Flo provides its BarFly line of Curious? Please visit our website www.riedel.net ARTIST DIGITAL MATRIX INTERCOM The Solution for World Class Events. 14 January 7, 2009 • TV Technology • www.tvtechnology.com http://www.riedel.net http://www.riedel.net http://www.riedel.net http://www.tvtechnology.com

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TV Technology - January 7, 2009 NFL Enters a New Dimension Mobile DTV Looms Large in 2009 Contents A ‘Flexible Framework’ Doing More With Less ‘X’tra-Streamlined Finish Line in Sight for BAS Transition Ahead of the Relocation Curve DTV Transition Survival Guide ENG and the Lines of Communication DTV Transition Survival Guide Who Do We Really Work For? Obama to Expand Internet Access The Wizard Takes a Holiday The Solid-State Disk Revival To Light the Ear... or Not Hulu Gets It Right—the First Time User Reports—Video Servers & Recording/Controllers Reference Guide Product Showcase Classifieds Marketplace TV Tech Business

TV Technology - January 7, 2009

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