'Who'll Stop The Rain?' - Taking Cover, With CP Cases

Summer in the UK is always a great time for sport; tennis at Wimbledon, cricket at Lords, rowing at Henley. However, in Britain, summer sport has an invincible enemy – rain!

It seems every year there is a threat of a downpour disrupting such events for the spectator and, more importantly, for the broadcaster, having a detrimental effect on sensitive camera equipment. With this in mind, the BBC and other broadcasters have turned to CP Cases to design a raincover solution for their broadcast cameras that would be in place on the main courts at Wimbledon and other outside events.

ProBag
The ProBag range of products was designed for broadcast professionals and includes camera jackets, bags, backpacks, shower hoods and production organisers.
Manufactured from 1000 denier weather resistant Cordura fabric, ProBags are extremely durable and can be modified or customised to suit any requirement. Foam padding, extra pockets and screen printing are all available as optional extras to provide ultimate protection.
Using this popular format as a basis, the ProBag raincovers manufactured for use by the BBC at Wimbledon have been designed so that the cameras would be operational during use in both normal weather and rain, so there is no need for the operator to stop filming to hurriedly put a raincover on.
The main body of the raincover fits over the camera and zips into place, while additional drawstrings secure the cover at the end of the lens and over the viewfinder; still allowing access to the pan bars to provide complete protection whilst allowing full access to the controls during a downpour.
Probag covers are usually produced in blue; however the raincovers for Wimbledon were manufactured in green to complement the colour of the distinctive grounds and scoreboard, and CP Cases pride themselves on being able to provide customised solutions to suit customers’ requirements.
But CP Cases' capabilities extend beyond simply protecting cameras from rain.

Outside Broadcast
Working with Sky and a number of other international broadcasters, Sony developed state of the art outside broadcast trucks. During the outfitting of these trucks, the company required assistance with the containment and protection of equipment during transportation and utilisation. Sony approached CP Cases, with its 40-plus years' experience in making transit cases and racks and bags for the broadcast, rock and roll and many other industries, to fulfil this requirement.
Sony's Outside Broadcast (OB) vehicles are built to an unusually high specification, for use in forthcoming prestige sports events. Because of CP Cases' existing relationship and expertise, they persuaded the client to opt for CP Cases over their usual supplier.
Sony had originally wanted to use their partner, a German case manufacturer, but thanks to the strength of the relationship with the OB Team at Sony and the high quality of the solution presented, Sony were convinced CP Cases would deliver the best outcome.
The OB trucks contained full editing suites whilst the support vehicles contained storage for cameras and associated equipment. The trucks were required to carry a significantly larger amount of equipment than in previous projects, so in addition to the usual issues surrounding transportation of electronics and broadcast media equipment, CP Cases' designers were faced with both space constraints and Sony's desire to manage the amount of equipment as easily as possible.

AluCurve
The AluCurve case, traditionally used by the broadcast media because of its strength and lightweight qualities, provided the solution and a suite of cases in five different sizes and configurations were custom-made including 19" electronics racks and cases with bespoke foam inserts.
Sony needed interchangeable, removable lids on each end of the cases and racks. All CP Cases' broadcast cases are handmade and, due to the nature of the 2mm rigidised aluminium used, there can be a fraction of a mm difference between each case. It requires a great deal of skill and experience of working with this material to achieve the required accuracy; something CP Cases have in abundance.
CP Cases also delivered a selection of custom machined foam inserts fitted into cabinet drawers for other sensitive equipment when in transit.
Working to a tight schedule (aren't they all), all cases, racks and accessories were delivered to Sony to their satisfaction and are now in regular use at major events throughout the world.
Read the full article in the online edition of Regional Film & Video here.
(IT/JP)