Omni Showcase New Canon HJ14x Lens On BBC Cardiff Singer Of The World

Omni TV provided OB facilities - using both its HD1 & HD2 OB units - for the BBC's coverage of Cardiff Singer of the World at St David's Hall recently.
They took the opportunity to showcase the new Canon HJ14e x 4.3mm super wide-angle lens.
Omni use Canon lenses exclusively. MD Tony Cahalane said: "There has never been another lens choice for Omni. My experience of Canon over the years has created a loyalty based on first class optical quality and reliability. Having looked at the HJ14x at this year's NAB, I was amazed at the range and lack of distortion and was looking for a program to show off its abilities.
"BBC Cardiff Singer of the World was a perfect opportunity. This new Canon wide-angle lens brought a heightened sense of atmosphere and scale to the television coverage. The brief was to produce a shot that related the singers on stage with the jury at the back of the stalls - whilst also showing off St David's Hall!
"The new Canon HJ14e x 4.3mm super wide-angle has an impressive angle of view of 96.3degrees. Mounted on the tracking camera, it produced a stunning wide-angle of St David's Hall, with the judges in the foreground - and, due to the increase zoom ratio of 14:1, it still had the ability to zoom into a mid-shot of the soloist . A truly impressive lens!"
BBC Executive Producer Paul Bullock described the competition: "BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition has been running for over 20 years. This year's series of concerts was held in Cardiff between June 7 and 11, with the final on June 14.
"The final 25 singers were selected from more than 600 singers from 68 countries. They had taken part in auditions held in 44 locations - as far afield as Sydney and Stockholm, Bucharest and Beijing - all eager to win a place in the world's greatest singing competition.
"The contestants follow in the Cardiff footsteps of some of opera's biggest names, such as Bryn Terfel, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Karita Mattila and Lisa Gasteen."
(KMcA/GK)