‘BLIMP’ PROVIDES HIGH ANGLE SHOTS

FINELINE Media Finance, broadcast finance specialists, helped give millions of viewers a bird’s eye view at last year’s Sydney Olympics.
A new tethered blimp, supplied by the Aerial Camera Systems Group (ACS), provided digital airborne images from 500 feet above the rowing and canoeing venue, via a revolutionary new fibre optic system, developed in-house by ACS.
ACS have been working with Fineline for the last three years on a preferred supplier basis. Fineline advised ACS finance their new tethered blimp on a straight forward hire purchase arrangement.
Fineline also provided finance for ACS’s new Gyron 935 stabilised camera system which tracked the men’s gold medal rowing team from a flat bed vehicle, driving beside the Penrith course. A smaller 825 Gyron was rigged to a boat which gave stabilised images of the racing from a competitor’s perspective.
Colin Jackson, Finance Manager of ACS, said: “The Olympics were a huge undertaking for us with our range of stabilised camera equipment being mounted to helicopters, airships, tethered blimps, boats and vehicles. We had the highest camera in the roof of stadium Australia to cover the opening and closing ceremonies, but it was the tethered blimp coverage of the rowing which was most nerve racking for us as it was a completely new system. Fortunately, there were no teething problems at all.” (CD)