CVP-Mitcorp Supply All Tapeless HD Shooting Equipment For The 2008 Volvo Ocean Race

CVP Mitcorp, a leading supplier of broadcast technology in the UK, have supplied all the on-board camera kits and individual crew shooting packages for the Volvo Ocean Race.
This is the first time the Volvo Ocean Race has been shot in HD using three Sony PDW-700 XDCAM HD 422 shooting kits, which have been purchased by Amis Productions for the filming of the adventure.
The Amis Productions crew will film the race, which started Saturday October 11 in Alicante, Spain and concludes in St Petersburg, Russia during late June 2009. The teams sail over 37,000 nautical miles of the world's most treacherous seas.
Two of the cameras will be used to shoot from chase boats, with the other being used for aerial shots from a helicopter that will include a new PDW HD 1500 XDCAM HD deck. Simon Aldridge, Director of Amis Productions, indicated a number of reasons for the choice of kit, stating: "The most significant reason was that XDCAM HD uses a laser to record the data, which means vibrations in the helicopter wouldn't cause a break in recording, which can traditionally be an issue with tape."
He added: "The deck also worked with the Flir Ultra Media HD stabilising camera system, it's compact and it can be powered off 12 volts, all of which are great advantages in these conditions."
Simon continued: "We were first approached by Sunset & Vine and Volvo a year ago to discuss an HD acquisition format for the 2008-2009 Volvo Ocean Race and the proposition of XDCAM HD was raised. For our purposes, the PDW700 camera seemed the natural choice. It is competitively priced and remains compatible with all our existing production equipment, including specialist stabilising Schwem lenses for shooting from boat to boat."
One of the key features of the PDW700 is the ability to 'shade' the lenses; this is a process where the camera is balanced to each individual lens to give an even image intensity across the CCDs. CVP-Mitcorp's Engineer Brett McCaughn helped the Amis Productions team to set up their various specialist lenses, allowing them to work quickly in the field.
With modern Fujinon or Canon lenses, the camera will automatically switch the shading settings to the particular ID of the lens that is fitted to the camera. With older lenses, such as the Schwems, once shaded, it is simply a case of choosing the specific lens from the Lens file menu.
Simon added: "With a background in post production, I am particularly excited about the XDCAM HD disk format. Tapeless systems are great, but often there is a lengthy, costly and time-consuming process in archiving rushes from drives and portable Flash media in order to reuse the media. In an environment where speed of delivery is essential XDCAM gives us a hassle-free, small, handy and cheap archive format for rushes without compromising programme turn around."
Further information is available at: www.mitcorp.co.uk.
(KMcA)