LDK8300, Phantom, Alexa awarded

Both Grass Valley and Vision Research have won Technical Emmys for slow-motion cameras, while Arri has won an HPA award for its Alexa.

It is Grass Valley's 17th Technical Emmy Award, this time for the design and implementation of its LDK 8300 HD Live Super SloMo camera system.

Since its was introduced in 2008, the LDK 8300 has been used extensively at major sporting events, such as the 2008 Summer Olympics, 2010 Winter Olympics, and 2010 World Cup, and is widely used throughout Europe for live slow motion.

“The Grass Valley LDK 8300 is unique in its ability to deliver extremely high-quality images at multiple frame rates, allowing it to be used as a standard HD camera and for captivating slow motion effects at 2x or 3x speed,” said Jeff Rosica, Senior Vice President of Grass Valley. “This latest recognition by NATAS is a testament to our engineering team in Breda, The Netherlands and countless others who have made the LDK 8300 such a resounding success within the global production community. We set the standard in 3x Super Slow-Motion in SD with our LDK 23 camera system and now we’ve set a new standard in HD with the LDK 8300.”

Probably the most interesting technology it uses it is AnyLight flicker reduction, which compensates for the flicker caused by artificial lighting and enables it to cope with the uncertainties of stadium lighting (which can often have different types of lights flickering at different rates).

Ultra Slow

The high-speed Vision Research HD Phantom camera won its Emmy from NATAS in the same category as the LDK 8300. “We are truly honored to receive this distinguished award,” said Andy Jantzen, Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder of Vision Research.  “The ultra-slow-motion technology we created has been widely adopted in sporting and other live events around the world, including the Super Bowl, World Series, Olympics, World Cup and the Commonwealth Games.  Our technology also is used in television commercials and motion pictures and is a key component of the 3D imaging that can now be seen in many Hollywood films.

The technology being recognised can be found in the Phantom v640 digital high-speed camera when used for broadcast applications (as well as in the v12.1 and v710). The v640 (pictured left) can record at speeds of up to 2,700 frames per second at 1920x1080, allowing ultra-slow-motion replay.

The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences' 2010 Technical and Engineering Emmys will be given to both Grass Valley and Vision Research at the 2011 CES Show in Las Vegas in January, in the category of HD Super Slow Motion System for Acquisition, Recording and Playback for Broadcast Entertainment and Sports Production.

Alexa Excellence

Arri has won the Hollywood Post Alliance first Engineering Excellence Award given for an acquisition system, for its Alexa camera.

The Arri Alexa (right) is the first camera to support the recording of Apple ProRes 4444, 422 (HQ), LT or PROXY encoded images onto on-board SxS memory cards for Direct To Edit delivery. This means that no transcoding or re-wrapping is required for editing in Final Cut Pro. Avid Media Access also supports ProRes for Media Composer 5, allowing time and cost savings. Productions can also record in uncompressed HD or ArriRAW with QuickTime/ProRes off-line editing proxies created directly in the camera.

“We are honoured that the Alexa camera has been recognized by the HPA for Engineering Excellence. Arri has always focused on providing the highest quality cameras with convenience, reliability and ruggedness to meet the demanding needs of production. In the digital world, this commitment extends to providing convenient and compatible workflows to support post production," said Glenn Kennel, President of Arri.

By David Fox