78 OPINION CAMERA Michael Cuomo, Vice President, Telemetrics


Robotic camera control systems had steadily been advancing for years, with new features talent tracking and a reduction in size and weight, but the pandemic really accelerated things. We’re now seeing systems with Ethernet connectivity doing remote productions, whereby the operators sits in a control room in one location and the robotic cameras are installed thousands of miles away. And the camera moves are as precise as if the operator were sitting in the next room. Custom camera track systems, smooth on-air capable elevating pedestals and independently (or collectively) operated pan/tilt heads have also become easier to implement and operate, due to improvements in servo-mechanical designs. There has also been a real effort to make control panels more intuitive to allow less technical people to operate the systems. This has made them popular with houses of worship, educators and medical professionals.


The use of artificial intelligence AI has been coming for some time in our industry, but recent developments have seen several


layers – facial tracking, object tracking and an ultra-wide band, real-time location system – being added to make these talent- and object-tracking systems more accurate and reliable when tracking corporate speakers on stage, anchors on a news set and/or members of government in a large chamber.


“Camera robotics dramatically increase rodction ecienc while delivering superior quality and consistency”


ach layer has its benefits. acial allows users to identify a unique person in a group; object tracking is great because if you don’t have full facial coverage you can still track a person, and ultra-wide band is ideal for securing an absolute position of a person either on camera or off.


By employing this new ultra-wide band sensing capability, we know the distance of the person from the camera, which in turn allows us to do focus tracking much better.


LDX 135 LAUNCHES AT IBC Grass Valley


BY ADRIAN PENNINGTON


The LDX 135 is a new camera at a lower entry price point for operators who want all the features of Grass Valley’s LDX 150 except the 3x high-speed option. Chris Merrill, Director of Product Marketing, Grass Valley, said: “To make this next-generation technology even more accessible, we are introducing the LDX 135 here at IBC.” Following the restrictions resulting


And, even if people cross over in front of the camera, we know which person to track at all times. In addition, if the person is off camera, we can acquire them by placing a small credit- card sized sensor on their person. Special AI wrappers are utilised to help


determine control panel operator rules for the robotic cameras (for example, over-the- shoulder left/right and two-shot framing). Indeed, due to the new restrictions on studio personnel, leveraging AI to recall settings and operate the system with a single person has become a very popular feature. With Covid restrictions beginning to


ease, returning to the studio has never been as important to the industry and robotic camera control has been a major piece to figuring out how to return safely with the least amount of disruption to daily operations. Camera robotics dramatically increase production efficiency, while delivering superior quality and consistency with accurate and repeatable robotic recalls, assisted by AI-based control algorithms. 12.G34


ROBOTICS KEEP THE INDUSTRY MOVING FORWARD


from the Covid pandemic there is an insatiable demand for high-quality content, but with the market still in recovery, everyone is stretching their resources to the limit. That’s why the faster turnaround and configuration times along with à la carte daily or perpetual options available from Grass Valley’s new LDX 100 series cameras have made them so popular.


The LDX 135 has all the features of its sister unit, including options for ,  and field-replaceable SFP/QSFP connections. The all-in- one SMPTE ST2110-based camera


The LDX 135 shares features with the LDX 150, including options for UHD, D ad fiedrepaceae PP coectio


requires no separate base station, so shipping is reduced, and setup is as simple as plugging in an IP connection. For environments where IP isn’t accessible, the LDX 100 series is also backwards compatible


with SDI connectivity using the XCU base station. Real-time status information and option changes are easily carried out in the field with the free smartphone app. 9.A01


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