Iditarod race pushes P2 technology to the limit
May 1, 2007 12:00 AM, BY MICHAEL GROTTICELLI
Protecting the gear
Due to the harsh conditions, the cameras were protected with thermal vests made especially for the race by Porta Brace. These were used sparingly to transport the cameras into and out of the elements. The camera operators sometimes found it hard to work with the vests in the field because many of the camera buttons and controls were covered up.
Anton Bauer provided HyTron 140 Li-Ion batteries that enabled up to four hours of run time in the cold weather. Carrying two batteries each, this allowed the shooters to work continuously without having to change batteries during the course of a day. The company’s ELIPZ batteries, which mount under the camera, were used with the HVX200 camcorders.
At one point, the cameras were exposed to the elements for five days straight, at –35 degrees and below, and they performed flawlessly. It got so cold that one of the lenses broke off a camera at the lens-mount, because the screws became metal fatigued and simply crumbled as the camera was being picked up. (And it wasn’t a heavy lens.) Yet, the cameras, the cards and the images stored on the P2 cards and were not affected by the cold.
In another incident, a producer was juggling P2 cards in and out of a camera. To prevent dropping a card in the snow, she stuck one in her mouth for a second, and it froze to her tongue. The images on the card remained intact.
Despite the -40 degree temperatures, 50mph wind gusts and a frozen play/record switch on one of the cameras, overall the equipment performed flawlessly. The crew captured 110 hours of stunning footage in 720p HD at 24fps and turned around short segments in less than 20 minutes for viewing on the Internet. This had never been possible with the tape-based workflow used in previous years.
Training the crew
To ensure that things went smoothly, Panasonic sent five consultants to Anchorage and Nome, Alaska, prior to the start of the race. The consultants included Art Aldrich, C.R. Caillouet, Michael Caporale, Barry Green and Bernie Mitchell. For two days, they helped train the camera crews on using the P2 cameras and developing a workflow with the P2 Mobile deck to get clips off the cards and into a computer for editing on Final Cut Pro. Files were stored in the QuickTime format, so the system could immediately recognize the clips and editors could begin working.
Aldrich, who helped set up the Apple/Panasonic workflow, set up systems for his own production (for Panasonic’s internal use) with a single 1TB GTECH RAID unit and a Quantum SDLT600A for tape archive. The Iditarod teams used two GTECH units (1TB each) raided together on the Mac laptops for redundancy.
Proper management and planning were important to carefully log footage, as was keeping track of individual solid-state cards.
Home free
Heister is now working on a 90-minute HD program, which will be released on DVD later this year. Panasonic is also producing a behind-the-scenes documentary. Heister is cutting on a Mac G5 workstation running Final Cut Pro. The P2 system records video as digital files, so he anticipates his time in post to be about one-third lees than in previous years when he worked from videotape.
The 2007 Iditarod race started in Anchorage on March 4 and the winner, Lance Mackey, crossed the finish line in Nome nine days, five hours, eight minutes and 41 seconds later. Images of the race can be viewed at www.panasonic.com/iditarod.
Michael Grotticelli regularly reports on the professional video and broadcast technology industries.
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