Looking to make HD slow-motion acquisition affordable, Thomson showed its new LDK 8000 SportCam camera, which can capture progressive HD images, natively, in multiple formats and frame rates, at IBC2007. The company said that the camera had already been pre-ordered by a major client for use during the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
Based on the LDK 8000 HD camera, the new SportCam camera can be used in standard HD operating mode or for high-quality 2X HD slow-motion replays, making it versatile and cost effective to operate. The two-piece dockable camera system is fully compatible with all current LDK HD subsystems. Mobile production companies can outfit an entire truck with them, using some for slo-mo and others for standard HD acquisition alongside standard LDK 8000 cameras.
The LDK 8000 SportCam features 14-bit analog-to-digital conversion and 22-bit internal digital signal processing. It also can be used to shoot at double speed — either 100Hz or 119.88Hz, depending on the HD format — and record to an external third-party disk recorder. During recording, concurrent HD and high-quality, oversampled SD outputs are available.
Providing complete flexibility for sports productions, the LDK 8000 SportCam uses the same triax or fiber-optic cable, often pre-installed in stadiums, used by other LDK Series cameras. Triax cable can be used for distances up to 3500ft, which can be doubled with the use of an HD triax repeater.
For more information, visit http://www.thomsongrassvalley.com/.