Cost - benefit: Fundamental criterion

TV&Video: Studio cameras are for specific applications; From your point of view, what is the main need for the technological development of this kind of equipment?

Alan Keil: For studio cameras, most of our current efforts go towards multi-format cameras with HDTV signal outputs as well as SDTV. While Ikegami has been producing HDTV cameras for over 15 years, it is only now that they are achieving widespread interest and application. Also the multi-format concept is absolutely new. So, there is the development needed to make these types of cameras practical for a wide range of studio applications and redefine multi-format performance.

TV&Video: What is Ikegami's contribution to the technological advancement of studio cameras?

Alan Keil: Historically, Ikegami has had many contributions to the technological advancement of studio cameras. As you may know, we received an Emmy Award a few years ago for our pioneering work in the automatic adjustment of studio cameras and more recently, we received another Emmy for the introduction of the Skin Detail resource since the facial appearance of the actors can be softened so that they look younger without affecting any other area of the image. These two features are also significant for the latest models.

Another contribution that I can highlight is the System Expander that turns a portable camera into a complete studio camera, with all the necessary features. By virtue of a special mechanical design, the SE-79 can be converted into an HDK-79D portable camera in just one minute, providing excellent flexibility. For example, the same camera can be used with a long telephoto lens, then reconfigured to be used on the shoulder as a portable camera, and then configured again to install on a Jib Arm. This allows a camera to easily adapt to different production requirements.

TV&Video: When you are going to present a new model, do you take into account the conditions of the Latin American market?

Alan Keil: Our latest model is the HDK-790D camera. It is a fully digital multi-standard HDTV studio camera. This camera offers digital or analog HDTV outputs in 1080i or 720p. With the configuration card for CCU (Camera Control Unit), the user can change standard in a short time. In addition, analog or digital output 4801 (NTSC) is offered as part of the configuration. To switch between 1080i and 720p it is not necessary to make modifications to the camera head, everything is done from the selection menu of the CCU. SDTV outputs allow you to select the appearance of the screen between 16:9 and 4:3. From these specifications, you can see that it is a camera for all applications in the various markets.

The television industry in Latin America is a rapidly growing industry and, as it develops, so does the competition.

Free-to-air television channels are competing with cable operators and satellite programming distributors. As you might expect, such a market stretches further among all these players. Conditions like these may benefit the average viewer, but they create a huge shortage of advertising dollars or subscriptions. Nowadays it is common for engineers, instead of making their purchasing decisions based on quality and performance criteria, to do so with the criterion of the amount of dollars available. Not long ago, purchasing decisions were made in the demo room. The engineering directors pointed out the video equipment that was better for the application they were using and that was the end of the negotiation.

Today, however, the trend is to establish a middle way between the cost and benefit of the equipment. Unfortunately, this criterion has a very wide field of variations. The cost/benefit in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) can be very different from the cost/benefit in Quito (Ecuador), for example. We can go a step further and indicate that the factors of the cost/benefit formula are controlled by two distinct groups within a television organization. The portion of the cost belongs to the finance and accounting departments, while the share of the profit corresponds almost entirely to the engineers of the same entity. In some instances, an external entity, such as a consulting service, is called upon to assist in the evaluation of the formula but this is not always the case. So, while the industry has gone down this road, so have manufacturers.

Many equipment manufacturers, well aware that finance executives are involved in decision-making, are taking advantage of the situation. For example, regardless of how skilled a financial manager is in video equipment, he or she may not necessarily have knowledge of how a digital television camera achieves vertical or horizontal detail. Without engineering knowledge, financial managers rely on product specifications brought by catalogs that make underperforming products appear numerically the same as high-performing teams. As a result, the purchase decision will lean towards the cheapest product.

Another trend, which has begun to develop in South America, is that of the production of high-definition programs (HDTV). Filmmakers are in the process of learning from HDTV programming and the wide variety of new challenges it brings. The lenses are more demanding, the depth of field is not as great, and the focus and composition are achieving new levels of demand and professional quality. Overall, TV show markets in North and South America are taking the first steps in what will be standard procedures in the not-too-distant future.

This is a different field in which financial departments do not have, at the moment, much maneuverability in making purchasing and purchasing decisions. Ikegami, as a leading manufacturer in the production of high-quality transmission equipment, will not sacrifice its performance to meet the cost/benefit criterion. Fortunately for us, there are many Ikegami users in Latin America who are not going to settle for anything less than what their best money can buy.