'Strong Demand' For Q-Ball And Q-Ball Pre-Set

17/05/2012
LONDON, GBR: Camera Corps has reported strong international demand for the standard and recently-introduced Pre-Set versions of the Q-Ball robotic camera systems...

This includes orders from a leading US television network based in California and from Netherlands-based Egripment Support Systems, located near Hilversum. Seventy Q-Ball robotic camera systems will take the field at a world-class sports event to be staged in Britain this summer. Each Q-Ball head incorporates a long-range zoom lens which allows wide-angle views as well as close-up images of the action to be obtained under full remote control.

"Q-Ball continues to attract strong market interest, not least at the April NAB 2012 Convention where we exhibited the production version of Q-Ball Pre-Set which can store and recall multiple user configurations," added Camera Corps' Sales & Project Coordinator, Tim Reynolds.

"Sales of Q-Ball systems hit the 200 mark recently and we now have orders for nearly 250 heads including 11 for an Australian broadcast rental company and six for South Africa. The rental market is proving very healthy as it allows broadcasters to experience the very high productivity made possible by Q-Ball before investing in systems of their own.

"Reality-show producers have proved particularly keen to use Q-Ball as a way of fielding cameras in positions that would be impractical with any other system. Q-Ball is also being deployed increasingly for live show coverage where a traditional camera would distract the audience or interrupt the view from other cameras."

Q-Ball Pre-Set enhances the efficiency of a production team by allowing detailed settings to be rehearsed ahead of a live event. Up to 18-shot settings can be rehearsed and then stored prior to a live or real-time recorded production session. Each setting consists of pan angle, tilt angle, zoom and focus. All stored parameters are held in non-volatile RAM so remain safely stored even if the Q-Ball Pre-Set system is powered down between rehearsal and actual performance.

Q-Ball and Q-Ball Pre-Set are both fully compatible with all existing Camera Corps robotic control systems, CCU panels and fibre-optic links. Up to 72 heads can be operated from a single controller. Housed in a robust and fully-weatherproof 115 mm diameter aluminium sphere, Q-Ball is an ultra-compact remotely-controlled camera with integral 10-times zoom optical lens and smooth-accelerating pan/tilt motors. Equipped with a 2 megapixel CMOS sensor and capable of operating in daylight or infra-red illumination, it delivers 1080i/720p high definition or 625/525 standard definition at 50 or 59.94 Hz refresh rates.

Pan and tilt slip-rings allow unrestricted rotation of the camera head at a wide range of speeds with precise control of acceleration and deceleration. Master black and colour saturation control allow accurate colour matching with third-party cameras.