Vitec Videocom hosted a two-day expo in Dubai to showcase some of its latest product releases.
Vitec Videocom hosted a two-day expo in Dubai to showcase some of its latest product releases. The event, held in collaboration with distributor UBMS, showcased products from Anton/Bauer, Autocue, Autoscript, Litepanels, OConnor, Sachtler and Vinten.
Vitecs product specialists were at hand to introduce the Vinten Hexagon Tracks and Vinten Vantage. They also introduced the latest in camera support, prompting and lighting technology.
Pavan Mulanni, Strategic Sales Manager, ME at Vitec Videocom, said the expo attracted broadcast engineers, cameramen and systems integrators.
The idea was to have key people from our target audience to come to the event and give them a hands-on experience of the new products. We had attendees from MBC, DMI, Abu Dhabi TV and several systems integrators from Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
There was a lot of interest in the robotic camera tracks, which were introduced for the first time in the region, according to Mulani. Antoine Atyeh, Cameraman Supervisor at MBC, who was at the event, said the Hexagon Track System is a great fit for news studios.
At the moment, we are using manual tracks. These tracks can be moved around the studio but they dont do the job as well as the robotic ones. With the push of a button, you can get many different angles. The drawback of robotic tracks is that they are locked on the floor and there is no flexibility to move them around like the manual tracks. With this, you are locked with a certain background the whole time and Al Arabiya changes the background of its programmes a lot.
Robotic tracks are ideal in a virtual studio or against green screens. These are very accurate with their shots and don’t leave room for human error. So you can undertake panning, padding up the pedestal, zooming and tracking with no mistakes.
The best part is that you can provide tens and tens of settings with just one button. I would have liked to have the pedestal higher so it can be at eye level with the anchor. It should have a larger height range, I feel the higher and the lower it can go, the better it is. I would aim for a height of 180cm. Also, with the cameras and lenses so heavy nowadays, the dolly should be able to carry more weight.
Khaled Okla of Qvest Media said the new Vinten Vantage is excellent for smaller compact studios.
The Vantage is camera-and-lens agnostic and seems suited to smaller, high-quality cameras and lenses, and provides stable on-air motion. It is flexible yet quite stable.
The tracks are fully integrated with the Vinten Robotic Control [VRC] system, so broadcasters who own the control system can just buy the tracks and start using them. Its convenient and saves time and effort to use the same system that they are familiar with.
Joseph Varghese of Tek Signals liked the robotic tracks for their accuracy and stability.
The robotic tracks can be managed with the Vinten control, which is an advantage. The system is easy to set up and dismantle, and will work well for outside broadcast as well. It is good for an augmented reality/virtual reality environment because of the stability it offers.
Zaid Wattar of AV Solutions added: In the new Vinten Hexagon Track system, I have noticed that the design is too modular due to which all the components, the cables and the mechanism parts can be seen. These are also exposed to dust. I would have preferred all those parts to be covered.
I quite liked the LitePanels ASTRA 1×1 Soft Bi-Color LED lighting. It has a compact design and provides softly distributed light. This product is a great fit for small interviews where the light unit needs to be close to the presenter. It provides a natural light look, avoiding the LED bulbs dots impact.
The Vinten Vantage robotic head is also a good addition to Vinten remote heads to handle compact cameras/camcorders, which are in great demand now. It can replace the all-in-one PTZ cameras and it gives more freedom to change to a desired camera without changing the robotic head.
