There’s a terrible tendency in cinematography to concentrate too much on the technology, overlooking creative skills that often make a huge contribution. In the last two pieces of this series we’ve gone into some detail on the historical background to current camera technology. In this last piece on the art and science of sensors and lenses, we’re going to consider what difference all this makes in the real world.
Video compression, bonded cellular technology and cellular networks have evolved to the level that giant planned events like the Super Bowl no longer challenge cellular service adequacy.
This year’s Super Bowl will be the first to offer 5G connectivity to fans in the stadia – but 5G contribution is a little way off.
LTN Global Communications helped Boombox successfully stream the 2019 FIA Gran Turismo World Championship Tour with live, broadcast-quality TV streams in 7 languages.
The derivation of the famous CIE horseshoe was explained in the previous part in terms of a re-mapping or distortion of rg color space. The derivation is somewhat abstract because the uses of color science go far beyond the applications in broadcasting. However it is equally possible to describe CIE color space from a more television-centered point of view.
We live an era of immensely powerful post-production tools with advanced color-correction and software plug-ins to serve every conceivable function. We can routinely remove guy wires from scenes, change day to night, and add just the right amount of coral or other color to fit any desired mood or impulse. Accordingly, some engineers and DITs grow livid at the thought of placing any camera filter over the lens, arguing the practice is no longer warranted or advisable. Why, they say, bake in a look during image capture that can’t be changed later? Besides, they argue, sometimes quite vociferously, the additional glass surfaces placed in a light path can only lower resolution and contrast, and increase flare, which surely no responsible DOP would ever want to introduce in an irreversible way.
As broadcasters continue to differentiate themselves through live programing and events, intercom is gaining more influence now than ever. This is especially true for large arena events where mobile crews demand the freedom of wireless connectivity. But as RF technology grows, the 2.4GHz band is becoming saturated.
Last time, we talked about the history that created modern digital cinema technology, and particularly the factors which lead to the modern push for ever larger sensors. It’s been going on in some form for twenty years, to the point that we’re now asking for bigger imagers than cinema has ever commonly used, achieving more resolution than cinema commonly achieved, with greater sensitivity than was ever available to directors of photography in the twentieth century. To get that we’re tolerating all kinds of inconveniences in terms of the lenses we must use and the light levels, or sheer accomplishment in focus pulling, that big chips tend to demand.
