Don’t let the term “slow” fool you. Thanks to advances in technology and competition, the market for slow motion products in sports is blossoming at breakneck speed. Companies such as BUF Technology, DNF Controls, Doremi, EVS, Leitch, Sony, and Thomson/Grass Valley offer truly innovative products, at prices even those with super-tight budgets won’t be able resist.
BUF Technology
BUF has developed the VTS-5000 slow motion controller, a single VTR/DDR controller best suited to instant replay applications. Ten function keys can be set by the user either to recall significant cue points or to playback at predefined speeds. User-adjustable features allow optimization for various applications and user preferences, all of which can be stored in any of 10 available personality registers.
The VTS-5000 can also be used with The Slide, a Penny & Giles motorized fader for speed control giving tactile feedback. The knob jogs tape even when in still modes, allowing the user to go between scanning tape and jogging frame by frame without hitting any buttons.
Users can adjust still- and play-speed breakpoints, enable detented speed steps, enable reverse and/or faster-than-play replay speed control and adjust top shuttle speeds. The VTS-5000 controls record and playback on film shoots where low- or high-speed frame rates are used. Playback speed is set and displayed in terms of film shoot speed, allowing accurate simulation of projection timing of scenes.
BUF also offers the Sport Integrated Replay System, made available less than two months ago. “For not much more than a control panel, you can get the entire replay system and essentially add a tape machine to your truck without taking up any space,” said Bruce Bredon, president of BUF Technology. “In addition, you can very quickly create highlight rolls while you’re doing replay—all with one operator.”
About eight inches across, the complete standalone instant reply system is equipped with a hard-disk video recorder built into the control panel. The product comes with slow motion speed preset buttons along with a slide-speed control option. The operator interface includes 100 instant cue points, while the loop feature provides continuous playback of segments and playlists.
“We developed the Sport mostly for smaller sports trucks where space is at a premium and budget is paramount,” said Bredon. “This is a new venture for us, with a complete integrated system in a small package.
It really seems ideal and we intend to continue adding features, which is something BUF is known for. We feel that whenever someone invests in our hardware, which we develop to be very robust, we then continue to support that hardware and improving the software.”
DNF Controls
DNF Controls’ ST300-maXS is a slow motion controller specifically designed for the EVS maXS and maXS HD Universal Production Server. The ST300-maXS streamlines the transition to a tapeless environment. The maXS or maXS HD can be networked with LSM-XT or HD LSM-XT systems so that any clip, recorded by any device on the network, is instantly available to all other operators for replay or editing. The ST300-maXS allows EVS clients to use the maXS network-based video server like a VTR for slow motion instant replay, while also providing a simple way to create clips that can be accessed from any server on the network .
Dan Fogel, president of DNF, said, “With our controllers, we’re trying to help the operator be able to do their job with as few errors and mistakes as possible. We’re trying to help them focus on the production and production value instead of how they are going to do it. The controllers are set up in a way so that it’s easier to find what they need, it’s easier for them to access the functions.”
The ST300-DSR1K slow motion controller was developed to provide control over the Sony DSR-DR1000 DVCAM stream-based hard-disk recorder. The ST300-DSR1K provides simultaneous record and playback for live sports and entertainment broadcasts. The system takes advantage of Sony’s DSR-DR1000’s hard-disk technology for instant access and simultaneous record and playback functionality.
This allows users to mark cue points on the fly and play back video instantly without disrupting the record process, while providing operators with VTR-like control. The DSR-DR1000 is a DVCAM format stream-based, half-rack unit, which uses a large capacity drive to provide more than six hours of DVCAM stream recording. The DSR-DR1000P also offers high-quality digital jog sound and slow motion playback over a wide speed range.
Doremi
Doremi’s V1-MP2 disk recorder’s simultaneous record and play capability makes it an ideal companion for a sports slow motion controller. The record channel is used to record the live camera feed, while the play channel is used by the operator to create and manage video clips. The V1-MP2 can play a video clip in slow motion without interrupting the recording of the live video feed.
The V1-MP2 has been tested to work with popular slow motion controllers from DNF Control, BUF Technologies, JL Cooper, Dixon Sports, HiTech, and others.
The front panel of the V1-MP2 also has a “Sports Slow Mo” mode that emulates the functions of a dedicated slow motion controller.
Leitch
Leitch developed the instant replay system that has been installed in every NFL stadium since 1999. Used for Coach’s Challenge, the VR FORCE video server system uses a Leitch FORCE-1000 controller built by BUF.
One of Leitch’s other slo-mo products, Whiplash2, puts broadcast-quality slow motion within the reach of local broadcasters, cable companies, colleges, universities, and other small organizations.
Sony
Sony is packaging DNF products to control Sony’s MAV-555A multiaccess video disk recorder. By itself, the MAV-555A is an MPEG-based multichannel editing disk recorder capable of recording 10 hours of video at 30Mbps for use in live applications, sports, news, and post production. DNF Controls’ DMAT-O sports controller provides an open-platform alternative and supports Odetics protocol-based video servers.
“The DNF DMAT-MAV continues to evolve, supporting both standard definition and high definition sports applications,” said Steve Wynn, group product/marketing manager of optical and network products at Sony. “The DNF DMAT-MAV offers slow motion instant replay and highlight-list creation/playback and allows users to generate slow motion instant replays easily, as well as build, manage, and play out highlight lists with several transition options, including wipes, fades, and dissolves. The latest version now supports split audio/video editing.”
Looking toward the future, Fogel foresees making DNF products even more useful for a shrinking work force.
“The nature of the industry is that we’ve seen downsizing,” he said. “We’ve seen production companies and broadcasters wanting to become more efficient with the staff that they have. At DNF, we’re looking to develop product solutions that allow the people to work efficiently, to allow production and broadcast companies to grow, and have more control capabilities and be able to maintain the workflow. It’s making the most of what you’ve got, given the cost of staff.”
Thomson/Grass Valley
Thomson/Grass Valley’s LDK 23HS mkIl slow motion camera looks and feels like a standard TV camera, but uses triple-speed image acquisition, scanning at 180 frames (PAL versions scan at 150 frames) and collecting more motion in detail. To ensure this detail is preserved, the transfer of image information from the LDK 23HS mkII to the CPU is via a super-wideband triax link. Here, three time-shifted, standard SDI triple-scan outputs are generated for direct registration on virtually any disk-based slow motion system, such as EVS’ SLSM package. A major enhancement in the mark II version of the LDK 23HS is the variety of optimized preset settings to accommodate lighting situations in stadiums and studios.
“We’re headed in a direction we believe that the community wants—to give them an output product that people will accept and people will want to see in high definition as that technology continues to move forward,” said Mark Chiolis, senior marketing manager, acquisition and production, North America and the Pacific Rim.
