Techniques
PRODUCTION: Getting Jiggy With JonesCAM
By
Sep 30, 2004, 10:22

You’re a videographer shooting a downhill ski race in Vermont. You want to give your audience something new and exciting—a point of view they’d expect from auto racing or reality TV—but never from a skiing event. You want them to experience the same emotions and sensations as the racers: the speed, the danger, the precision, the flight off the bumps, and chatter of the ruts. You’ve used camcorders, but they were too bulky—even in practice—and distracted the athletes. So this time you’re trying something new. You’re trying a JonesCAM helmet camera and its wireless system.
The term “JonesCAM” has become synonymous with a tiny, (2 3/4 x 3/4 inches diameter) broadcast-quality, helmet-mountable camera manufactured for Niche Concepts, which owns the JonesCAM product line. The JonesCAM 480EX and accessories, retailing for $325, allow its users to wear it unencumbered while performing a sport (or recording those competing), providing a unique, athlete’s point of view of the action for spectators.
“You get an angle, a point of view, that you can’t get any other way,” said Ken Santucci of AmProd, a production company specializing in developing DVDs for marketing and training purposes, and a longtime JonesCAM enthusiast.

The Cornerstone
Since its introduction a little more than a year ago, Niche Concepts has sold well over 500 JonesCAM 480s worldwide. “The 480EX is our cornerstone product,” said Michael Jones, president of Niche Concepts. “That’s the product that sells the most. Production companies are buying them from us all over the world and the responses that we’re hearing back from these guys have been absolutely phenomenal.”
Jones, who founded Niche Concepts, first dreamed up the idea of the JonesCAM as a professional ski racer, coach, and certified PSIA instructor. “Being on a mountain with a camcorder, when was it 30, 40 degrees below, was ridiculous,” he said. “I knew that you just couldn’t do your job and hold a camcorder at the same time. With a hands-free application, you’re doing your job, yet you’re able to document everything you’re seeing in front of you.”
Jones decided to run with his idea, applying for two patents in 1998, which are now approved, and formed Niche Concepts. Several years later, the company boasts customers ranging from the government and military to individual sports enthusiasts to major production companies and networks such as JAL Productions, Ocean Watch Productions, Breakpoint Media, and Fox. Customers have used the 480EX, which features 480 lines of resolution color on a Sony ExView 1/3-inch CCD, for all kinds of applications. It has withstood temperatures of up to 120 degrees during motorcycle competitions in the Mojave Desert and more than 30 degrees below zero during ski races in upstate New York. It has traveled at speeds of up to 300mph for drag racing. It can be submerged in up to 10 feet of water, making it ideal for water-skiing, kayaking, and other water sports.
For those seeking a higher-end product, Niche Concepts offers the LX, a broadcast-quality lipstick camera that retails for about $2,000. It can withstand most of the extremes that the 480EX can handle, but cannot be submerged in water (although it is water-resistant). The LX features a micro
lipstick camera head that is 10mm in diameter and 48mm long with a two-meter cable and a fully programmable 10-bit DSP CCU. Like the 480EX, it can be mounted directly on the athlete or on his vehicle (such as in a racecar or on a motorcycle).
Both the 480EX and the LX can connect to most well-known recording decks, but Niche Concepts offers its own DVR as well, the AVR1000. The AVR1000 is a wearable, industrial-grade DVR (Niche also manufactures a handheld version) built for extreme use in rugged environments. It features DVD-quality wavelet compression and up to eight hours of recording time and a resolution of 720 x 486 on a 40GB 2 1/2-inch hard disk.
“The [AVR1000] addresses the problem of needing a hard-disk solution that’s ruggedized enough to handle an extreme sports activity,” said Brian Kenyon, CTO, Niche Concepts. “It also allows you to record for more than 60 minutes. You’re able to get eight hours of DVD-quality video onto a 2 1/2-inch disk drive that’s shock proof and environmentally protected.”

MPEG-4 & Wireless Too
Niche Concepts is currently developing a single and two-channel DVR with MPEG-2 compression. It also has plans to release an MPEG-4 DVR, which will be ideal for streaming applications, in the next few months. “We’re ruggedizing the systems for abuse,” said Kenyon of the MPEG-4 DVR. “Once it’s ready, you can literally, in realtime, stream your video to somebody else to see online.”
In addition to the cameras and the DVRs, Niche Concepts manufactures two wireless systems, the TX/RX transmitter-receiver system, and a new wireless system, the TX/RX 2. The TX/RX is a four-channel, 2.4GHz transmitter/receiver system that allows users to transmit and receive audio and video from any of the JonesCAM camera systems from 200m up to one mile depending on the antenna configuration. One TV production crew client of Niche Concepts wants to use the system while shooting someone out of a cannon. “As long as they don’t put me in the cannon, they can do it,” Jones quipped.
Introduced at the Saratoga Race Course in Oklahoma as a thoroughbred training tool, the TX/RX 2 is a higher-powered, 2GHz, 4/8-channel wireless system. It includes a 5GHz transmitting antenna, high-gain 14dB fixed receiving antennas or a 14dB handheld antenna equipped with a pistol grip, and a small color LCD screen for tracking purposes.
Jockey Angel Cordero sent some of the Saratoga Race Course training footage sent from the TX/RX 2 to trainer Bobby Frankel. “We never see that look when working two horses when they are slightly apart because we’re not out there,” commented Frankel. “Imagine how an owner would feel if he could see his horse work out when he sees his horse at his house at six in the morning and he’s 1,000 miles way over the Internet.”
Since the testing at the Saratoga Race Course track, Niche Concepts has seen a blossoming of interest in the TX/RX 2 and other JonesCAM applications. “The production crews from network and cable TV covering the meet and major races saw a product that has numerous applications besides horse racing,” said Jones. “Discussions began immediately with tracks representatives from as far away as Dubai, horse owners, trainers, and breeders. Even jockeys that previously refused to wear cameras and wireless systems because they were too big and possibly dangerous were saying, ‘I’ll wear one.’”
Looks like the future’s so bright for JonesCAM, it has to wear shades.



© Copyright 2003 by YourSITE.com