Secuoya Chile, a leading provider of television content creation and supporting services, has invested in Ikegami UHK-X600 and UHL-X40 broadcast cameras as the core of a major upgrade to the facilities at its headquarters in the Providencia district of Santiago City. The cameras were supplied by Santiago-based Intervideo which provides technology and engineering services for broadcast and related media applications.
Active across a wide range of clients, Secuoya Chile provides outsourcing facilities to all operational areas of the Canal 13 television network. It also offers support to other production service providers and TV networks. Secuoya Chile has 11 studios, seven TV control rooms and a fleet of production vehicles. It is part of the Madrid-based media Secuoya Studios group. The group’s primary focus is on generating programs for Spain, LATAM countries, and Hispanic markets in the USA.
“The project marked a turning point for us, consolidating a strategic technological modernization at Canal 13, comments Alejo Fraile, director of Secuoya Chile. “The implementation of Ikegami UHK-X600 cameras provides enhanced image quality, operational stability and workflow efficiency. The cameras were chosen following a rigorous technical selection process. The project’s success was built on close collaboration between Secuoya Chile, Canal 13 and Ikegami/Intervideo, establishing a replicable standard that positions Secuoya as a key partner for future technological transformations in Chile.”
“We are very pleased to have won this important project which followed a strict technical and very competitive tender process,” adds Carlos Contreras, director of Intervideo. “I want to express my deepest gratitude to Ikegami for their unwavering trust and support which reaffirm a relationship that celebrates Intervideo’s 44th year of operation in Chile. The inclusion of Ikegami systems in this upgrade marks a significant step for Secuoya Chile and Canal 13 towards world-class operation.”
Designed for broadcast-quality video production and live television applications, Ikegami UHK-X600 Full-HD cameras are built to withstand the rigors of OB and EFP as well as studio operation. The UHK-X600 has a low vertical profile, weighs just over 11 pounds and can be pedestal-mounted, tripod-mounted or operated over the shoulder. It accepts a wide range of B4 lenses and supports chromatic aberration correction, vignetting correction, ramping compensation and remote control of back-focus (when also supported by the lens). At the front end are three 2/3-inch oversampling UHD CMOS sensors providing 2000 TV lines resolution in 4K, minimal aliasing and 2000 lux sensitivity at F10 (60p). The camera’s global shutter imagers minimize artifacts when televising LED screen walls or flash/strobe-illuminated stage environments. Standard features include full support for Hybrid Log Gamma HDR imagery plus the ability to choose between BT.2020 and BT.709 chroma spaces. A software key is available which enables the UHK-X600 to output 2160p complete with full UHD processing. HFR shooting at to double real-time in 4K or up to eightfold real-time in HD is possible as an option for applications such as capturing fast motion in sport or stage events.
Complementary to the UHK-X600 studio cameras, Ikegami UHL-X40 cameras will replace existing robotic cameras for the Channel 13 news productions. The UHL-X40 is an ultra-compact box style UHD camera for applications requiring an inconspicuous unit with full broadcast quality. The UHL-X40 head is just 4.7 x 5 x 4.4 inches in size and weighs only 2.4 pounds. It requires only 28 watts of power at 12 volts DC and connects to its control unit via up to 6.2 miles of duplex single-mode fiber carrying uncompressed RGB raw pixel data. The control unit can output two formats simultaneously at a choice of resolutions and scanning rates. Included with the fiber link is a 100BASE-T Ethernet trunk for external data as needed by robotic camera motion systems and IP teleprompters. The UHL-X40 achieves F10 sensitivity at 2160p59.94 and has a signal-to-noise ratio of 62 dB in HD. A supplementary HD monitor output from the CCU includes information such as menu, characters and markers. Focus assist can be enabled on this output, providing viewfinder video to a remotely located robotics operator. Features also include automatic vignetting correction and F-stop ramping zoom lens compensation, minimizing dark corners and overall loss of light when the lens is in telephoto mode and the iris is open. An optional tally light can be attached to the upper front of the camera head. Maximum operational efficiency and reliability are achieved by the IP network control from individual OCP-500 video operator panels and multi-location engineering access from Ikegami MCP-300 master control panels.
