Food Heaven through the lens
Some blogs are a joy to write. Others can be a challenge. This one is torture!
Writing about the Cheltenham Food & Drink Festival while on a strict diet is no fun. Celebrity chefs cooking up scrumptious cakes, spicy oriental dishes and tempting pizzas piled high with toppings… experts talking wine, extra virgin olive oil and hand-crafted cheeses – it’s almost too much to take.
New Day Visuals are regulars at the Festival, providing full AV services. This year was its most successful yet, with a fantastic reaction to their live video solution.
Derek Clare, heading the team, mounted a Datavideo PTC-120 high on a gantry. Datavideo’s PTZ units have a powerful zoom, enabling the camera to zoom in on the presenter and take a wide show of the whole stage. The motorized pan and tilt mechanism means that it can swivel to move from shot to shot almost instantly.
At Cheltenham, this meant that the camera could switch from a focus on the saucepan, to presenter, to audience at any focal length, with the output sent directly to a 60” screen.
Control
With a skeleton staff on site, the camera was controlled by the presenters themselves. The handheld infrared remote supplied with PTC-120 not only offers manual positioning of the camera and control over the lens, but crucially it also operates the presets. Thus, by the press of a single button, the camera focuses in on the cooker or chef, or zooms out to take in the whole stage, or shoots the presenter.
Check out the Datavideo PTC range on our website.
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