Orlando-based audio/visual company LMG is investing over $1 million in new high-definition camera technology to offer its clients the best quality multi-format switching available. LMG is the first company in the U.S. to purchase the Kahuna system.
“High Definition allows us to elevate the standard to the next level and provide the ultimate solution,” says LMG CEO and founder Les Goldberg. “We've been challenged in prior years over how to provide our customers with the highest quality, especially since there are so many video formats out there right now. For computer-generated images, HD is the best solution since most of our customers provide images via computer. Regardless of what type of format the images are created in, the new system can present them in a crystal clear, high-resolution format.”
The new HD system includes four Grass-Valley Thompson LDK6000 World Cam cameras and a Kahuna multi-format switcher manufactured by Snell and Wilcox. The type of HD that LMG provides will be 1080p and 1080i, with a resolution of 1920×1080. “Typically, your resolution is 720×486i for serial digital standard def. Even if you go to a high-resolution image, most people are running SXGA which is 1280 by 1024 and while the SDI signal is lower resolution, you get better color images on screen,” explains Goldberg. “I'm providing my clients with high definition, so I'm able to provide beautiful color images that are digital from the camera through the switcher directly to the projector. The entire link is digital; there's no analog conversion.”
The Kahuna will allow LMG to take standard-def sources and output the feed at 1080p to the screens. Since the switcher is multi-format with multiple MEs, the mixed effects banks can be chained so that various inputs can be broadcast live in one format and aspect ratio using one ME while a different format and aspect ratio are being recorded on another ME. “If you want to feed the screen high definition and record the same thing in standard-def tape, we can accomplish this with the switcher,” Goldberg explains.
The World Cams are configurable for 1080p, 1080i, or 720p. “We're using HD cam, for our high-definition source tape decks and multi-format/digital analog beta tape decks for standard definition playback feeding the multi-format switcher,” says Goldberg.
Of course the final pieces of the puzzle are the projectors — Christie Digital's 25,000-lumen projector and Digital Projection Inc.'s 18,000-lumen projector.
Goldberg feels that the groundbreaking aspect of the new purchase is that LMG can provide clients digital high-definition from start to finish. “We're being the industry innovators. We have invested a lot of capital designing this system so we can provide our clients with an innovative solution. The key to the system is the Kahuna's multi-format switcher. When clients learn the power of this system I am sure they will agree it is awesome. Hence, this will become the new de facto standard for what we do in the presentation business.”