Super Slo-Mo HD helps fans, commentators break down NBA Finals
July 20, 2009
To help viewers and announcers analyze plays onscreen during the 2009 NBA Championship Series Finals on ABC Sports, production company NEP Supershooters employed a Grass Valley LDK 8300 HD Super Slo-Mo camera system.
The system, which included a pair of Grass Valley LDK 8300 Super Slo-Mo cameras provided by Bexel, delivered crystal-clear replays at 3x speed. It was used to cover the entire Western Conference Championship series between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Denver Nuggets as well as the league finals between the Lakers and Orlando Magic.
Coming from its use at several ESPN "Monday Night Football" games and the 2008 World Series, the LDK 8300 provided extensive game coverage. During both series, the LDK 8300 were used for hand-held and tripod-mounted applications.
The Grass Valley LDK 8300 uses the same head block as its normal-speed HD equivalent, the LDK 8000, and features the company’s Dynamic Pixel Management sensors to produce native 1920 x 1080 and 1280 x 720 images.
In 3x operation, the LDK 8300 achieves a signal-to-noise ratio of 54dB. Normal-speed output for live use is created at the camera control unit. The blending of the two or three video phases into the standard-speed output also improves the signal-to-noise figure by an additional 3dB.
The LDK 8300 camera system also includes internal software called AnyLight, which uses algorithms running in the signal-processing unit to prevent image flickering, which is often experienced with slow-motion sports content shot under mixed artificial lighting conditions.