A Georgia production company came to us with a very specific request: A switched multi-camera rig.  The catch was that it had to be portable, and had to be easy to set up by people who may not have used the rig before.  It needed to be fully functional with graphics, shading station, HD switcher, and 5-7 cameras.

Panasonic’s line of gear fit the bill perfectly.  We started with the AV-HS400 switcher and built from there with 4 of Panasonic’s AG-HPX500 camera and 2 AG-HPX170 handheld cameras for when mobility was critical.  For the HPX500’s, monitoring was important so that the camera operators could get the best possible shot; the BT-LH80 fit the bill perfectly, with features such as a tally light and focus-in-red focus assist.  To aid in improving the image, we added the BT-LH1710 HD monitor and the AJ-RC10G to create an ideal shading station.  The project’s final piece was the ability to record.  The two methods of recording we added were the AJ-HPM110 by Panasonic and the IO-HD by AJA.  The HPM110 provided a method to record directly to P2 in full 10bit quality, while the IO-HD made it possible to record right to a hard drive.