JVC formed a partnership alongside French companies Audiovisuel Solutions and Le But du Jeu to obtain full video coverage of the two recent French elections; one to elect the President, the other to elect their members of parliament.
Le But du Jeu, the company which provides the technical input and support in France for the EBU, selected JVC ProHD GY-HD251 camcorders to provide all the broadcast camerawork for its election coverage. The choice was based principally on three aspects – picture quality, choice of shooting in standard or high definition, and HD SDI output with embedded audio and timecode.
The GY-HD251 was used out in the field to do interviews and pieces to camera, as well as to do something similar in the temporary studio area high up on a balcony overlooking the Champs Elysees. During the whole process some fifteen cameras were used, eight on tripods in the semi open-air studio and the other seven with mobile crews conducting reports and interviews in the provinces.
In its coverage of the presidential elections, Le But du Jeu provided 1,150 direct video feeds to a total of 47 TV channels over the two weekends. Amongst its mainly European customer base were also the likes of Al Jazeera International and Al Houra International.
Emmanuel Klein, general manager of Le But du Jeu explained: “In our operation the camera ideally needs to be switchable between standard definition and high definition, between analogue component and digital SDI, between 60Hz and 50Hz, and PAL and NTSC. The GY-HD251 does all of these. A great feature of the GY-HD251 is that we can rig the camera and cables and be live on air in less than 5 minutes. Fast set-up is what we needed, and fast set-up is what we got.”
