IO Industries Inc. has a long history of bringing innovative video cameras to market for specialty applications in broadcasting and live sports entertainment. IO Industries was one of the first to bridge technologies from the industrial camera market (in particular, global shutter CMOS sensors) into prime-time use within live and production television, with its broadcast-quality compact POV-style camera heads.
SDI POV cameras, unlike consumer action cameras, are intercompatible with primary cameras being used at the same event. Using POV cameras gives technical directors more feeds to switch to during a live production, seeing views from places other (larger) cameras cannot fit. But sometimes cameras are needed that can sit farther away from the action, providing a broad view of the scene but also having eagle-eye vision for digital zoom-in.
In this case, cameras with extremely high resolution are needed, and they must still maintain video frame rates. This calls for cameras like the IO Industries Flare and Redwood series, with resolutions beyond 8K and video-friendly frame rates up to 60fps and beyond. Using high-bandwidth and dependable CoaXPress video connections, several of these cameras can cover all views of entire stadiums with fine detail.
WHY BROADCASTERS AND SPECIALTY VIDEO SYSTEM INTEGRATORS CHOOSE IO INDUSTRIES CAMERAS
THE RIGHT SENSORS FOR SPORTS
Cameras can be designed around two types of sensors today - both are based on CMOS technology - the older CCD sensors seen in cameras of the past are no longer state-of-the-art - but the two CMOS options can give very different results depending how the cameras are used. Rolling shutter is the most common sensor type, but as its name suggests, it exposes each frame of video by rolling an electronic shutter down the sensor rows. If the camera is panning across a wide field of play, or shaking (being hit by a stray ball, or tackled by a player!) when this exposure happens, there is a distortion seen in the video, commonly referred to as a wobble or 'jello' effect, which cannot be removed or corrected for afterwards. The solution to this is to use cameras with the other CMOS sensor type: global shutter. These sensors expose each frame the same way as older CCD sensors, all rows at a time, meaning no distortion is seen. In lots of the use cases for IO Industries cameras, having global shutter sensors is an advantage that sets the IOI cameras above others.
FEATURE PACKED, FUTURE READY CAMERAS
All models of IO Industries' SDI POV camera series are full of advanced features to adjust the video to suit whatever use case is needed. Automatic adjustments like auto-exposure, AGC, AWB etc. are all available, but fully-manual adjustments can be used too, with as much granularity in the controls as is found in professional broadcasting and even digital cinematography cameras (like paint and shading controls, saturation, LUTs, shutter angle exposure control, etc.). They are globally compatible, offering all standard frame rates and resolutions needed in modern HD/UHD productions and beyond. And in most cases, multi-format output is possible, meaning a 4K camera can be used for HD output today, then down the road, used for 4K productions when needed. With no extra costs for licenses or keys to do so. The same is true for 8K production, with the 8KSDI camera offering switchable 4K/UHD and 8K/UHDTV2 output modes.
OPTIMIZED FOR AUDIENCE VIEWING
A great deal of effort goes into making each and every IO Industries camera look its best, knowing it could be used to make video that will eventually reach the homes of viewers around the world. That's a different consideration than other industrial vision cameras go through - many similar cameras are not characterized to the same extent, or include sensor noise correction and other image enhancement features, because they're intended primarily to be used in factory inspection machines that employ vision technologies to check parts in production. Computer vision algorithms in factories are not paying attention to the same details in the images, nor are they critically concerned with the quality of color reproduction or the amount of dynamic range the camera makes. Thats why IO Industries cameras can go toe to toe with professional video cameras, while still bridging the flexibility and configurability of industrial-type cameras into these applications.
BROADCASTING & LIVE SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT
