Match mini-cams to your main cameras
Productions avoid mini-cams because the colour mismatch with the main cameras costs more than the angle gains. That is a control problem, not a sensor problem.
- For
- OB and rental
- Kit
- CI0, RCP or RCP-J, VP4
- Ratio
- Two cameras per CI0
- In service
- ~750 matches a year
The shot that announces itself
A basket-mounted or goal-mounted camera that does not match is a cut the director avoids. The position gets dropped from the plan, and the rig that would have justified it never gets bought.
Cost is the second blocker. If every specialty position needs its own control chain, the budget dies before the rig is ordered.
MINI-CAM UNDER A BASKET, SHADING PANEL IN FOREGROUND
TOPOLOGY DIAGRAM · OBJECT-FIT CONTAIN · TEXT EQUIVALENT REQUIRED
Same vocabulary, same scales
You shade the mini-cam with the same parameters and the same scales as the main cameras, from the same panel. No second vocabulary, and no second operator position to staff.
Where the camera exposes too little to match, the VP4 corrects the signal itself, on four channels. That covers the bodies that give a vision engineer almost nothing to work with.
The cost sits at infrastructure level. One CI0 serves two cameras, and one RCP controls the mini-cams alongside the main cameras. Camera count is set by licence, so adding positions does not mean adding panels.
What this buys you
Cut without hesitation
The angle is available to the director because the picture holds up.
Positions you can afford
Two cameras per CI0 interface, and one panel for the whole estate.
A season, not a demo
NEP Germany runs 30 ATOM one across roughly 750 matches a year.
A backstop at signal level
Where the mini-cam exposes nothing, the VP4 corrects the picture itself.
“NEP Group is well known as being among the most demanding in the broadcast industry when it comes to choosing not only the equipment we buy, but also the vendors we work with. For us, it’s all about quality – and the solution from CyanView and Dream Chip allows us to deliver outstanding image quality that we do not believe we could have obtained elsewhere.”
30 DREAMCHIP ATOM ONE · 2 PER BASKET AND GOAL POSITION · 14 CY-CI0 KITS · ~350 BASKETBALL AND ~400 ICE HOCKEY MATCHES PER YEAR
Source: RadioTVLink, January 2020
The kit for this job
Where this does not work
Some cameras expose no control at all. A GoPro has no camera control protocol, so nothing reaches the body. The VP4 still corrects its output at signal level, and that is the whole of what we can do with it.
If your mini-cam is not on the compatibility list, the honest answer is on the page that says so.
Does your show look like this?
Send your mini-cam models and the cameras they need to match. An engineer answers, including the parts we cannot do.