Ikegami Tsushinki
Ikegami Tsushinki KK ( Japanese 池上 通信 機 株式会社 , Ikegami Tsūshinki kabushiki kaisha , literally: "Ikegami Communication Devices ", English Ikegami Tsushinki Co., Ltd. ) is a Japanese manufacturer of professional radio, video and television equipment. Ikegami is known for professional television cameras and monitors that are used in ENG and television studio areas. The company was founded in 1946. The company's European headquarters are in Neuss .
Ikegami has no video recorders in its portfolio, so the company is a licensee of the Betacam SP and DVCAM video formats from Sony and DVCPRO from Panasonic . However, Ikegami offers its own recording process on hard disk ( Editcam ), which arose from a cooperation with Avid .
Ikegami cameras and monitors are seen as part of the top class, especially when it comes to broadcasting . The Ikegami range of models extends from the "simple" industrial camera for television surveillance to portable and stationary television cameras to HDTV cameras.
Earlier series
Professional cameras
In the late 1980s, the ITC-730 and ITC 735 models were very common. They were used in conjunction with a connected U-matic recorder carried by an assistant. These cameras were still equipped with Saticon IV tubes for image generation. The first Ikegami chip cameras came onto the market in the early 1990s: first the HC-230, then the HC-300 / HC-340, the HC-390 in the mid-1990s, and the HC-400 and the on in the late 1990s the aspect ratio 16: 9 switchable HC-400W. The last development in this series is the HC-500W. What all these camera heads have in common is that either a triax adapter (when used in a multi-camera network) or one of several dock recorders can be connected to their rear, which then forms a functional unit that records in the desired video format.
Broadcast cameras
In addition to the professional segment, Ikegami also produces cameras that are specially designed for use by broadcasters. The qualitative difference between the two series is, however, rather small, as the professional cameras have always been at a very high level. At the end of the 1980s there was the HL-79 as a tube camera, which was operated with a separate U-matic recorder. The HL-95 was already dockable; it was mostly operated with the Betacam SP docking recorder BVV-5. The first chip cameras in the broadcast segment with digital camera heads were the HL-57 and HL-59. In the 1990s, when Betacam SP was the standard recording format, the HL-V55 compact camcorder became very popular. It was the counterpart to the Sony BVW-400 camcorder. The tape drive was supplied by Sony. Since Sony did not provide digital Betacam drives, Ikegami was unable to participate in the digital Betacam era and, for example, bring a counterpart to the Sony DVW-700/790/707/970 onto the market. There were many users who bought an HC camera from Ikegami at that time and equipped it with a dock recorder for the formats DVCAM (Sony) and DVCpro / DVCpro50 (Panasonic). Ikegami also built its own camcorders in these formats.
In the field of heavy studio cameras, the name of which always begins with "HK", the HK-323 was one of the most popular cameras.
Current cameras
Today Ikegami produces several transportable cameras of the HC and HL series as well as several studio cameras of the HK series. The company offers the "Editcam 3" (for normal television definition) and "Editcam HD" (for high-definition television, HDTV) camcorders for tapeless recording, which record internally either on "Fieldpaks" (hard drives) or "Flashpaks" (solid-state storage devices). The company also manufactures cameras for medical and surveillance technology, and high-quality monitors are also part of the product range.
Ikegami cameras etc. are used. a. from television production companies, independent camera teams ( EB or ENG teams ) and from television companies such as ORF , WDR and ZDF .
Computer games
Ikegami developed some arcade games for Japanese computer game companies in the 1980s . These included Block Fever , Congo Bongo , Popeye , Donkey Kong , Radar Scope , Sheriff , Space Fever , Space Firebird , Space Demon and Zaxxon .
Web links
- Ikegami website (Japanese)
- Ikegami Electronics Europe (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Masumi Akagi: Sore wa "Pong" kara Hajimatta. Arcade TV Game no Naritachi ( そ れ は 『ポ ン』 か ら 始 ま っ た: ア ー ケ ー ド ＴＶ ゲ ー ム の 成 り 立 ち ). Amusement Tsūshinsha, 2005, ISBN 4-9902512-0-2 .