Q-Ball remotely controlled pan/tilt/zoom equipment from Camera Corps, a Vitec Group company with extensive experience in designing specialty camera systems, enters the jungle to capture the action for the 13th season of “I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!” Available to audiences in the UK and North America through ITV1, with technical infrastructure supplied by Gearhouse Broadcast, the popular reality TV program seeks to crown a new “King” or “Queen” of the jungle each year by injecting stars into an elaborate survival competition in the wilds of Australia. Camera Corps Q-Ball cameras unobtrusively provide full 1080i HD images from vantage points throughout the jungle compound, delivering the excitement of star interactions without “camera awareness,” while also weathering the extreme elements of the production environment.
“This is one of the largest shows in the world, with more than 600 staff working in shifts round the clock for three weeks,” comments Gearhouse Broadcast COO Kevin Moorhouse. “The show is transmitted from one of the hottest and wettest locations on the planet, in the tropical rainforest of New South Wales. Camera Corps has worked with us very efficiently and effectively over many years to ensure that we capture consistently high-quality video, indoors or out, with full protection against rain, high humidity, high ambient temperature or low light. We consistently get high picture quality from the Q-Ball systems, including all the detail viewers expect when watching in HD.”
Camera Corps integrated more than 90 remotely controlled cameras, including its Q-Ball robotic pan/tilt/zoom heads and its HD-MiniZoom and MiniShot cameras, amongst others, to follow the action inside and around the camp. The cameras were placed at strategic locations to ensure full coverage. Technicians David Sisson and James Todd from Camera Corps work alongside the Gearhouse Broadcast production team to install, operate and reposition the robotic systems throughout the show.
“The cameras are operated from remote pan/tilt/zoom joystick panels located in the control room,” Sisson adds. “Camera Corps’ ‘Simply SMPTE’ electro-optical and single-mode fiber links were also installed, which allow HD-SDI from the camera heads to be carried much greater distances than can be achieved over standard copper cable. A popular element of the series is the bushtucker trial, which invites contestants to reach out one way or another to the wildlife of New South Wales. One of our tasks is to ensure the local insects and snakes don’t set up home inside our camera housings. The Q-Ball is very effectively sealed against incursions of that kind.”
Developed and produced by Camera Corps both for rental and for sale, the Q-Ball has delivered close-up video from many high-profile broadcast events in recent years, including the BBC Proms, Summer and Winter Olympics, international football, motor racing, water sports, tennis, football and rugby. Housed in a robust and weatherproof cast-aluminum sphere of similar diameter to a standard Compact Disc or DVD, the Q-Ball head comprises a 1080i camera with 10:1 zoom optics plus a fully rotatable pan and tilt head. High-precision motors enable the operator to adjust the camera angle from practically any location, including smooth adjustment of vertical and lateral tracking speeds.
“I’m a Celebrity…Get Me out of Here!” is produced by ITV Studios and licensed globally. Viewers vote in the first week for bushtucker trials and in the second week for which celebrity they want to stay in the camp. Money is raised for charity with a donation being made from every call. The last remaining celebrity, after others have been evicted, is crowned King or Queen of the Jungle.
About Camera Corps Ltd.
Camera Corps Ltd. is a leading innovator of specialty remote cameras, mini cameras tracking systems and camera support systems. A Vitec Group Company, Camera Corps is recognized for the development and manufacture of bespoke camera systems, such as the Q-Ball. Camera Corps got its start developing customized camera solutions for its rental clients, and evolved into a full-time developer of innovative specialty camera systems. Today, the company’s solutions are employed worldwide by leading broadcasters and production companies looking to capture sports, entertainment and reality TV performances from unique and often previously unattainable angles.
About Vitec Videocom
Vitec Videocom brings together some of the most respected, most innovative and most sought-after brands in the industry: Anton/Bauer, Autoscript, Camera Corps, Litepanels, OConnor, Petrol Bags, Sachtler, Vinten and Vinten Radamec. It acts as an endorsing brand for these market-leading broadcast, film and pro video products, encouraging multi-brand system sales and simplifying the way that customers worldwide do business.
Vitec Videocom is an operating division within the Vitec Group, an international business serving customers in the broadcast, photographic and military aerospace and government markets. Vitec is based on strong, well known, premium brands on which its customers rely on worldwide.
