The TV and Video Communications department at California’s Santa Ana College (SAC), looking to modernize the video acquisition capabilities in its studios last year, purchased six SK-UHD4000 Ultra HD cameras from Hitachi Kokusai Electric America, Ltd.

When department chair Michael Taylor joined SAC in 2015, it was immediately clear that buying new cameras would be a high priority. “When I came into the program, they were using very old SD cameras for studio production,” he recalled. “Everything starts with the camera, so I knew replacing them would be one of the first decisions we needed to make in terms of raising some grant money and elevating the standard inside our facility.”

While the school’s studios would work in HD in the near term, the department was interested in 4K cameras to future-proof their programs. “We wanted to avoid needing to make another camera purchase in four or five years,” Taylor explained. “By going with cameras that could do both HD and 4K, we could be ready to basically flip a switch and move to a 4K production model when we upgrade the rest of the studio environment to 4K. We plan to do that when the overall television industry has greater adoption of 4K, since we’re preparing our students for careers in that field. ”

The department invited major camera suppliers to demonstrate their offerings in SAC’s studio. “Hitachi Kokusai stood out by offering a camera that was both 1080p and 4K-capable at an attractive price point,” said Taylor. “We saw the imagery that the Hitachi cameras could produce and what they were capable of doing in our environment, and it became a very simple choice for us.”

The Hitachi cameras’ ability to integrate with Ross Dashboard was also compelling, as the department had plans – which they have recently implemented – to deploy the open control and monitoring platform to complement its existing Ross Carbonite switcher.

Students now use the SK-UHD4000 cameras to produce weekly newscasts and talk shows, as well as in dedicated studio production classes. In addition, these programs are shown on YouTube and the City of Santa Ana’s public access channel CTV3.

Photo: Andrew Stocks