As part of their commitment to delivering top-notch coverage to TAB venues, gaming apps, homes, and international audiences, Sky Racing sought to revamp their existing OB infrastructure. Following a comprehensive assessment and evaluation of available options, the company decided that Panasonic’s advanced broadcast cameras and solutions were the ideal fit to meet their diverse shooting requirements.
Mark Bonnici, Sky Racing Queensland’s Racing Outside Broadcast Manager, expressed his satisfaction with the decision: “Our core business is to provide outside broadcast facilities for race meetings around Queensland. We have a diverse range of shooting requirements, and our old fleet of cameras and copper-based infrastructure was aging. After evaluating various camera brands and options, we decided on Panasonic cameras because they provide wonderful picture quality, outstanding reliability, great value for money, and a complete IP workflow across the studio, field production, and PTZ cameras.”
As part of the upgrade, Sky Racing made the transition from copper/triax-based production to IP/fiber-based production, enabling the creation of a remote centralized production hub in Brisbane. This strategic move allows them to capitalize on the cost benefits and flexibility of an IP/fiber-based infrastructure while streamlining operations for race coverage.
With the purchase of multiple Panasonic AK-UC4000GSJ 4K studio cameras, AJ-CX4000GJ 4K field production camcorders, and AW-UE100KEJ 4K premium PTZ cameras, Sky Racing can now capture stunning shots and provide audiences with enhanced visuals. Additionally, the company plans to add ST-2110 enabled PTZ cameras in the Hub, enabling a true end-to-end digital workflow.
Jamie Ford, Sky Racing’s Technical Operations Manager, praised the seamless integration of Panasonic products: “The shots from the Panasonic cameras were so smooth that we were getting calls from our Sydney office asking us just how we managed to get a camera jib and operator in such a small area! The ease of installation across the entire Panasonic workflow is very attractive to us. An OB environment can be unforgiving at the best of times; however, we could easily add these products into our workflow without any issues whatsoever.”
The Panasonic cameras’ ability to output 4K via 12G-SDI and HD simultaneously, coupled with IP/fiber-based control, provided Sky Racing with unparalleled flexibility in their shooting configurations. This new setup enables them to deliver exceptional live racing coverage, studio production, and ENG shoots, elevating their production values and quality to new heights.
Mark Bonnici concluded, “The real wow factor with these Panasonic cameras is the picture quality. The pictures are just amazing. As a result, and since using the Panasonic cameras, we now feel our production values and quality are as good if not better than any others in the market. The fact that Panasonic is also able to offer a complete IP workflow across all of our new cameras with common operation panels enables us to be more innovative, take our production values to the next level, and is simply the icing on the cake.”
With their state-of-the-art Panasonic cameras, Sky Racing Queensland is ready to captivate audiences with visually stunning and immersive racing coverage, solidifying their position as a top-tier broadcast provider in the industry.
