JVC Professional Products Company has announced that Waterman Broadcasting has acquired 21 JVC GY-HM790 ProHD cameras. The purchases were made as part of a move to high definition electronic news gathering from the field at two Florida-based stations, the NBC affiliate WBBH-TV and ABC affiliate WZVN-TV in the Fort Myers/Naples market (DMA #62).
Waterman owns WBBH and has an lease management agreement with WZVN, which is owned by Montclair Communications, Inc. Both stations operate out of the same facility and share some content but each station has its own studio and news crews.
"It's been a gradual progression to full HD production for us," said Dan Billings, director of technical services, Waterman Broadcasting, who noted in a statement that both news studios were upgraded to HD in 2007 with JVC GY-HD250 cameras. Prior to acquiring the JVC cameras, the stations had been using Panasonic P2 cameras and acquiring footage in 16:9.
In deciding to go with JVC, Billings added that the ability to record on SDHC cards was a key factor in the decision.
The GY-HM790s in the field are equipped with Fujinon 17x HD lenses.
As part of its transition to full HD, Waterman also purchased nine GY-HM790 cameras for the WBBH and WZVN studios. "We were very happy with our GY-HD250s, but the more advanced GY-HM790s deliver even better color depth and resolution," Billings said in a statement. "It seemed prudent to make sure our studio video was at least as good as our ENG footage."
The company also purchased six JVC GY-HM100 compact ProHD camcorders for one-person ENG operations.
