Iditarod Time Again
by crcaillouet on Feb.26, 2009, under Panasonic
It’s getting late in February and the time is close for the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race from Anchorage to Nome. Panasonic has provided P2 HD cameras for the race since 2007 and I have been there to set up cameras and train camera operators for the event. This will be my third trip for the start of the race. I won’t be going to Nome for the finish and that is fine with me. I decided after the first time up that any place where the ocean freezes is too cold for this swamp boy. So I’ll come home after the race start and leave the clean-up to someone else.
This year, we will be using HPX500 camcorders as the main coverage cameras, with supplemental coverage from several smaller HPX170 and HVX200 cameras. The helicopter camera will be a Sony 1500 (part of the helicopter rig), recorded on an HPM100 P2 Mobile recorder. All cameras will operate at 720P, with the ground cameras recording in 720/24PN mode and the helicopter in 720P60.
The Director will collect cards after every checkpoint action and edit short clips for uplink to the Iditarod Insider web site at http://www.iditarod.com/insider/index.html. For $19.95, subscribers can keep up with the race in video. For an additional $19.95, they can track the mushers with GPS data transmitted through a satellite and plotted on an interactive online map. It is quite the technological marvel from the middle of nowhere.
I’ll try to post some pics from the nawth. More later.
cheers,
crc
