24 Jan ARC360 Lite cameras at Cheltenham Literature Festival
Hillary Rodham Clinton at the 2017 The Times and The Sunday Times Cheltenham Literature Festival
AV rental company, Production AV, used Agile Remote Cameras’ ARC360 Lite PTZ cameras at the Cheltenham Literature Festival, to provide high quality images for the main venue at this prestigious event. Production AV was the video supplier across many venues at the Festival, using the ARC PTZs for the large ‘Forum’ stage.
“We bought two of the ARC360 Lite PTZ cameras specifically to cover this event,” explained Pete McCrea, Managing Director at Production AV. “They ticked several boxes for us, including ease of setup and control, but we especially needed the high-quality images that they offered. The cameras were operated by volunteer technicians from the University of Gloucestershire so needed to be simple to use too.”
The two ARC360 Lite cameras were mounted in unobtrusive positions on the front of the stage. The venue had initially blocked out seats to provide space for cameras but were able to release these back to the festival due to the small footprint offered by the cameras. Even with the low lighting at the event, the PTZ cameras provided exceptional images, thanks to their award-winning Sony Exmor R™ sensors. Production AV operated the cameras via the ARC4 Controller for full CCU control, with the cameras connected via standard XLR4 cables for power and data.
“We had a single operator manage the switching via the ARC4 Controller, which they found to be accurate and fast to use,” commented Pete. “The system worked so well at the Literature Festival that we’ve since used it on many other projects, including a country show in Harrogate, where we worked with events company, Liteup Events, to provide a camera system on an outdoor stage for The Yorkshire Vet at Countryside Live. We pretty much threw the cameras up and forgot about them, regardless of the weather; there were a couple of television cameramen at the show who were surprised when we showed them where the cameras were, since they were amazed at the great images we were getting from those positions!”
ARC360 Lite PTZ camera
The ARC360 Lite cameras have also been used by Production AV at a Red Bull music event, again for Liteup Events, used on the side of the stage to pick-up images of the DJs for the main screens. “The cameras are small, discreet and deliver good pics in low light,” Pete added. “Plus, as they are matt black, they are also hard to notice on stage. We have a great working relationship with Agile Remote Cameras as a company and always feel they listen to their customers – and understand their projects – so that they can get their products right. Their support is excellent and I believe they’re heading in the right direction with their product roadmap; I can’t wait to try out the new ARC Maxi Controller!”