Thoroughbred Racing Productions (TRP) provides exclusive HD production services to the Victorian racing industry, producing 525 broadcasts annually. In 2018 they expanded to include South Australia Racing (SA Racing) as their latest high profile customer. For SA Racing TRP had a requirement for new OB trucks and new lenses and for those they turned to FUJINON.
TRP Engineering and Technical Operations Manager Charles Cole explained, “Our broadcasts are provided for free-to-air and pay TV channels in Australia and overseas, wagering operations, on-course patrons and importantly the stipendiary stewards who manage the integrity of racing. That means delivering premium sports vision that not only captures the spectacular excitement of thoroughbred racing but also the finer detail. It also means we can only use the very best equipment and when we evaluated lenses for our new trucks, that meant FUJINON.”
In 2008 TRP had three HD OB vans built by Sony at their custom OB production facility in Beresfield near Newcastle, north of Sydney. Their first choice for lenses then was also FUJINON.
Cole continued, “We chose FUJINON lenses back then based on their quality, our relationship with the FUJIFILM Australia team and the excellent technical advice they always have for us. In 2018 not much has changed. We bid for the SA Racing contract and when we won it meant building two state of the art OB vehicles so FUJINON lenses were a natural choice.”
When TRP again commissioned Sony to develop its two new outside broadcast vans, it wanted only the best. The result is two racing production machines that can cut it with any sportscaster in the world.
Cole added, “We did a full evaluation and assessment of all the available lenses that met our strict quality requirements. When all was said and done for our Metro truck we chose FUJINON HA42x9.7BERD HD Premier Lenses and ZA22x7.6BERM HD Broadcast Lenses and for our Country Truck HA42x9.7BERD HD Premier Lenses and ZA22x7.6BERD HD Broadcast Lenses. Another big plus was that FUJINON’s Cabrio lenses are a perfect fit with our FOR-A VES7000 super slow mo large sensor camera.”
Part of the TRP lens brief for SA Racing included requirements for an ENG-style lens that gave them the ability to produce virtual graphics with in-built encoders.
Cole said, “In practicality we needed a mix of ENG lenses for different parts of the track so whereas one of the turns might need a larger lens the back straight requires smaller lenses, so we kitted both trucks out with equal numbers of large and small lenses.”
It’s no secret that the images produced by TRP’s new trucks for SA Racing have received acclaim from throughout the industry.
Cole explained, “For SA Racing the on-air picture quality has truly set a new bar and the lenses are responsible for part of that. There is a noticeable quality increase with the mix of Sony HSC-300RF cameras and FUJINON lenses. Also both trucks use all new SMPTE fibre for better connectivity and quality.”
Quality and efficiency are words often used by Charles Cole and the TRP technical team as they are values that underpin the entire company’s ethos.
He added, “FUJINON lenses are as good if not better than any other lenses in the market today. They always push their quality, optics and R&D and their HD tolerances are excellent with no aberrations. In other words FUJINON lenses enable TRP to deliver the images exactly as we want them. It’s taken us ten years to perfect our camera and lens combinations and FUJINON lenses fit perfectly.”
Clearly Charles Cole, TRP and SA Racing are delighted with their choice of FUJINON lenses and he concluded, “The other point worth noting relates to FUJIFILM Australia’s sales, service and support which is exemplary. Their follow up of any issues is swift and comprehensive, the service and support we get from Terry Kasai and the entire team is excellent and they always accommodate us going above and beyond whenever they can.”