Panasonic uncovers Secret Little Lives and projects huge images

A total of 25 Panasonic remote cameras were used to capture key childhood moments for Channel 4’s The Secret Life documentary series.

The observational documentary, filmed on AW-HE6OS cameras, follows groups of four, five and six year olds to see how they react to different situations, make and break friendships, learn how to share and stand up for themselves.

The HE6OS is a PTZ (pan/tilt/zoom) camera with the essentials for self-operated studios and fixed installation video. This includes infrared shooting capabilities, an optical 18x zoom lens and 10x digital zoom.

The Complete Camera Company installed the HE60S remote cameras for the series. Company director Paul O’Connor explained the significance of using a remote cameras fixed rig application for the production. “The Panasonic cameras captured the real reactions of children in real situations. Given time, with a fixed rig, people forget they are being filmed and behave very naturally which is the real beauty of this style of shooting.”

A total of 25 HE60S cameras were used for the production, 15 inside the nursery and 10 outside. Such a large number of cameras ensured that every moment was captured, providing a unique insight into the lives of the children.

To ensure subtlety, the cameras feature hybrid noise reduction (Hybrid DNR) that allows clear shooting with minimal noise, even in dimly lit situations.

Oliver Newland, UK regional marketing manager at Panasonic, said, “It’s great to see our products being used to help create such brilliant programs. The HE60S is an unobtrusive camera meant exactly for this kind of application so it’s really positive to hear the feedback from Paul and the guys at The Complete Camera Company.”

In further news Panasonic recreated the world’s largest-ever projected image at the Prolight + Sound 2016 exhibition, held from 5-8 April in Frankfurt, Germany. The highlight of the Panasonic stand was a reproduction of the Circle Of Light festival projection, where over 100 Panasonic PT-DZ21K2 projectors created a 19,099sq/m image on to a group of Ministry of Defence buildings on the Fruzenskaya Embankment in Moscow.

Hartmut Kulessa, European projector marketing manager at Panasonic, said, “The projection at the Circle Of Light festival is a great example of the type of spectacular shows 3D mapping can help create.”

Also being showcased at the exhibition were the recently launched PT-RZ970 series, the industry’s lightest and most compact 1-chip DLPTM 10,000 lumens laser projectors. The three-model series (WUXGA, WXGA, XGA) builds on the features and technology of Panasonic’s PT-RZ670 series, but with approximately 1.5 times more brightness and with picture quality approaching that of its three-chip DLP models.