Big Brother Africa Goes On Air And Online With Q-Ball

The sixth season of Big Brother Africa is now in progress with Camera Corps robotic control allowing efficient remote control of multiple Q-Ball HD/SD heads.
Produced for M-Net by Endemol at a brand new house in Sasani Studios, Johannesburg, the series is hosted by I.K. Osakioduwa, who joined the show two seasons ago. Contestants are being televised trying to avoid being evicted, the winner ultimately winning a large cash prize following a set number of days in confinement.
The show maintains some of the characteristics that makes Big Brother Africa so popular: the ability for audiences to send text messages and see their thoughts and opinions on air. Power over who is evicted from the house, and who remains, is firmly in the hands of the voting public.
Engineer David Sisson, who visited the site to provide installation and training support, commented: "Ten Q-Ball cameras are being used. The Q-Ball heads replace dome cameras which have been employed in previous series. A Q-Ball is located in each room for use during normal lighting conditions and with infra-red illumination to allow operation at night. The system also includes two Camera Corps remote pan and tilt control units, two RCP remote camera panels and a multi-camera switcher. It includes a combiner box to join the two control data streams."
Widely used in reality-television productions, sports and stage events, Q-Ball has proved its resilience delivering long-duration continuous coverage from locations such as London's Trafalgar Square and a round-the-world reconstruction of Charles Darwin's voyage aboard HMS Beagle. Q-Ball is an ultra-compact remotely-controlled camera with integral 10x zoom optical lens and smooth-accelerating pan/tilt motors. Housed in a robust and fully-weatherproof 115 mm diameter aluminium sphere, it is fully compatible with all existing Camera Corps robotic control systems and CCU panels.
Up to 96 Q-Ball cameras can be operated under full remote control from a single Camera Corps Multi Camera Keypad. Four SDI-embedded audio channels are available to accommodate stereo microphones.
(KMcA)