Gamecock Productions Overhauls Workflow With Panasonic

As the University of South Carolina Gamecocks look to repeat the historic success of last season’s SEC East championship victory, Gamecock Productions will be there to capture all the behind-the-scenes action with Panasonic P2 HD gear.

In 2010, the production arm of the university’s Athletic Department purchased four AG-HPX370 P2 HD shoulder-mount camcorders for coaching analysis and, after adding to its camera complement last spring, wasted no time in integrating the Panasonic equipment into its Avid-based workflow.

The AJ-HPX2700 P2 HD VariCam is deployed to document player accomplishments and the weekly coaches’ show, which will be broadcast on Fox Sports South starting Aug. 28.

“The HPX2700 is indispensable for its distinct filmic look, robust sensor, off-speed shooting, advanced gamma settings, and gorgeous color saturation,” says Paul Danna, director of Gamecock Productions. “Given its extreme versatility, it has quickly become our main event camera.”

Gamecock Productions is maximizing the HPX2700’s potential, shooting in AVC-Intra 100 format and making extensive use of the camcorder’s variable frame rates.

“Being in sports, you need big sensors; you need high-quality cameras to be able to capture everything that we’re looking to capture day in and day out,” says Justin Stoll, associate director of Gamecock Productions. “Having HPX2700s at our disposal really allows us to dial in exactly how we want our footage to look.”

With the purchase of two AJ-HPX2700 P2 HD, four AG-HPX370 P2 HD, and three AG-HPX170 P2 HD handheld camcorders, as well as an AJ-HPM200 P2 Mobile six-slot recorder, Gamecock Productions completely overhauled its production workflow from tape-based SD to tapeless HD.

“The industry’s changing to tapeless,” notes Danna. “Between marketing [campaigns], TV shows, [and] sports highlights, everyone wants more and more, so we have to have a department that can deliver.”

In addition to football, Gamecock Productions will roll out the HPX170s to cover the university’s Olympic sports and support Web streaming of a growing number of other sports, including men’s and women’s soccer, volleyball, and softball. The P2 Mobile will be used to record games from network TV trucks at home and away and will also serve as an ingest station.

After going behind the scenes with South Carolina’s softball team last year, Danna hopes to extend Gamecock Productions’ Web show, Gamecock Confidential, to other sports, such men’s and women’s basketball, and also to wire players and coaches during games.

“We want to start doing more wires to get the fans in touch with our athletes and our coaches and get them more inside of each sport,” says Danna. “We want to keep doing more and producing better content across the board for all our sports.”

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