Cramer Gains Control Over Subject-Tracking in Virtual Productions with Panasonic Auto Tracking Software Solution
By Adam Noyes
Cramer is a leading content marketing agency in Norwood Massachusetts who are known for virtual experiences. They relied heavily on the Panasonic Auto Tracking Software to achieve their ends, with the AW-UE150 as their 4K PTZ Camera.
Check out some highlights from this article from svconline.com to learn more about this workflow.
Experiencing the challenge that when shooting some scenes using a manual jib with the AW-UE150, Cramer was finding it next to impossible to track the subject in traditional ways.
“After some rehearsal, I could use the mouse to stay with the subject but when the talent would move, it was very hard to stay with the movement,” said Brad Richelson, Vice President of Engineering, Cramer. “Much time was dedicated to rehearsing the shot when tracking in manual. This added significantly to the time that’s been budgeted and scheduled time for the shoot. And when you have many people standing around waiting during the rehearsals, it adds up quickly.”
Richelson explained that he had used an earlier version of Panasonic’s Auto Tracking software and while it was a significant improvement over using a joystick or mouse, it was clear that an increase in precision was needed. “The improvements in the software are working so well that only in special cases do I go back to manually tracking of the subject. Overwhelmingly, most of the time the director will ask me before we start shooting the next scene or shot to ‘lets keep Auto Tracking on.’”
Another key benefit of the Auto Tracking software, said Richelson, is that it doesn’t get tired. “Auto Tracking doesn’t care that the shoot has already gone on for 10 hours or more where human effort starts to plummet,” Richelson added.
Available for single-camera operation (AW-SF100) or multi-camera operation (AW-SF200), the main use for Panasonic’s Auto Tracking Software has been to support automated lecture and presentation capture with high-precision tracking using motion detection, facial recognition and new body detection powered by Deep Learning Algorithms. The AW-UE150 has been the industry’s choice for a 4K/HD PTZ camera, offering high-end production features including 4K/UHD 60p capture, FreeD protocol for camera tracking in augmented/virtual (AR/VR) reality productions, a V-LOG video output, a wide 75.1-degree viewing angle, SRT protocol support for 4K/60p video streaming, and RTMP/RTMPS support for direct video uploads to live-streaming services such as YouTube and Facebook Live.