GJD, the manufacturer of detectors, LED illuminators and security lighting, has worked with HotCam, a broadcast camera, audio, lighting equipment hire and crewing company. That company sought LED illuminators to use during night vision for precision filming for a television series.
As covert infra-red (IR) lighting was a key specification, it was essential the illuminators could light up a room as if it was daylight to a night vision camera, but still appear dark to the human eye so people were unaware of filming.
Image quality was also key as the camera footage had to meet broadcast standards. It was important to capture visible images of objects without shadows and show people with facial identification. The lighting had to be completely accurate as the filming would be in total darkness. The location of filming was in various sized rooms which would change from day to night, so both the illumination range and angle had to match the cameras field of view.
After testing, eight Medium Clarius PLUS Infra-Red illuminators were specified. The medium Clarius PLUS comes with the latest surface mount dual core LEDs with optical output to deliver night-time images.
The products allow for significantly more light to be delivered precisely where it is required. Light wastage is reduced, which helps to reduce costs and save energy.
The Medium Clarius PLUS features an interchangeable lens diffuser, pictured, which provides a way method to alter the angle of illumination, providing versatility when filming.
The Clarius PLUS also has a very minimal visible glow, the product firm adds, so that the lighting was invisible to the actors. The PoE (power over Ethernet) gave the option to run power via PoE, this saved further cabling and lowered the maintenance costs.
Joe Patterson, Technical Manager at HotCam said: “We are very happy with how the Clarius PLUS LED illuminators performed and they were perfect for the application we required. GJD also provided us with an outstanding level of customer service, I am looking forward to working with GJD again.”
The equipment was ordered through NBM, a GJD distributor.
