
As part of their transition to HD at Time Warner Cable Arena, the NBA's Charlotte Hornets selected Ikegami HDK-95C Full Digital Portable CMOS camera systems. The four new Ikegami HDK-95C cameras are the successors to Ikegami HL-60W cameras, which had shot at the Hornets' home arena since it opened in 2005.
Our upgrades are few and far between, so we're looking for equipment with proven reliability and performance which stands up over a long period of time, says Kelly Heddleson, Director of Technical Operations for the Charlotte Hornets. Ikegami is known for having the prettiest picture, and we wanted to make sure that we could display a great image to our large video boards. In addition, this was a city project we wanted the highest quality possible while still being budget-friendly.
In addition to hosting at least 41 games a year for the Hornets, Time Warner Cable Arena is also the venue for approximately 60 additional productions each year. Heddleson and his team are in charge of producing broadcast-quality video for a heavy schedule that includes NCAA basketball, monster truck events, circuses, the 2017 NBA All Star Game, and much more. All video that comes from the Ikegami HDK-95C cameras is distributed to the arena's giant LED screens and in-house TV's.
It's important for us to provide our viewers with the best quality possible, says Heddleson. We chose the Ikegami HDK-95C because we're looking for deep blacks and vibrant colors. Another advantage of these cameras is that they give us multi-format out of the base station our studio is 1080i native, but we can also take the HDK-95C's dual-link 2X high speed signal to our EVS replay machine. That allows us to replay from 120 frames, for a nice smooth replay. Finally, we have a ready upgrade path to 4K when we change our arena TVs over to that format.
Part of Ikegami's Unicam HD line, the HDK-95C HD portable digital camera is equipped with Native multi-format 2.5 million pixel, 2/3 inch CMOS sensors. It also features an upgrade path to 24p and 3G formats, including 1080/60p and 4:4:4 24p.
The advanced features and extensive controls for the Ikegami HDK-95C have also made the new cameras a hit with Heddleson's crew. The HDK-95C has focus assist, which the younger camera operators especially appreciate it helps them grab focus faster when the players are running down the court, he states. On the video shading side, we have Ikegami's OCP-300 operation control panels which gives us every bit of control that we need. There's not one thing on the camera that we can't adjust. We also use an Ikegami 24 monitor which is just awesome all together, it's a great area for shading.
Ikegami's reputation for durability has been proven once again to Heddleson with the HDK-95C. Our HL-60W's were workhorses Ikegami's great at making a sturdy product that can take a beating, he says. We constantly have players trying to save a ball or take a hard foul, and they'll land right on the camera operator. Our HDK-95C's can sustain a big impact and keep right on going.
Service and support from Ikegami have also been top notch, Heddleson continues. I could reach our salesperson anytime during the upgrade process. For commissioning the HDK-95C's, Ikegami's field engineer came here for two days being able to pick his brain that entire time was extremely beneficial.
Anthony James Partners was the consultant on the project, and Comprehensive Technical Group LLC, of Atlanta, Georgia served as the system integrator. The Ikegami HDK-95C is providing terrific value for the Charlotte Hornets, says Ry Alford, Senior Account Manager, Comprehensive Technical Group. This camera is an optimal combination of reliability on game day, high speed capabilities for replay, picture quality and pricing.
With their new Ikegami HDK-95C cameras in house, the Charlotte Hornets' HD upgrade is getting plenty of attention. Everyone the fans, the players, the team owners look up on the board, see this beautiful HD picture, and their jaws drop, says Kelly Heddleson. We couldn't do it without Ikegami.
Most recent headlines
15/12/2025
Harlem Globetrotters Celebrate 100th Anniversary With New Brand Campaign From Th...
15/12/2025
Top L-R: La Tierra Del Valor (The Home of the Brave), Mangittatuarjuk (The Gnawe...
15/12/2025
L3Harris will leverage 15 years of experience supporting the E-4B Nightwatch and...
15/12/2025
CONWAY, Ark. In a notable example of how the loss of federal funding is forcing public stations to make massive cuts and operational changes, the statewide pub...
15/12/2025
BOULDER, Colo. Public Media Venture Group (PMVG), Venture Technologies Group (VTG), and WQED have completed a multipart agreement that they say will significant...
15/12/2025
Cape Town, November 13, 2025 - SES and International artist and humanitarian, Fo...
15/12/2025
Luxembourg, December 15, 2025 - SES, a leading space solutions company, and Abra Group launched fast and reliable multi-orbit inflight connectivity service on t...
15/12/2025
Space42 and Cobham Satcom completed the full range of advanced terminals for the...
15/12/2025
15 Dec 2025
VEON's Beeline Kazakhstan Delivers First Starlink Direct to Cel...
15/12/2025
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor finds himself the topic of year's cracker jokes
Oasis, David Harbour, Celebrity Traitors and Angela Rayner all feature in this y...
15/12/2025
Comscore Expands Cross-Platform Campaign Measurement to Include Audio and Social New capabilities strengthen cross-platform campaign reporting suite; CCR rebran...
15/12/2025
NVIDIA today announced it has acquired SchedMD - the leading developer of Slurm, an open-source workload management system for high-performance computing (HPC) ...
15/12/2025
RT .ie has reached one billion page views this year and is on track to finish 2025 2% ahead of last year. Average time spent on the site is up 3% on 2024, with ...
15/12/2025
Modern workflows showcase the endless possibilities of generative and agentic AI on PCs.
Of many, some examples include tuning a chatbot to handle product-supp...
13/12/2025
Powering Client Growth: Horizon Deepens Nielsen Partnership, Enabling More Effic...
13/12/2025
In a move that will help it offer more flexible and less costly programming options, YouTube TV has announced that it will be launching YouTube TV Plans with mo...
13/12/2025
SINGAPORE Magna Systems has designed, built and completed what is believed to be the first full UHD and IP-based OB truck in Southeast Asia for a Singapore medi...
12/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Everything You Need to Know for Next Week's Big Sho...
12/12/2025
Hailey Gates at the Atropia premiere (photo by George Pimentel / Shutterstock for Sundance Film Festival)...
12/12/2025
Last month, Spotify announced a new collaboration with the ATP Tour, the global governing body of men's professional tennis, aimed at bringing the next gene...
12/12/2025
CONWAY, Ark. In a notable example of how the elimination of Federal federal funding is forcing public stations to make massive cuts and changes in the way they...
12/12/2025
Wisycom and DPA Microphones announce the appointment of Ren Moerch as Group Product Director, Wireless, a strategic leadership role that will guide the combine...
12/12/2025
SMPTE , the home of media professionals, technologists, and engineers, in conjuncture with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and the Entertainment Technolog...
12/12/2025
Keepit, the vendor-independent, cloud-native data protection provider, today announced a strategic go-to-market relationship in Poland with Ingram Micro, a lead...
12/12/2025
Atomos announced the immediate availability of a new firmware update for its Ninja TX GO and Ninja TX monitor-recorders, unlocking Open Gate 48P RAW recording w...
12/12/2025
Professional Wireless Systems (PWS) once again played a critical role in delivering flawless wireless coordination and support at the 2025 Latin Grammy Awards a...
12/12/2025
The Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS), together with the Video Services Forum (VSF), the Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA) and the European Broadc...
12/12/2025
DHD audio will demonstrate the latest additions to its range of digital audio production solutions on Booth 321 in Hall B6 at Hamburg Open 2026. The show will b...
12/12/2025
Chaos today announces the release of V-Ray for Blender, update 2, bringing its award-winning rendering technology to even more Blender users by adding support f...
12/12/2025
Lighting specialist UltraLEDs has launched Precision LED Tape, a high-CRI lighting solution designed specifically for professional film, TV, and studio use.
P...
12/12/2025
Zixi, the Emmy Award-winning leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that Roi Sasson has joined the company as Vice President, Engineer...
12/12/2025
BitFire (bitfire.tv), the leader in software-defined live production and IP transmission, today announced a strategic partnership with Appear, a leader in high-...
12/12/2025
LOS ANGELES The Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) today said futurist Robert Tercek, creative technologist Jessie Hughes from Leonardo.AI and Emmy-winnin...
12/12/2025
HUDSON, Mass. BitFire and Appear have struck a strategic partnership aimed at offering broadcasters, sports leagues and streaming platforms a faster, more flexi...
12/12/2025
The broadcast industry is evolving faster than ever. #IPWorkflows #remoteproduction, and next-gen audio systems are reshaping how teams design, deliver, and sca...
12/12/2025
LOS ANGELES The payroll and production accounting platform Wrapbook has announced the acquisition of Cinapse, a modern scheduling platform for film and televisi...
12/12/2025
DEHLI Ross Video has announced that it is expanding and restructuring its commercial and technical teams in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation...
12/12/2025
LONDON Following the success of its UK launch in January 2025, Rise AV, the global not-for-profit initiative dedicated to supporting and advancing women in the ...
12/12/2025
SAN FRANCISCO Ad-supported streaming service Tubi next week will launch Matter Casting, a new casting standard that will enable seamless mobile-to-TV viewing di...
12/12/2025
LOS ANGELES The Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) today said futurist Robert Tercek, creative technologist Jessie Hughes from Leonardo.AI and Emmy-winnin...
12/12/2025
Friday 12 December 2025
Ted is back! Seth MacFarlane's live-action comedic ...
12/12/2025
In Las Vegas's T-Mobile Arena, fans of the Golden Knights are getting more than just hockey - they're getting a taste of the future. ADAM, a robot devel...
12/12/2025
Uachtar n na h ireann, Catherine Connolly visited RT Raidi na Gaeltachta's...
12/12/2025
Ireland AM host Eric Roberts has been revealed as the sixth contestant taking to...
12/12/2025
Scripps Research team pioneers an efficient way to stereoselectively add fluorine to drug-like molecules A new method uses a novel catalyst and inexpensive fluo...
11/12/2025
Thomson and the Center for News, Technology and Innovation (CNTI) convened a two-day workshop in Sarajevo bringing together more than 35 journalists, editors, p...
11/12/2025
ESPN's Aims for Spectacular With Heisman Trophy ShowEvent firsts include 1080p HDR production airing on both national broadcast and cableBy Dan Daley, Audio...
11/12/2025
SVG Students To Watch: Frankie Patton, University of ColoradoThe 2025 grad is hitting the ground running as a PA on national broadcastsBy Brandon Costa, Directo...
11/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Technology Exhibits Preview, Part 3By SVG Staff
Thursday, December 11, 2025 - 7:24 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
The 2...
11/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: What Makes Gen Z, X, and Y Fans Tick? Dave Gavant of WSC Sports Go...