HITACHI Z-HD5000 Cameras Elevate In-Venue and Broadcast Sports Productions for Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell posted: 23/08/2017
Stellar image fidelity, operational ease and flexibility enable high-quality live streaming broadcasts while increasing on-site fan engagement
Furthering its commitment to delivering high-quality entertainment experiences, the Tsongas Center at the University of Massachusetts Lowell ( UMass Lowell ) has expanded its complement of Z-HD5000 cameras from Hitachi Kokusai Electric America Ltd. (Hitachi Kokusai) to boost its live production capabilities and take optimal advantage of expanding distribution opportunities.
Owned by the university and managed by Spectra Venue Management by Comcast Spectacor, the multi-purpose Tsongas Center facility is home to the NCAA Division I UMass Lowell River Hawks hockey and basketball teams. Seating up to 7,000 visitors, the venue also hosts a variety of non-sporting events including concerts, job fairs, graduations, and major university activities.
An agreement between the NCAA's America East Conference and ESPN to bring live basketball games to multi-screen sports network ESPN3 created the need for the Tsongas Center to upgrade its video equipment roster. Previously using two HITACHI Z-HD5000s alongside other vendors' cameras for productions shown on the venue's in-house video boards, the university and Spectra's on-site team chose to standardize on HITACHI cameras for their ESPN3 broadcasts, in-venue displays, and other distribution outlets.
Sebouh Majarian, assistant director of new media at University of Massachusetts Lowell, operates one of the Tsongas Center's four HITACHI Z-HD5000 cameras
We were very pleased with the quality and reliability of the existing HITACHI cameras we'd been using to drive our scoreboard productions, so when we looked to increase our production flexibility and ensure visual consistency for our new ESPN3 streams, the Z-HD5000s were ideal for our upgrade, said Ben Jewart, director of audio visual services at Tsongas Center. We did our due diligence and evaluated all of the other major camera brands too, but everything led us right back to Hitachi Kokusai.
Four HITACHI Z-HD5000s are now used for the university's live hockey and basketball streaming broadcasts. Two of the cameras are stationed in fixed positions capturing high and tight shots, while the other two Z-HD5000s are operated handheld at ice or court level. While the school's ESPN3 broadcasts typically use freelance crewmembers, other event productions often use current and former students as camera operators, making the Z-HD5000's short learning curve valuable.
The great usability of the Z-HD5000 makes it an excellent teaching platform, said Nolan Mercer, AV manager at Tsongas Center. It is a huge benefit to have cameras that we can quickly show students how to use, and to have the students jump right in and immediately understand their operation. The industry-standard nature of the HITACHI cameras has also been helpful in attracting volunteers, as the students know they are getting practical experience on equipment they may encounter professionally.
Jewart also touts the video quality produced by the HITACHI cameras as a major boost for the center's broadcasts. The Z-HD5000's low-noise, 2/3 chips and digital signal processing gave us a significant improvement in quality over the other camera models we had used, he explained. The colors really pop', and we get consistently high image quality even under dramatically changing lighting conditions, such as when we darken the arena for effect before games, or when we chase the lights when goals are scored.
Sports from the Tsongas Center are now streamed live on ESPN3, the America East Conference website (www.AmericaEast.tv) or the university's own GoRiverHawks.tv site. Beyond the streaming broadcasts, the shooting flexibility provided by the HITACHI cameras and accompanying Fujinon lenses has elevated the center's in-venue productions and raised fan involvement. Whether shooting all the way across the court or further into the crowd, we're now able to get great-quality video at angles we couldn't capture before, said Jewart.
This enables us to incorporate more interactivity with the crowd, which has increased fan engagement and excitement, added Mercer. Our mission is to create memorable fan experiences, and the HITACHI cameras play a key role in doing that.
Sebouh Majarian, assistant director of new media at UMass Lowell, echoes the positive impact that the new cameras have had for both the Tsongas Center team and its audiences. Our experience with HITACHI cameras has been tremendous, he said. They have been easy for our operators to use, and helped shape and advance the quality of both our in-venue and broadcast productions. Our job is to put on a good show for our teams' fans, and the Z-HD5000s have helped us achieve that.
About Hitachi Kokusai Electric Inc.
Hitachi Kokusai Electric Inc. (TSE: 6756), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a company that manufactures broadcasting systems, security and surveillance systems, wireless communications and information systems, and semiconductor manufacturing equipment. Fiscal 2016 (ended March 31, 2017) consolidated net sales totaled 171,857 million Yen ($1,531million).
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
HITACHI Z-HD5000 Cameras Elevate In-Venue and Broadcast Sports Productions for Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell posted: 23/08/2017 
