Arena Camera Selection

Michael,

I have been involved in quite a few arena projects. I'm happy to share a few key points.

Above all, test everything in the arena under exact conditions. Lighting is extremely different between a graduation, sporting event, and concert. If the user can see exactly what they're going to get out of the system, it takes risk away from you.

Low light performance is key. You might think there's a lot of light at a basketball or hockey game, but the crowd is typically pretty dimly lit. For concerts, the crowd is essentially dark.

One big gotcha is sight lines, especially with a stage and center display. It goes back to the first point. Test with the scoreboard in game position. It really wreaks havoc on sight lines. Stage setups for big acts are huge as well. If cameras are going to be looking up (think camera on lower mezzanine looking across to upper sections), take into consideration the lights that will be between the cameras and crowd.

If you set expectations properly and approach this as the extremely challenging environment that it is, you should be fine.

Thanks for the advice. I will make sure I take the lighting and sight lines into consideration when placing cameras.

Hey Mike, how big is the arena roughly, HxWxD?

Is the mounting mainly to be on structural steel? Is the ceiling an option?

You mention PTZs, will there be dedicated operators?