By Dan Chung and Sara Li
BIRTV is one of China’s two main broadcast video exhibitions and comes just ahead of IBC, the major European show in Amsterdam. Dslrnewsshooter.com is there this year to check out some of the latest gear hailing from the middle kingdom.
Most major Western and Japanese brands are represented here and it feels a bit like the NAB show, but on a smaller scale. There are twelve large exhibition halls of exhibits and Canon, Sony, Panasonic, Manfrotto et al are all here in force. These companies tend not to launch new gear here as it is so close to IBC – but Chinese companies take the opportunity to show off their wares and use it as a launch pad for the domestic market as well as to get international sales.
There are plenty of copycat Chinese items on show and you may well be familiar with some of the gear – if not the brand names. Many of the products end up being bought by distribution companies and rebadged for sale in the West. There were plenty of DSLR and large sensor camcorder rigs and accessories on the show floor today, but there was little sign of genuine innovation from Chinese manufacturers.
We did find a few interesting bits of kit that I haven’t seen elsewhere, though.
To start off with we saw this rather odd DSLR rig based on a monorail system – very much like a old plate camera. It’s certainly not one for my kit list but see what you think.
Next we found a Taiwanese company called Fishbone that is selling a rather odd body-worn jib system. I’m not sure if I could wear it for too long but the demonstrator seemed to spend all day strapped into it. It’s not a Steadicam copy, as it at first appears, rather a less able lightweight jib on a fixed body mount.
Stay tuned to the site for more reports from the show.
Many thanks to DSLR shooter Sarah Li of Cheung Kong Journalism and Communication School, Shantou University for filming these reports.
