ARRI exhibited the ALEXA 35 Live – Multicam system, SkyPanel X, Orbiter, new L-Series Plus spotlight, and more at NAB2024.
The highlight was the exhibition of the ALEXA 35 Live – Multicam system. ARRI is taking big steps in the live entertainment space and will be devoting even more resources to the field. The goal is to provide a cinematic look to live production, but integration with existing live production infrastructure is a challenge.
ARRI Alexa 35 Live Development
Mark Shipman-Muller, Senior Product Manager, Camera Systems, ARRIARRI has been in the live entertainment business for quite some time and has released many products such as AMIRA, TRINITY Live, and 360 EVO. Furthermore, the ARRI Group has a world-class reference brand in the field of professional lighting systems, Claypaky, which also handles concert lighting. These products have been used in many high-end concerts by artists such as Adele, Lowry, Blue Adkins and Billy Joel. He’s worked on concerts for Coachella, Coldplay, Dua Lipa, Sharon Williams, and many others, from which he’s already learned a lot. Based on that information, they announced a new system, the ALEXA 35 Live – Multicam System.
The live production system “LPS-1” mainly consists of an ALEXA 35 Live camera, a fiber camera adapter and a fiber base station. From the fiber base station, a remote control panel is connected, and a so-called shader is installed in the control room to control the color of the camera control. Contrast can be matched across all cameras.
The ALEXA 35 Live camera head is a camera based on the ALEXA 35, using the exact same hardware and equipped with the exact same sensor. Equipped with a Super 35 4K sensor. ALEXA 35 offers 17 stops of dynamic range. Perfect for filming everything from movies to true TV series and commercials, as well as concerts. It is said to be able to provide extremely high contrast and colorful lighting.
When photographing a soccer match, half of the stadium may be illuminated by the sun, and the other half may be in darkness. It would have been extremely difficult to capture this with a conventional camera, but with a dynamic range of 17 stops, it is easily possible. It also features high sensitivity, allowing you to take pictures with reduced noise even in low light. This alone allows the camera to produce better images than traditional 2/3-inch broadcast cameras.
Compatible with ARRI Look as a color output. You can create your own ARRI Look. There are also several ARRI Looks developed specifically for life production. There are versions for entertaining talk shows, game shows, and winter sports, and others are currently in production.
Additionally, ALEXA 35 and ALEXA 35 Live are equipped with a very unique feature called textures. It comes standard with eight textures that provide a variety of image styles. Additionally, ALEXA 35 Live adds five textures specifically for live production. This feature also makes it possible to match the sharpness of the ALEXA 35 Live camera to the level of other cameras.
Live entertainment demonstrations will be held on the ARRI booth stage. At the fashion show, the image characteristics, colors, skin tones, textures, and dynamic range of ALEXA 35 Live were introduced, while the movements of TRINITY Live and 360 EVO were demonstrated. Examples of sports included shadow boxing and dance demonstrations.
We strongly emphasized the production ecosystem and values that can be realized because ARRI is the industry’s only manufacturer that comprehensively provides imaging, lighting, and stabilization.
