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BBG Sports, an inventor of ‘Hot Spot’, the tool that revolutionized the world of cricket, sets high demands for their Comet system cameras at the Australian Open. Imperx’s ruggedized cameras meet and exceed expectations in this challenging environment. Imperx is a leading global designer and manufacturer of superior-quality digital imaging products and software, renowned for their reliability and exceptional performance in demanding applications worldwide.
A camera operating at high speed in the open sun is thermally challenged. Putting that system in a package small enough to be placed at the corners of a tennis court is even more difficult. But these were solved by the Imperx Cheetah cameras, the CXP-C1941.
The Comet system delivers 1080p imagery while operating at hundreds of frames per second to provide slow motion playback for broadcast. Whether used on a tennis court or a cricket field, the key requirements are reliability and high-quality imagery at high operating temperatures. This performance must be delivered in an unobtrusive package, without the need for external enclosures or chassis’ that would increase the system’s physical footprint.
The original COMET systems, first designed in 2018, used Imperx Bobcat CCD cameras. As high-quality CMOS image sensors became available and offered faster frame rates, the system transitioned to Imperx Cheetah cameras, most recently the CXP-C1941. The CoaXPress camera’s low dark current, excellent uniformity and low power dissipation (<5W) enable the camera to be conductively cooled, making it ideal for high reliability and excellent image quality over its extended temperature range of -30 °C to +75 °C.
“The Australian Open tennis used 12 Imperx high-speed C1941 cameras running at 425fps at 1080P resolution. These were utilised on Rod Laver Arena, Margaret Court Arena and John Cain Arena with 4 cameras in the corners of each running for the entirety of the tournament that added hundreds of replays to the tournaments broadcast,” explained BBG Sports founder Warren Brennan in a recent interview with Imperx. “The fans of all sports are the ultimate judges of what is really great, and they tend to express themselves through social media, and this is where we received enormous accolades for our Comet system during this year’s Australian Open tennis.”
The Imperx CXP-C1941 Cheetah camera features the Sony Pregius IMX421 Global Shutter CMOS image sensor with a native resolution of 1920 x 1472 in a 2/3” optical format delivering up to 371.8 frames per second at full resolution. CMOS technology eliminates smear columns from areas of ultra-bright intensity and specular reflections in uncontrolled lighting applications. The camera has excellent sensitivity, fast frame rates, exceptional dynamic range and supports strobe outputs, trigger input, automatic exposure, automatic gain control with multiple LUTs, and other high-value functions. The Cheetah line of ruggged cameras provides excellent image quality with Imperx proprietary processing, while also providing full access to raw image data without corrections. Using the intuitive GenICam™ compliant user interface, the user can quickly apply any desired image corrections. The camera’s flexibility, image quality, and speed make it suitable for a broad range of diverse and demanding applications.
Imperx is well known providing both off the shelf and customized camera solutions that are ruggedized to perform in extremes of temperature, vibration, and radiation. A recent collaboration with NASA led to the development of cameras used on the Artemis 1 mission launch vehicle. “The environmental range on these cameras is insane,” said Jarret Bone, a NASA mechanical engineer working on the project, noting that one of the cameras survived eight minutes positioned just a few feet from the blasting rocket engine, followed by the frigid space environment.
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