Studio Camera Peds

This page will give you the information you need to be able to operate the cameras in Studio A.

Health & Safety Warning: The Peds are filled with pressurised Nitrogen and can exert a high level of upwards pressure on the top of the ped. This is normally counterbalanced by the weight of the head, the camera and associated items such as autocue, zoom/focus controls, etc.

Before removing any item from the ped or camera, appropriate measures MUST be taken to ensure the ped cannot suddenly rise unexpectedly. Items should not be removed from the ped without suitable training - this especially applies to the removal of the camera, pan head and autocue hoods.

Additionally, on occasions the amount of gas in the ped may be insufficient to help the ped rise (even with weights removed) and may need 'gassing' by adding more nitrogen. This requires special safety training and MUST NOT be undertaken by students.

This page takes you through:

Lock release
Raise & Lower the ped
Movement - crab
Tilt
Pan
Zoom
Focus
Talkback/Comms

This video guide takes you through the controls of the camera ped in order to unlock & move camera. (See further down the page for instructions & diagrams)

This video gives you a guide on how to move the ped to reposition the camera around the studio

UNLOCK AT THE BASE

There are two hooks on opposite sides of the camera ped which will lock the ped at the base into a safe position when not in use. The ped will need to be lowered or raised slightly to be able to line up the hook to release or lock into position.

OPERATING THE PED - Raise & Lower

Holding the wheel, raise or lower the camera.

When you let go of the wheel, the camera should stay in position at the height you have chosen. If the camera lowers or raises & doesn’t retain it’s height, seek advice from a TD…..

MOVEMENT - Tracking/Crab

The ped has two different settings for moving, Crab or Steer. You generally want the ped to be set to Crab to be able to track across the studio floor. Make sure that the Crab switch on the base of the ped is pushed in.

Use the wheel to control and move the ped across the studio floor. There is a silver (or red) marker which controls the direction the ped will move in. With the marker positioned at the back of the camera, the ped will move backwards & forwards. With the marker positioned to the side of the camera, the ped will move sideways…..

TILT

To operate the camera tilt movement, move the lever from the locked position (left) to the right so that there is no resistance to move the camera tilting it up & down. If you have a locked off shot, you can move the lever back to the left once the camera is in the correct position to hold it in that position.

UNLOCKING THE CAMERA PLATE (tilt)

If the camera does not tilt (after releasing the lever at the back), check that the lock on the plate at the back of the camera is also released as this can be locked in addition to the tilt lever, to make the camera safe when not in use.

(There is also another one of these locks at the front of the camera plate, behind the autocue hood)

PAN

To operate the pan movement, move the level from the locked left position to the right so that there is no resistance to move the camera from side to side. If you have a shot which does not involve any further movement you can lock off the pan by moving the lever back to the locked position.

ZOOM

The arm at the back of the ped, on the left controls the zoom, used for framing your shot, with a rocker switch. There is also a dial to control the speed of the zoom control.

FOCUS

The wheel on the right is used to adjust the focus of the camera. It is always best practice to zoom in on your subject & adjust the focus before zooming out & framing your shot. Peaking is also available on these cameras to use as an aid for focusing.

COMMS/TALKBACK

At the back of the camera is a panel with headphones attached, which works with the talk back system so that there is communication between the Gallery and camera operators. You should always be able to hear the Gallery communicating with you whilst operating the camera. When you want to communicate back to the Gallery, you need to move the Mic Line switch to Prod (& the display screen will show TALK in the top left corner to confirm that talkback is open).

You can also move the camera as a sign of acknowledging to the Director that you have heard a new instruction.

Written by LA

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