FAO headquarters integrates Panasonic technology to have Full HD video in all rooms

The technological renovation that has been carried out at the facilities located in Rome includes 16 PTZ cameras AW-HE130W, five AW-RP50 control panels and two AG-HMX100 digital mixers.

The three main meeting rooms of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) They have PTZ cameras that generate visual content for events held at the institution. The system has a fiber optic connection with the EBU central office (European Broadcasting Union).

FAO is a specialized agency whose main objective is to eradicate hunger and poverty. Founded in 1945, has 194 member states and focuses its initiatives on improving nutrition levels and the lives of rural populations, as well as increasing agricultural productivity.

Its world headquarters is located in Rome and is where it is held., he 16 October of each year, FAO's largest international event, World Food Day.

When updating the technological equipment of the main meeting rooms and achieving Full HD video quality and a new configuration, that would allow audiovisual signals to be distributed to all rooms; the integrator HMedia opted for solutions Panasonic. In this way they have been installed 16 PTZ cameras AW-HE130W, five AW-RP50 control panels and two AG-HMX100 digital mixers.

“We have many meeting rooms, of various sizes and capacities, from a few dozen to around a thousand people. We choose the Plenary room, the Red room and the Green room and we decided to create some new secondary control rooms, connected to the main control room, to achieve greater autonomy and flexibility in the organization and management of event production”, comment », explains Massimo Fioravanti, FAO technical coordinator.

The project has also included the configuration of an innovative signal distribution system based on fiber optics., so that all meeting rooms had the same features and could have Full HD video quality.

“The Plenary Room, The Red Room and the Green Room were offered to the Italian government and were built in record time to accommodate the General Conference of 1951. At first, These rooms were equipped with an SD Pal installation and SD resolution video cameras, "But our intention was to focus on the speakers sitting at the table with three cameras and use two other cameras to monitor the interventions from the floor.", continues Fioravanti.

The design and installation of Panasonic PTZ cameras, with control panels and digital mixers, They were supervised by Salvatore Del Tito, technical director of HMedia. “The Full HD images of on-site interventions have great clarity, although the lighting in the rooms is both natural and artificial. The fixed optics are very powerful and the dimensions are compact and non-intrusive”.

The Panasonic AW-HE130 PTZ camera's image stabilization and pro-grade 20x zoom were also important elements., according to Salvatore. “A quality image stabilizer must not only absorb all vibrations, but it is vital that its own operation does not deteriorate the images recorded from the three MOS sensors.".

The design of the building posed a few problems when installing the cameras. The rooms are about thirty meters deep. The cameras that focus on the speakers are placed on the wall opposite the stage, Therefore, a significant zoom factor must be used that “allows for good close-ups of the speakers.”, while the wide-angle shots of the cameras that focus on the stage must also include the first rows”, explains Salvatore.

"Besides, the metro line passes under the FAO headquarters, so it is normal to experience vibrations. However, despite all this, The images are always very sharp and the quality never deteriorates. We have also had no difficulty using the remote control or managing the video signals on the production line., which are great advantages. The AG-HMX100 mixer has several SDI inputs, PC y DVI, which represents a great help for integrators”.