Imperx Ruggedized Cameras
Take the Heat at the Australian Open

Imperx Ruggedized Cameras Take the Heat at the Australian Open

June 20, 2024, BOCA RATON, FLORIDA  

A camera operating at high speed in the open sun is thermally challenged. Put that system in a package small enough to be placed at the corners of a tennis court, and you are expecting a lot. But these are exactly the demands placed on the cameras used in the Comet system designed by BBG Sports and used at this year’s Australian Open. And this is precisely the environment in which Imperx’s ruggedized cameras excel.

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.

IMPERX C1941 cameras at the corners of the court provided slow motion replay footage for the Australian Open broadcast.

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 Imperx C1941 camera’s wide operating temperature range of -30 °C to +75 °C makes it an ideal choice for demanding outdoor applications.

“The Australian Open tennis used 12 Imperx high-speed C1941 cameras running at 425fps at 1080P resolution. These were utilized 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 rugged 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, you 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 and described in a NASA SPINOFF article. “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.

For more information about Imperx’s broad portfolio of reliable and ruggedized cameras, visit www.imperx.com or contact [email protected] to discuss a customized solution for your application.

About BBG Sports Since 1991, BBG Sports has shared its expertise with television networks and sporting administrations globally, to deliver the best possible information to their audiences in a clear, concise, format that is simple to process and easy to comprehend. BBG Sports continues to research and develop technology that is relevant and reliable. The company prides itself on being an industry leader, with almost thirty years’ experience of integrating hardware, software and networking components to create innovative, turnkey, real time solutions for sports broadcasting.