Famed Production House Has Trusted Anton/Bauer for White House Tapings and “Restaurant: Impossible” Program
PHILADELPHIA, JULY 30, 2012—Anton/BauerA®
, part of Vitec Videocom, a Vitec Group company and a premier global provider of batteries, chargers, lighting and other mobile power systems for the professional broadcast, video and film industries, is pleased to announce that prestigious production house ShootersINC has relied on Anton/Bauer batteries to power its clients’ reality television, political spots and other projects for the past 30 years. ShootersINC, which currently employs Anton/Bauer
DIONICA® HCX
and
HyTRON 140A®
power solutions, continues to be impressed by the products’ longevity and rugged design, as well Anton/Bauer’s world-class customer support.
Many of the productions ShootersINC handles unfurl at a frenetic pace, especially when it comes to reality programming, as every piece of production equipment, including batteries, is put through the paces as crew members twist and jostle among crew on the set, angling for key shots of the action. For example, each episode of the reality series
Restaurant: Impossible
, which ShootersINC produces for The Food Network, crew members operating cameras must follow British chef Robert Irvine, the restaurant’s owner and restaurant employees, as they move around the various areas of a failing restaurant in their efforts revitalize it within the two-day time period. It takes Anton/Bauer batteries to keep the cameras rolling.
“We’re constantly recycling the batteries and they just keep on working,” says Craig Needleman, principal and director of photography for ShootersINC. “We cycle them through, and you know at the end of the day you will have enough power—they charge fast and work great. Also, Anton/Bauer provides very sturdy batteries. In the production environment, it’s inevitable that when someone hands off a battery, it gets thrown on the floor of a car or, if we’re filming in a car, it’s shaken around. We’ve never had an Anton/Bauer battery crack or break open, which has not always been the case with other batteries.”
The longevity of Anton/Bauer batteries can be a lifesaver for the political programming ShootersINC produces for its clients. The company has filmed President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama in the White House—a situation where a battery failure would be disastrous. “You can’t run out of battery power during the President’s speech,” notes Needleman. “There is no second chance to get back into the White House, so you want to know that the batteries you bring in with you are going to get the job done.” Also, due to security restrictions, anyone shooting in the White House must bring as little equipment as possible. Anton/Bauer’s HyTRON 140 battery offers an excellent counterbalance to offset the weight of a camera lens, helping ShootersINC employees bring the least amount of equipment possible into the presidential mansion.
The best batteries in the world are only as good as the customer support behind them, and Anton/Bauer’s customer support consistently wins applause from Needleman and his colleagues at ShootersINC. “The customer support is great at Anton/Bauer,” says Needleman. “I can call them up and talk to someone I know in customer service, and he’ll tell me what to do with the battery, how to check it, etc. I think that’s why Anton/Bauer batteries have become the power systems of choice for the broadcast industry.”
Currently, ShootersINC uses the Anton/Bauer HyTRON 140 batteries with its Panasonic AJ-HDX 900 cameras. The cameras have wide-angle lenses, making them front-heavy, so the HyTRON 140s balance out the cameras nicely. ShootersINC also recently began using DIONIC HCX batteries, which can power their cameras running an onboard light, video transmitter and wireless audio receivers. ShootersINC also employs the Anton/Bauer QUAD 2702 PowerCharger and Gold MountA® accessories for its productions.
The DIONIC HCX is a 124Wh capacity battery with the ability to sustain a 10-amp draw, and run a 40-watt camera with a 20-watt light for two hours. It includes a motion-detection feature that incorporates a “deep-sleep” setting, reducing battery self-discharge, which allows for extended periods of storage with minimal capacity loss. The battery can be “awakened” by the built-in motion sensor. As with the Anton/Bauer DIONIC 90 and DIONIC HC products, the DIONIC HCX features an enhanced RealTimeA® LCD fuel gauge to display up to nine hours of run time (under low-power-load conditions) using a seven-segment display enclosed by four circular arcs that indicate 15-minute time intervals.
The HyTRON 140 is a high-power NiMH battery system suited to the power demands of today’s high-definition equipment and on-camera lighting systems. In lower power applications, it can provide power for many hours without limits or travel restrictions.
For more information, visit
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About Anton/Bauer
Anton/Bauer is recognized as the world’s innovator and a premier provider of batteries, chargers, lighting and other key mobile power systems for the professional broadcast, video and film industries. Based in the United States in Shelton, CT with offices in Europe and Asia, Anton/Bauer was established in 1970 and has expanded its product offerings to include many signature lines such as its leading Gold MountA® system, InterActiveA® chargers and Logic SeriesA® batteries such as the HyTRONA® 50, 100 and 140, and DIONICA® 90, 160, HC and HCX. Their products are compatible with every camera brand on the market today. Other Anton/Bauer high performance products include the UltralightA® 2, ElipZA®, CINE VCLX and the Tandem 150 Modular Charging System. Their superior-quality products have become an industry standard. For more information on Anton/Bauer, visit
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About Vitec Videocom
brings together some of the most respected, most innovative and most sought-after brands in the industry: Anton/Bauer, Autoscript, Litepanels, OConnor, Petrol, Sachtler, Vinten and Vinten Radamec. It acts as an endorsing brand for these market-leading broadcast, film and pro video products, encouraging multi-brand system sales and simplifying the way that customers worldwide do business.
Vitec Videocom is an operating division within the Vitec Group, an international business serving customers in the broadcast, photographic and military aerospace and government markets. Vitec is based on strong, well known, premium brands on which its customers rely on worldwide.
Vitec Videocom – innovative products around the camera.
