Palm trees, the FBI, and 4K monitors….these are just three things that Ikan Product Manager Barry Garcia saw on his recent trip to California.
Barry started his trip by flying into LAX, the largest and busiest airport in the Los Angeles area. From there, he went to Burbank to meet up with the President of Postium, which is the South Korean company that created the line of BON monitors that we distribute in North America (excluding Canada). The Postium president was in California to showcase two new monitors: a 24” 4K monitor as well as a 17” HD monitor. It was interesting to see because 4K monitors are becoming more popular and have started trickling down into broadcast and post production work.
Barry spoke with many individuals that might use a monitor on set to monitor 4K footage. Many people are still using HD monitors, but they are looking to take input from cameras and put it into a 4K monitor, a Quad-Link, or up to 6 or 12G. Since 4K is still relatively new, there is still room for companies to get into 4K, which will eventually become common practice.
The trip was beneficial for Postium as well because it gave the president new ideas to take back to the drawing board for the company’s next set of monitors. Barry also visited some post production houses, companies in Burbank such as Band Pro, VTP, Sim Digital, rental houses, and other dealers in California.
“It was a good trip for Ikan to get out there and see what customers are looking for in a 4K monitor today”. – Barry Garcia, Product Manager at Ikan
Afterwards, Barry Garcia along with Barry Seybert from the Ikan Sales Dept. saw a bit of Hollywood and then went to Studio City to visit Cinematographer and Director, Rodney Charters, on the set of Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders. While on set, both Barrys got to meet the acting leads on the show. They also got to observe some filming and see some Ikan gear in action. Rodney is a big fan of Ikan gear and he really likes the NiSi ND filters. He used the filters on the set located on the backlot of Studio City for CBS Studios and also on Stage 21, which encompasses the airplane and the FBI set on Quantico. Rodney also used some Ikan monitors, Tilta cages, and wireless video systems. During the shoot, they filmed scenes for 3 different episodes and pickups. The shoots were mostly shot with a multi-camera setup.
Overall, the trip to California was helpful in getting insights for monitors as well as seeing Ikan products in action on the set of a major network TV show. To hear more from Rodney Charters about the Ikan products he uses on set, see this behind-the-scenes video:
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