() is a Japanese manufacturer of professional and broadcast

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

equipment, especially

professional video camera A professional video camera (often called a television camera even though its use has spread beyond television) is a high-end device for creating electronic moving images (as opposed to a movie camera, that earlier recorded the images on film). O ...

s, both for

electronic news gathering Electronic news-gathering (ENG) or electronic journalism (EJ) is usage of electronic video and audio technologies by reporters to gather and present news instead of using film cameras. The term was coined during the rise of videotape techno ...

and studio use. The company was founded in 1946.

History

Ikegami introduced the first portable hand-held TV camera. The camera made its debut in the United States in May 1962, when

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

used it to document the launching of NASA's

Aurora 7 Mercury-Atlas 7, launched May 24, 1962, was the fourth crewed flight of Project Mercury. The spacecraft, named ''Aurora 7'', was piloted by astronaut Scott Carpenter. He was the sixth human to fly in space. The mission used Mercury spacecraft No ...

crewed space flight. In 1972, Ikegami introduced the HL-33, the first compact hand-held color video camera for ENG. The compact ENG cameras made live shots easier and—when combined with portable videotape recorders—provided an immediate alternative to 16mm television news film, which required processing before it could be broadcast. In addition to ENG, these cameras saw some use in outside broadcasts in Britain, particularly for roaming footage that was not possible to capture using the much larger tradition OB cameras. The later HL-51 was popular among broadcasters for both ENG and EFP image acquisition. Although Ikegami is known as a manufacturer of high-quality television cameras, the company does not make video recorder mechanisms (

VTR A video tape recorder (VTR) is a tape recorder designed to record and playback video and audio material from magnetic tape. The early VTRs were open-reel devices that record on individual reels of 2-inch-wide (5.08 cm) tape. They were us ...

s), and has been a licensee of professional video formats such as

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

Betacam Betacam is a family of half-inch professional videocassette products developed by Sony in 1982. In colloquial use, "Betacam" singly is often used to refer to a Betacam camcorder, a Betacam tape, a Betacam video recorder or the format itself. Al ...

SP and DVCAM, and

Panasonic formerly between 1935 and 2008 and the first incarnation of between 2008 and 2022, is a major Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation, headquartered in Kadoma, Osaka, Kadoma, Osaka P ...

's DVCPRO. In 1995, Ikegami co-operated with Avid on a tapeless video acquisition format called

Editcam Editcam is a professional digital camera system manufactured by Ikegami and first introduced in 1995, available both as professional camcorders and modular dock recorders. It is the first ever tapeless field acquisition device and has evolved int ...

, but few were sold. Ikegami developed a tapeless camera format is called GFCAM

Toshiba , commonly known as Toshiba and stylized as TOSHIBA, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure system ...

. According to some sources , , , 2005, . in the early 80s, Ikegami developed a number of

arcade game An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are presented as primarily games of skill and include arcade v ...

s as a subcontractor to Japanese video game companies. Among the games they may have developed are ''

Computer Othello Computer Othello refers to computer architecture encompassing computer hardware and computer software capable of playing the game of Othello. It is also known as Reversi for Microsoft Windows (1.0- XP, 1985-2005) and Classic Mac OS (since 1984). ...

'', ''Block Fever'', '' Monkey Magic'', ''

Congo Bongo , also known as , is an isometric platform game released by Sega for arcade video game, arcades in 1983. The game includes a Read-only memory, ROM that contains a message indicating it was likely coded at least in part by the company Ikegami Tsus ...

'', ''

Popeye Popeye the Sailor Man is a fictional cartoon character created by E. C. Segar, Elzie Crisler Segar.Donkey Kong is a video game franchise created by Shigeru Miyamoto and owned by Nintendo. It follows the adventures of a gorilla named Donkey Kong (character), Donkey Kong and his clan of other Ape, apes and monkeys. The franchise primarily consists of plat ...

'', ''

Radar Scope is a 1980 shoot 'em up arcade game developed by Nintendo R&D2 and published by Nintendo. The player assumes the role of the Sonic Spaceport starship and must wipe out formations of an enemy race known as the Gamma Raiders before they destroy t ...

'', ''

Sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland that is commonly transla ...

'', ''

Space Fever is a 1979 arcade game by Nintendo R&D2. Some sources claim that Ikegami Tsushinki also did programming work on ''Space Fever''. It was released in both monochrome and color versions. The gameplay is similar to ''Space Invaders'', which had been ...

'', ''

Space Firebird is a 1980 arcade video game developed by Nintendo R&D1 and released by Nintendo in Japan and Europe. In America, the game was distributed by Far East Video. Sega-Gremlin A gremlin is a mischievous folkloric creature invented at the begin ...

'', '' Space Demon'', '' Heli Fire'', ''

Sky Skipper is a 1981 arcade game by Nintendo. In the game, the player pilots a biplane and must save animals and a royal family from gorillas holding them captured. This is done by dropping bombs on the gorillas to knock them out and unlock the cages, t ...

'', '' Space Launcher'' and ''

Zaxxon is an isometric shooter arcade game, developed and released by Sega in 1982, in which the player pilots a ship through heavily defended space fortresses. Japanese electronics company Ikegami Tsushinki is also credited for having worked on the de ...

''. At that time, computer programs were not recognized as copyrightable material. According to these sources, Ikegami proceeded to sue Nintendo for unauthorized duplication of the ''Donkey Kong'' program code for the latter's creation of ''

Donkey Kong Junior is a 1982 arcade platform game that was released by Nintendo. It is the sequel to '' Donkey Kong'', but with the roles reversed compared to its predecessor: Mario (previously named "Jumpman") is now the villain and Donkey Kong Jr. is trying ...

'' (1983, Tokyo District Court), but it was not until 1989 that the Tokyo High Court gave a verdict that acknowledged the originality of program code. In 1990, Ikegami and Nintendo reached a settlement, terms of which were never disclosed.ドンキーコング裁判についてちょこっと考えてみる
Thinking a bit about Donkey Kong, accessed 2009-02-01

Products

Some Ikegami Models included the ITC (Industrial Television Camera)-730, HL-79 HL-55, HL-V55 and HL-99. Ikegami makes a full line of

SDTV Standard-definition television (SDTV, SD, often shortened to standard definition) is a television system which uses a resolution that is not considered to be either high or enhanced definition. "Standard" refers to it being the prevailing sp ...

and

HDTV High-definition television (HD or HDTV) describes a television system which provides a substantially higher image resolution than the previous generation of technologies. The term has been used since 1936; in more recent times, it refers to the g ...

TV cameras. Many of the model numbers of Ikegami portable television cameras begin with the initial letters "HL", which stand for "Handy-Looky", an original translation from the Japanese.

External links

Ikegami broadcast camera used to create captions for outside broadcast productionIkegami WebIkegami USA

References

{{Electronics industry in Japan Electronics companies of Japan Film and video technology Manufacturing companies established in 1948 Electronics companies established in 1948 Japanese brands Japanese companies established in 1948