The Micro ROV for Film Production
 Using
a VideoRay for underwater filming can open access to a world
of never-before-possible shots. Weighing only 8 pounds and
about the size of a shoe box, the VideoRay can sneak into
spaces too small or dangerous for divers. Proven inside the
USS Arizona and other wrecks, the VideoRay can survey an
area before divers go in, scan an area, and send footage
to the crew on the boat. During dives, the divers can point
the VideoRay underwater to capture footage, then let it go
as they swim to other areas. This leaves them hands-free
and able to focus on other aspects of the shoot. Because
the VideoRay sends live footage to the surface, a producer
can simultaneously see what the film crew is seeing. The
VideoRay also acts as a dive buddy, never leaving the divers
unattended.
Case Study 1 | Case
Study 2 | Related
Articles | Suggested Configurations | Related
video: "Voyaging
with the Odyssey" |
Graham Ledingham, AUV Operations Manager for Oceanscan in Aberdeen,
Scotland, began his career as an ROV pilot and worked his way up
the management ladder. Lately, however, he finds himself relegated
to the space of a fish box from which he has been operating the
VideoRay ROV.
What led him to the fish box were the six days of filming he completed
recently for the UK cult archaeology TV series, Time Team, starring
Tony Robinson. In its first-ever underwater archeological show,
the TV crew explored a shipwreck that is believed to be part of
the Spanish Armada, sunk off the west coast of Scotland while trying
to make it back to Spain.
Through Oceanscan, Graham was hired to scope out the site of the
wreck for three days. One professional diver was hired to do the
filming. But when the crew discovered that the VideoRay ROV could
capture high-quality footage more easily and safely than divers,
the 8-pound ROV took a leading role. A DV recorder was plugged
directly into the ROV’s video feed and Graham filmed eighteen
hours of footage around the wreck, part of which was included
in a TV special.
Before divers went in, VideoRay scanned the area and sent footage
to the crew on the boat. During dives, the divers were situated
in an inflatable raft 50 feet away from Graham. He would fly the
ROV to the raft, and then they would take the unit with them when
they flopped into the water to dive.
To capture footage during dives, the divers would swim down with
the VideoRay, then grab it and point at items of interest in the
wreck. During the operation, the VideoRay acted as a dive buddy,
never leaving the divers unattended.
One ROV flight was from the captain’s bedroom on a catamaran.
The ROV’s tether went through the bedroom window and the
images from below were displayed on the ship’s TV system.
The rest of filming took place with Graham in a fish box on the
open deck of a small shell fish vessel.
What made the operation unique was the mobility Graham enjoyed
with the 8-pound VideoRay. According to Graham, “It would
have been impossible to mobilize any other ROV system to get the
shots we did from the vessels we had.”
From the safety and dry of the boat, the producers and directors
could see the site and artifacts within. Later, the footage proved
useful when they were tagging items.
According to Graham, the crew found cannonballs and valuable pottery
that identifies the owner of the ship.
In another salvage operation, Graham searched for a 4-seater private
plan that crashed off the Isle of Man during take-off from Ronaldsway
Airport on the island. He was on a way to demonstrate the VideoRay
to a research lab on the island when the police met him at the
ferry and asked if he would use the ROV in the search.
The police offered the 8-meter long harbor boat as the search
vessel. “The only place for him to work was the table where
they made their tea. There’s no other system that could have
fit on the vessel,” recalls Graham. He held the control box
on his knee and placed the monitor on the tea table.
During ROV flights, Graham placed a large weight on the ROV to
counter five-knot currents. Looking at magnetometer spikes, Graham
searched a three-mile by two-mile area of the bay, visiting nearly
thirty targets from several directions. “In the same amount
of time, divers would have been able to see only three targets,” says
Graham.
Authorities believe that the wreckage was washed from the bay
by the strong currents, as none of the targets produced the wreck.
Surface wreckage appeared on the water the day of the crash, but
the location of the plane remains a mystery.
Thanks to its performance on the first TimeTeam program, Graham
has been asked by TimeTeam again to pilot the VideoRay on another
shipwreck investigation in September. This mission in on a well
known vessel, HMS Colossus, in the Scilly Isles, just
south of Lands End in England. The VideoRay will again be the main
underwater
eyes of the team and will also act as dive buddy to all the divers
involved in this project.
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Run by electricity, the ROV is a boon to the underwater world -
for photographers, science, search and rescue, commercial projects,
dam inspections, fisheries, and recreational divers. The crew of
scientists and film producers on a Discovery Channel filming mission
were impressed with the performance of VideoRay 2000, the first model
released in August 1999, which was the base model for the VideoRay
Pro.
"The VideoRay gave me unprecedented access to the underwater
world which helped tremendously in shooting Sharks of the Great White
North," said Larry Bambrick, a producer with Discovery Channel
Canada. "Its ability to go deep in extremely frigid waters let
me decide whether it was worth sending down the divers. When you're
working in a hostile underwater environment like the high north,
having the VideoRay act as a second pair of eyes is invaluable." Bambrick's
latest project is a one-hour documentary "Sharks of the Great
White North" which focuses on sharks found off the coasts of
Canada. He used the VideoRay to help shoot underwater footage in
Baffin Island, Nova Scotia and Alaska.
"During the expedition to Baffin Island diving in search of
the giant Greenland Shark, I was truly impressed with the versatility
of the VideoRay," said Dr. Chris Harvey-Clark, of Dalhousie
University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. "This is an ROV that is
small enough to travel by air as personal luggage, compact enough
for one person to deploy and operate, and quiet enough to allow you
to sneak up on big game underwater. It can dive all day in minus
2 degree water that has me frozen in 40 minutes in a drysuit, meanwhile
sending back video feed that I can use for research and broadcast
purposes. It is rugged enough to take the punishment of air travel
and hard field use."
Said Aaron Fisk Ph.D, Research Scientist, National Water Research
Institute, "VideoRay provides excellent video quality, is extremely
easy to control in the water, is small and non-invasive, very portable,
and only requires a minimal power supply. It is an excellent platform
for doing short or long term monitoring of most aquatic systems,
including the Arctic, and eliminates many of the limitations of using
SCUBA divers.
(This article from our archives was first published
in August 2000.)
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For underwater documentaries, we recommend the VideoRay
Pro III.
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