You’ve seen those cameras zipping over the field at NFL and college football games, suspended on cables?
Many were made locally by CableCam LLC. But now that company is zipping away from its Chatsworth headquarters to Fort Worth, Texas.
CableCam designs, manufactures and operates the cameras, and was headquartered in the L.A.-area for more than 20 years.
The cameras typically are suspended at least a dozen feet above the ground during football games. They’re controlled by an operator with a joystick to capture aerial shots and close-ups.
While the technology is most visible on televised college and National League Football games, it also has been used in movies such as “Batman Begins” and “Dreamgirls.” The occasional Hollywood engagement wasn’t enough to keep the company local, however. The majority of business for cable-suspended cameras comes from sporting events, according to an annual report from parent company Outdoor Channel Holdings Inc. Outdoor Channel owns CableCam and a sister company, SkyCam. SkyCam makes light, fast-moving cable-suspended cameras and CableCam makes slower rigs that can hold heavier loads.
The move to Fort Worth grew from the need for a centralized location to ship camera orders to stadiums around the country. Executives at Outdoor Channel decided to move the companies earlier this year, largely motivated by reduced air freight costs to college and NFL stadiums across the country, said Tom Allen, vice president at Outdoor Channel.
CableCam began moving in September, at the start of the NFL season.
“We move equipment around to every site, and don’t have permanent installations, so the closer to the sites, the less expensive,” said Tom Allen, vice president of Outdoor Channel. “It’s easier than being on the West or East Coast.”
Allen also noted that the company now has a nearby NFL stadium – Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, between Dallas and Fort Worth – whereas the company had no NFL jobs in Los Angeles.
High-value cargo
The camera hardware is shipped by air freight, the preferred method of transport for high-value cargo. The company makes multiple shipments each week for college football and NFL games. Allen declined to disclose how much the cameras are worth and how much Outdoor Channel pays for air freight.
CableCam also has deals with television networks to provide equipment and operations for sports coverage. One of them is for NBC’s special sporting events, including the 2010 Winter Olympics. The events were partly filmed with the company’s cable-camera systems.
The company’s lease at the Chatsworth location, a 13,000-square-foot warehouse, will expire this month. The new Fort Worth facility spans 45,000 square feet, and it includes a climate-controlled warehouse, office space and an outdoor testing site for the camera systems. The Chatsworth facility didn’t have an outdoor testing space.
Allen said the move out of state wasn’t motivated by lower business taxes in Texas, noting that Outdoor Channel remains headquartered in Temecula.
CableCam and SkyCam have fewer than 100 employees combined. Allen said management for the two companies will remain the same in the new location. Nic Solomon, who has served as president of both companies, will continue to run them as separate brands.
CableCam was founded by the late Jim Rodnunsky, a former professional skier and filmmaker who died this year. A Granada Hills resident, he created an early version of CableCam in 1989.
To film a ski competition near Whistler, British Columbia, that year, Rodnunsky rode an aluminum cage down a steel wire suspended over the mountain. The setup allowed him to capture dramatic video from above the action. In the 1990s, his cable-bound cameras were adapted for remote control.
The cameras’ use in motion pictures and TV eventually won Rodnunsky Academy Awards and Emmys for his invention.
In 2006, Rodnunsky sold CableCam to sports production company Winnercomm of Tulsa, Okla. In 2009, that company was purchased by Outdoor Channel, the operator of the cable network of the same name. As part of the Winnercomm purchase, Outdoor Channel acquired SkyCam, which was headquartered in Tulsa until last month. SkyCam also moved to Forth Worth as part of the consolidation.
John Blank, deputy chief economist at the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp., said the move to Fort Worth makes sense given the proximity of a centralized major airport hub and SkyCam’s existing infrastructure in nearby Oklahoma.
“Half of their business is already there,” he said. “They’re leveraging the existing structure.”
