Ikegami Tsushinki

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Ikegami Tsushinki Co., Ltd.
Type	Private
Founded	February 21, 1948 (Private Business Founded on Sep.10, 1946)
Headquarters	Ohta-ku, Tokyo Japan
Products	Broadcast use TV camera systems, Broadcast color monitors, Broadcast video production and processing systems, Outside Broadcast Vans, Security Surveillance TV camera systems, Medical Electronic camera systems, Vision Inspection Equipment and systems.
Employees	1,016 (consolidated 1,097) *As of March, 2007
Website	www.ikegami.co.jp

Ikegami Tsushinki Co., Ltd. (池上通信機株式会社, Ikegami Tsūshinki Kabushiki-gaisha^?) (TYO: 6771) is a Japanese manufacturer of professional and broadcast television equipment, especially professional video cameras, both for ENG and studio use. The company was founded in 1946.

Most noted of Ikegami's achievements in broadcast television technology was its introduction of the first portable hand-held TV camera. The camera made its debut in the United States in May 1962, when CBS used it to document the launching of NASA's Aurora 7 manned space flight. Ikegami continued in the development of portable video camera technology and in 1972 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. 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 (VTRs), and has been a licensee of professional video formats such as Sony's Betacam SP and DVCAM, and Panasonic's DVCPRO. In 1995 Ikegami co-operated with Avid on a non-linear video acquisition format called Editcam. However, few have been sold.

In the early 80s, Ikegami developed a number of arcade games as a subcontractor to Japanese video game companies. Among the games they developed are Computer Othello, Block Fever, Congo Bongo, Popeye, Donkey Kong, Radar Scope, Sheriff, Space Fever, Space Firebird, Space Demon, Heli Fire, Sky Skipper, Space Launcher and Zaxxon.^[1]

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 and HDTV TV cameras.

Many of the model numbers of Ikegami portable television cameras begin with the initial letters "HL", which stand for "Handy-Looky". This was deemed an appropriate counterpart to the "Walky-Talky".