The Z Shuttle is Innovision’s most ambitious camera tracking system to date.   The Z Shuttle is a camera tracking system consisting of a ceiling mounted shuttle that transports a camera along a track.  Like its predecessor, the Super Shuttle, the Z Shuttle camera flies over a studio or multiple rooms. However, this camera tracking system takes the technology one giant step further with the additional feature of a vertical arm that can drop the camera down to eye level of its subject.
Unlike the Super Shuttle, the Z Shuttle can roam throughout a studio on a track mounted on the ceiling while simultaneously traveling vertically up and down it’s Z-axis (hence the name “Z Shuttle”), all while the camera remains in motion. Unlike camera systems that have only five axes of movement, the Z shuttle’s vertical arm makes it capable of an unprecedented six axes of movement.  Other axes of movement include pan, tilt, focus, and zoom, for the camera, and forward and backward along the track. 

The Z shuttle can travel at variable speeds of up to 1 meter (3.3 feet) per second and can be programmed to hit up to eight positions in sequence with pinpoint precision. The speed of the pan and tilt function is 90 degrees per second and the speed of the z-axis arm is 50 centimeters (1.6 feet) per second.  Made out of a lightweight aluminum material, the Z Shuttle carries a high resolution Sony camera mounted to it.

Operated via a remote small remote control panel, the Z Shuttle comes with a touch screen control panel and a foot pedal to control the travel of the shuttle.  The touch screen panel controls the pan, tilt, zoom, and focus settings of the camera, and is also used to program positions and sequenced moves.

Innovision has recently installed the Z Shuttle into the newly constructed TVN 24 broadcast facility.  TVN 24, Poland’s main news provider, has just recently completed construction of this state-of-the-art broadcast facility that features leading-edge production technology and news gathering systems that have yet to be used in any other TV news network in the world.  The Z shuttle track at TVN 24 currently spans 131 feet long.