Fred Merten, Product Manager Camera, explained how the ARRI CCM-1 (Camera Control Monitor) came to be.
“Over the years we’ve had constant requests for a monitor with control functionality, especially for small and light camera setups, and I really think the CCM-1 ticks all the boxes for that. In addition to minimal setups, it’s ideal for many special applications, such as cranes, car rigs, and so on, where you need full control at a distance. Plus, it works really well in tandem with the MVF-2, so both DP and AC can have access to settings and their own custom user buttons. Customers are always asking for more user buttons and more SDI outputs in the camera, and the CCM-1 is an easy way to free up an SDI output for a monitor feed.
Sean Dooley, Product Marketing Manager at ARRI Camera Systems, unfurled the CCM’s clever, collapsible cover and explained (with a twinkle in his eye):
“The monitor is fine. It’s a fantastic product. But the best part of the whole deal is this fantastic new sun hood. It is like an iPad cover with magnets and it is both rigid but soft. It doesn’t use Velcro or straps or anything. It just snaps on to the front of the monitor with two little clicks. And then, when you want to put it away, it all folds beautifully flush on top of the monitor so that you don’t scratch the screen and it’s really flat and you can just put it in your kit bag. Or you can fold it flat against the top of the top handle and put it in your bag and run away. The cover comes with all of the monitors. How magical are those magnets?”
Greg Smokler, VP of Cine Products at Creative Solutions, said:
The new CCM-1 Camera Control Monitor combines the iconic and familiar ARRI menu interface, with SmallHD’s powerful video processing, tools, and PageOS operating system. All of the versatility of PageOS is present, but this is a custom monitor for ARRI; anyone who is familiar with ARRI cameras will start using the monitor and immediately understand the specific and nuanced ARRI user interface cues.
One of the most brilliant parts of this collaboration for me, was seeing how the designers from ARRI approached the way they envisioned a user operating their camera via this monitor interface.
I was really delighted by the evolution of all of the elements of this system from the industrial design to the way it’s mounted, and certainly the user interface. At SmallHD, we are quite wrapped up in our PageOS architecture and all of the structures that we have developed within it. It was refreshing to see, from a new perspective, how the teams at ARRI — with all their knowledge and user feedback—approached the design of the monitor.
At Creative Solutions Cine, our goal is to outfit cameras to provide a visible yet invisible shooting experience for the camera crew. In other words, we just want to make gear that works elegantly and unobtrusively. It is a conversation around the design of the whole system of the camera. And design comprises how things look, but also how they work.
It was an amazing experience to work with ARRI, a company that has over a hundred years of commitment to cinematography. And this monitor has all of the hallmarks of a component of an elite camera system, a camera system that ideally gets out of the way so that the cinematographer, camera operator or camera assistant can focus on their essential jobs, which is to get the shot.
