KATRINA Through The HD Lens

(From Millimeter -- By Michael Goldman)

As HURRICANE RITA bore down on Texas recently, J.T. ALPAUGH was one of the few people heading into the state, rather than out. At press time, Alpaugh, CTO of HELINET AVIATION SERVICES of Van Nuys, California, and his partner, ALAN PURWIN, Founder of HELINET and a longtime Hollywood stunt pilot, were enroute to the hurricane's target area. They were to hook up with a waiting AMERICAN EUROCOPTER ASTAR 350B2 helicopter and outfit it with their portable and proprietary CINEFLEX HD-V14 aerial camera system to provide the world some of the first, highest-resolution images of the devastation wreaked by that killer storm.

Alpaugh and Purwin were going to cover Rita immediately on the heels of providing historic aerial coverage of the incredible devastation in Louisiana and Mississippi caused by HURRICANE KATRINA. Their HD aerial system ended up providing pool coverage of the affected region during the month immediately after Katrina struck -- footage seen across the globe on various networks. Usually, that footage was downconverted and viewed in standard def by most viewers, except on MARK CUBAN's HDNet and a handful of other network HD channels.

Katrina Through The HD Lens