Canon CR-N500 and CR-N300 Firmware Update Offer Extensive Functions for Remote and Virtual Content Production

MELVILLE, N.Y., April 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging solutions, announced today that the company will provide free-of-charge firmware updates for two of its 4K PTZ (pan-tilt-zoom) models — the CR-N500 (released in May 2021) and the CR-N300 (released in June 2021). The firmware updates will add support for the SRT Protocol¹, which has been widely adopted and praised in the remote production market, as well as the FreeD Protocol² that is popular in the virtual production industry. With the addition of this support, the PTZ camera models can be used in a wider variety of applications and meet more diverse visual production needs.

The CR-N500 and CR-N300 4K PTZ cameras deliver the same high image quality as Canon's renowned professional video cameras while also supporting IP³ connection. The cameras are compatible with Canon's proprietary XC Protocol as well as the NDI®|HX⁴ protocol, which is widely used within the video production industry. With this new firmware update, the cameras gain support for two new communication protocols, thus increasing their ease of use for the growing remote production and virtual production sectors of the video production industry.

The SRT Protocol for video transmission is widely adopted for video streaming and live broadcasting. Standing for "Secure Reliable Transport," the protocol enables high-security transmission of encrypted video data, stable and reliable transmission of video data thanks to packet loss⁵ re-sending and recovery functionality as well as network monitoring and a versatile buffer management system that consistently helps to ensure high image quality with low latency even in environments where bitrate is unstable. Thanks to these key features, and through linking with supported device and cloud services, the SRT Protocol helps to create more efficient video streaming workflows.

With the new firmware update, the cameras will also support the FreeD Protocol, which is used broadly in virtual studio software for VR and AR video production. By supporting this protocol, the CR-N500 and CR-N300 can also be easily utilized in virtual production to make possible high-image-quality VR and AR video production workflows based on video capture information including camera pan and tilt.

The SRT and FreeD Protocols firmware update for the Canon CR-N500 and CR-N300 PTZ cameras are scheduled to be available in early August 2022.* Canon will showcase its latest digital imaging solutions and products, at the NAB Show 2022(Booth #C4432) in Las Vegas, April 24^th-27^th. For more information about the firmware updates and Canon's presence at the show, please visit usa.canon.com.

Canon U.S.A., Inc., is a leading provider of consumer, business-to-business, and industrial digital imaging solutions to the United States and to Latin America and the Caribbean markets. With approximately $30.6 billion in global revenue, its parent company, Canon Inc. (NYSE: CAJ), as of 2021 has ranked in the top-five overall in U.S. patents granted for 36 consecutive years† and was one of Fortune Magazine's World's Most Admired Companies in 2022. Canon U.S.A. was featured in Newsweek's Most Loved Workplaces list for 2021, ranking among the top 100 companies for employee happiness and satisfaction at work. Canon U.S.A. is dedicated to its Kyosei philosophy of social and environmental responsibility. To keep apprised of the latest news from Canon U.S.A., sign up for the Company's RSS news feed by visiting www.usa.canon.com/rss and follow us on Twitter @CanonUSA.
 

† Number of patents for 2021 are based on figures released by IFI CLAIMS Patent Services. Figures for 2005 to 2020 are based on information issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

1 SRT is a video transmission protocol originally developed and open-sourced by Haivision and supported through the SRT Alliance.
2 A protocol which is widely used primarily in virtual studio systems to transmit camera tracking information
3 IP stands for Internet Protocol, an internet-based system for transmitting information.
4 A video transmission protocol developed by U.S.-based NewTek. Inc.
5 Refers to corruption of video or audio data caused by the loss of portions of said data (packets) when operating in an unstable network environment.
* Specifications and availability are subject to change without notice.

SOURCE Canon U.S.A., Inc.