CIRCLE Co., Ltd (. English)
CIRCLE Co., Ltd. was established in 1990.
We have 2 main business domains in our company as one of the group companies of TAISEI Group. The one of the major businesses at CIRCLE is the rental services of professional broadcasting video/audio equipment including such equipment for institutional applications for about 26 years.
Related to the rental services, we are conducting the maintenance and partial repair of these equipment in house on a real need basis, while all of the areas not covered yet.
In addition to the rental services, another business domain of our company is to provide customers with the support service at the video location field by dispatching our staffs together with the Grip equipment, under the management of our Circle Support Service (CSS) Division . We initiated this Support Service business in 1994.
As one of the extended Support Service businesses, we initiated the drone related business for aerial shooting in 2013. During Inter BEE 2015 (International Broadcast Equipment Exhibition in Tokyo, Japan), we carried out its flight demo. on drone together with one of the most well-known drone manufacturers worldwide.
Accordingly, we have been exclusively doing so called “B2B (business to business)” businesses. Our business partners are therefore non-commercial TV station, key commercial TV Networks, Pay TV, Cable TV, Production Houses, Post Production, CM Production, Cinema Production etc. that are located in not only Tokyo area, but also all over Japan.
Furthermore, we are the sales agent of NANUK professional protective plastic cases in Japan. The NANUK cases are the products from Plasticase Company based in Quebec Canada, providing high performance of crushproof, dustproof, water proof and good transport solutions allowing contemporary styling, unlike current other companies cases.
We are also making available the custom-built exclusive cases for the lens, batteries etc. with the customized inner cushion parts on these standard cases, in addition to selling the standalone plastic cases. It has realized the solution of “Complete One Package for Ready to Use” in order to fulfill the customer’s operational conveniences.
We are, of course, using such plastic cases for our own rental equipment so that we can show its outstanding features to our customers in the various operation field.
In addition to the NANUK cases, we are also the sales representative of the SHAPE Camera Rig products in Japan after the NAB 2012. They are also based in Quebec Canada and manufacture the supports and custom-built equipment there for video/photo cameras. These products have been exhibited in the last couple of Inter BEE in addition to our CIRCLE original equipment. We have continued to run the exhibition booth at the Inter BEE from 2007 onward.
In terms of our CIRCLE original equipment, we have been developing specialized unique video equipment to respond to the customer’s specific requirements for their operational conveniences further, as seen in some of the examples, peripheral devices such as “Tally Box” to be used with Video Live Switcher, water proofed “Camera Housing” for underwater shooting, “Conversion Cables” for lenses, “Customized hard/soft Cases”, “Rails” for the shooting camera movement, etc..
In the recent joint development of the “Light Rail” product between JAPAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION (NHK) and CIRCLE Co., Ltd., it is our pleasure to have done the joint patent application in 2015.
The profile projector for the lens maintenance and performance verification was installed in our in-house projection room in 2014. This is to assure the lens performances in 4K shooting environment.
As for the sale of the used video equipment after completing their rental services at CIRCLE Co., Ltd. including the used video equipment consigned from other companies, TAISEI Co., Ltd. for which is one of the group companies of TAISE Group is responsible.
It is our pleasure to introduce our website below for your further reference.
In our website, you will find some of the demo video footage on drone, instructions of
some unique rental equipment, newly added “CIRCLE Quality” footage which will be periodically updated, highlighting CIRCLE’s unique activities, characteristic rental equipment etc. in addition to the introduction of CIRCLE business operation. These footage were completely originated by CIRCLE from planning / consulting, shooting through editing until completing such respective video materials.
Sorry for that English language is available only for the limited part in our website.
Thank you.
(*From August 1, 2023, Drone-related services have been suspended.)
| Establishment | March 1990 (Founded in Feb. 1983) |
|---|---|
| Main Financing Bank |
Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (Kojimachi branch office), Sugamo Shinkin Bank (Waseda branch office) |
| Chairman | Yosei Ota |
|---|---|
| President | Narihiro Ota |
| Managing Director | Hisako Ota |
| Director | Shingo Koma |
| Auditor | Katsumi Ito |
（in random order）
3DBiz. Society
SRUF (Specified Radio microphone User’s Federation)
Video Production Association in Tohoku district
JSC (Japanese Society of Cinematographers)
