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PANASONIC
ANNOUNCES MAY DELIVERIES FOR
REVOLUTIONARY DVCPRO P2 SERIES PRODUCTS
P2 Purchases
Made by Major U.S. Broadcasters
P2 Product Roadmap Includes Mini-Camcorder and HD
P2
LAS VEGAS, NV (April 18, 2004) – After
showcasing its breakthrough DVCPRO P2 solid-state
memory products
at NAB 2004, Panasonic will begin deliveries, with
the
AJ-SPX800 2/3" camcorder and AJ-PCD10 card drive
arriving in May, followed by
the AJ-SPD850 studio recorder in June.
At NAB, Panasonic announced the successful sales launch
of DVCPRO P2 with purchases by major U.S. broadcasters,
including Media General Inc., NY1 News, Sinclair Broadcast
Group, Scripps Howard Broadcasting, and Liberty Corp.
NAB also marked the introduction of P2-compatible products
and systems by industry-leading companies in the Panasonic
P2 Alliance, including Avid, Dayang, Pinnacle Systems,
Quantel and Thomson/Grass Valley. Demonstrated throughout
the Panasonic booth and in the exhibits of the various
companies, it is clear that customers will be able
to choose from an array of P2-compatible products.
In addition, Panasonic said that plans for DVCPRO P2
will follow the historical pattern of the DVCPRO/50/HD
tape-based format. Users can expect a broader range
of P2 products, including a palm-style mini-camcorder
in 2005, and DVCPRO HD P2 products in 2006. In addition
to DVCPRO based P2 products, Panasonic will also offer
an MPEG-based
HD P2 palm-style mini-camcorder for the professional
markets.
"Panasonic has successfully launched a new era
in broadcasting here at NAB,
the IT-based Electronic Newsgathering or ING era," said
John Baisley, President, Panasonic Broadcast. "We
are delighted with the phenomenal response by U.S.
broadcasters. By finally connecting ENG acquisition
with the IT world, Panasonic can offer broadcasters
substantial workflow improvements, overall operating
efficiencies and significant savings in ownership costs."
DVCPRO P2 makes nonlinear news acquisition, instant access and NLE field editing
a reality and allows network and local news operations to exploit the astonishing
advances in IT technology, including laptop computers, digital microwave as
well as access to wireless and broadband networks.
DVCPRO P2 brings critical improvements in durability, speed, stability and
accessibility to newsgathering, including:
Compatibility – DVCPRO P2 is fully compatible with DVCPRO, the industry’s
standard for digital newsgathering, and with high-performance DVCPRO50 standard
definition 4:2:2 recording, as well as providing a seamless migration path
to DVCPRO HD. Panasonic’s strategy of a seamlessly connected family of
products and formats – 25Mbps DVCPRO, 50Mbps DVCPRO50 and 100Mbps DVCPRO
HD -- is well accepted in the television industry.
Significant Workflow Improvements - The new ING workflow includes
high-speed file transfer, laptop field editing without requiring proxy videos,
and compatibility
with off-the-shelf data storage drives for archiving, while eliminating traditional
digitizing and ingesting operations. DVCPRO P2 is a media-less system in which
a television station’s budget for consumable media can be virtually eliminated.
The station need not purchase consumable recording media except for archiving
applications.
Low Maintenance – The elimination of transports or mechanisms results
in significant maintenance cost savings because of the absence of any moving
parts that can breakdown or wear out from repetitive use.
Environmental Stability -DVCPRO P2 is practically impervious
to shock and vibration and offers outstanding resistance to environmental extremes
including
cold, dust, moisture and humidity.
Benefits of the World’s Leading, Compact, High-Capacity Storage
The SD Memory card is the world’s leading standard for compact, portable,
high-capacity storage. In engineering the P2 series, Panasonic took full advantage
of SD Memory card’s substantial storage capacity and high transfer rate.
The P2 card (Professional Plug-in card) incorporates four SD Memory cards.
P2 cards can be re-used almost indefinitely, since a card can be re-written
a minimum of 100,000 times without performance degradation and its reliable
connector will last for a minimum of 30,000 insertion and removal cycles. A
4GB P2 card*
records 16 minutes of DVCPRO or 8 minutes of DVCPRO50
(video, audio and metadata).
An intrinsic advantage of the P2 card is instant connection
with the IT universe. For example, when inserted into
the PC card slot of a laptop computer, the P2 card
can instantly be recognized as a mounted virtual disk
drive. This permits instant editing since there is
no longer any need to digitize media prior to editing
and the P2 card interface is fast enough to support
complex editing.
Panasonic currently offers the AJ-P2C004S 4GB and AJ-P2C002S
2GB capacity P2 cards; 8GB, 16GB and 32GB capacities
will be available as the core SD Memory card size increases.
Global P2 Support Network in Place for Rapid Response
Although Panasonic expects its P2 products to be very
low maintenance, it understands, through its long history
of servicing broadcasters, that world-class support
is essential. The company has established a global
P2 support network that includes 54 service locations
in 34 countries; 30 of these locations are capable
of providing both NTSC and PAL support. In 2005, the
company will have 94 service locations in 55 countries
to service and support P2 products. Panasonic expects
a typical repair to be completed within a 48-hour period,
not including transportation time.
With IT technology at P2’s core, IT will also play a key role in P2 support.
Customers will be able to take advantage of an optional program that allows
them to upgrade their P2 products via an SD Memory card. Software will be downloadable
from Panasonic’s support web site onto a SD Memory card, and by inserting
the SD Memory card into their machine, updating is done by a simple menu operation.
In addition, Panasonic will offer web site-based e-learning courses to aid
broadcasters in their transition to IT-based newsgathering. |
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