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PANASONIC
AND APPLE COLLABORATE TO BRING HD OVER FIREWIRE TO THE
DESKTOP AND MOBILE EDITING
New Hardware and Software Solution Dramatically Lowers
the Costs of HD Production
NAB, LAS VEGAS (April 18, 2004) -
Panasonic and Apple today announced the world’s
first implementation of IEEE 1394 FireWire with 100 Mbps
DV-HD (the native video compression of Panasonic DVCPRO
HD recording systems) to bring unmatched capabilities
and dramatically lower price points to high definition
(HD) post-production and content distribution.
Together, Panasonic and Apple are bringing
HD over FireWire capabilities to desktop and mobile editing
with Panasonic’s new AJ-HD1200A, the first HD production
VTR to offer a FireWire interface, and Apple’s newly-announced
Final Cut Pro HD professional video editing software,
enabling mass adoption of HD resolution images on the
desktop, and even on PowerBooks.
"The implementation of Panasonic’s VariCam-native
DV-HD codec in Final Cut Pro HD will revolutionize high
definition production as users know it," said John Baisley,
president of Panasonic Broadcast. "It permits content
creators to embrace the film-like qualities of our Emmy
award-winning VariCam acquisition system, on their desktop,
at a cost level that permits the migration of HD throughout
the entire creative process."
"Apple has worked with Panasonic over the past three years
to bring FireWire technology to their DVCPRO50 and DVCPRO
HD tape decks," said Rob Schoeben, Apple’s vice
president of Applications Marketing. "Now, we’re
bringing real-time, native DVCPRO HD editing to Power
Macs and PowerBooks at a breakthrough price."
"National Geographic Channel is committed to making extensive
use of the 720p High Definition video format. Until now,
postproduction of 720p was both technically challenging
and costly," said John Ford, National Geographic Channel’s
executive vice president of Programming. "Apple’s
Final Cut Pro HD tackles both of these factors head on.
The ability to now edit footage from Panasonic’s
VariCam camera with original quality in the field, on
a PowerBook or in the edit suite, could very well have
a profound effect on how our producers create programming
for the channel."
With Panasonic’s new, compact AJ-HD1200A DVCPRO
HD VTR, 24fps or 60fps progressive scan material shot
by Panasonic’s AJ-HDC27 VariCam HD Cinema camera
or 1080i studio / sports truck footage recorded by DVCPRO
HD VTRs can be transferred via the VTR’s IEEE 1394
interface directly into Final Cut Pro HD without generation
loss. Once transferred, the material is instantly available
for real-time editing operations. All footage maintains
its camera-original quality, because the IEEE 1394 FireWire
interface transfers the native DV-HD high definition files,
as originally recorded on tape in the VTR or Varicam,
directly to the Power Mac G4 or Power Mac G5 host computer's
internal hard drive. Final Cut Pro HD users can also automatically
extract 3:2 pulldown from any 24fps HD VariCam footage,
saving an additional 60 percent in disk storage space,
thus providing a highly-streamlined 24fps native HD ingest
and editing process. At that point, users can edit camera-original
quality HD content on their desktop, utilizing a Final
Cut Pro-equipped Power Mac G5; or if field operations
are required, a Final Cut Pro-enabled PowerBook G4 –
all without purchasing any proprietary hardware.
"With high definition now available on the desktop with
Power Mac G5 and the AJ-HD1200A, the investment necessary
for HD editing is dramatically reduced," said Stuart English,
vice president of Marketing, Panasonic Broadcast. "For
example, the hardware and software needed to equip a full
function HD editing suite with over 100 hours of 24fps
HD on-line storage is less than $50,000."
In less than three years, Panasonic and Apple have teamed
to revolutionize high-performance desktop video editing
by enabling the direct digital transfer of native 25Mbps
DV 4:1:1 (DV and DVCPRO), 50Mbps DV 4:2:2 (DVCPRO50) and
now at 100Mbps DV-HD (DVCPRO HD) via IEEE 1394 FireWire
into Final Cut Pro based non-linear editing systems. At
NAB ’02, the companies announced that Final Cut
Pro would support Panasonic’s AG-DVX100 24P mini-DV
camcorder. At NAB ’03, support of DVCPRO50 full
studio quality video based on 50Mbps DV 4:2:2 compression
over IEEE 1394 was announced. (also see separate AJ-SD93
low-cost DVCPRO50 feeder press release.)
Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the
1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer
in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Apple is committed to
bringing the best personal computing experience to students,
educators, creative professionals and consumers around
the world through its innovative hardware, software and
internet offerings. |
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