Panasonic DVCPRO P2 Sales Expand Globally, New Product Line-up Includes Broadcast-Grade Camcorder, Ruggedized Portable Drive and Hand-Held P2 HD Camcorder

Business Wire, April 17, 2005

LAS VEGAS -- P2 Sales Rapidly Grow to More Than 150 Worldwide, Including Over 55 U.S. TV Stations

Panasonic announced solid sales growth for its DVCPRO P2 equipment with more than 150 television stations having made purchases worldwide, including over 55 U.S. stations. Significant, new broadcasters that have chosen P2's IT-based workflow include Cordillera Communications in the U.S., ZDF and MDR in Germany, SVT in Sweden, Sogecable (CNN ) in Spain, TV3 in New Zealand, and Jiangsu TV in China.

Here at NAB 2005, Panasonic also announced an expanded line-up of DVCPRO P2 solid-state memory products with the introduction of a shoulder-mount broadcast-quality camcorder, a ruggedized portable drive and the world's first hand-held SD/HD camcorder with 24p HD recording.

"Our new products represent a significant expansion of DVCPRO P2's capabilities in the field and deliver more flexibility and versatility to broadcasters and video professionals," said John Baisley, President, Panasonic Broadcast. "The new, hand-held AG-HVX200 with its ability to record in multiple SD and HD video formats at different frame rates makes it truly worthy of being defined as revolutionary."

Baisley continued, "Panasonic is experiencing solid, strong conversions to P2 and we are announcing several significant broadcast station group purchases here at NAB. We are delighted that broadcasters are enjoying the faster, more efficient workflow and the almost instant access to digital content that our P2 solid-state memory recording system offers over traditional tape systems. And I am confident that our new P2 offerings will make it highly attractive to the production community too."

In addressing a TV station's challenges during the HD transition, Baisley said, "broadcasters are greatly concerned on how they keep their operations functioning efficiently as they transition to HD. With its 640Mbps video transfer rate, DVCPRO P2 is HD-ready today, and offers compatibility with a wide range of systems from our P2 Partner companies and a superior migration path to HD."

Introductions include Shoulder-mount Cam, Ruggedized Drive, Hand-held HD/SD Cam and 8GB P2 Card

Tailor-made for a wide range of newsgathering assignments, the cost-efficient, low-power AJ-SPC700 combines a high-performance 2/3" 520,000-pixel, IT 3-CCD camera with 60 fields interlace recording in 25Mbps DVCPRO/DV and 50Mbps 4:2:2 DVCPRO50 format on a P2 card. Switchable between 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios, the shoulder-mount camcorder delivers broadcast-level performance, with low smear, 750-line resolution, an S/N ratio of 63dB, a high sensitivity of F11 at 2000 lux, and minimum illumination of 0.5 lux (at 36dB).

The ruggedized AJ-PCS060 portable drive speeds the transfer of recorded content into a computer, server or nonlinear editing system. Weighing less than 1.5 pounds, the 2.5"-high 60GB hard disk drive with a P2 card slot can hold the contents of up to fifteen 4GB P2 cards. Via its high-speed USB 2.0 interface, the entire contents of a 4GB P2 card can be transferred by the AJ-PCS060 in approximately four minutes at 6.7 times normal speed for 25Mbps DVCPRO video.

Offering flexibility and versatility never before available to broadcasters and video professionals, the AG-HVX200 DVCPRO HD P2 hand-held camcorder provides 1080i and 720p recording with the production-proven image quality of 100 Mbps DVCPRO HD. The AG-HVX200 has two P2 card slots and records in 1080/60i, 30p and 24p; in 720/60p, 30p and 24p; in DVCPRO50, DVCPRO or DV. It also records 480i and 480p on Mini-DV videotape from a built-in tape mechanism. The HVX200 inherits many of the functions of the popular, shoulder-mount AJ-HDC27 VariCam(TM) camcorder, including exceptional DVCPRO HD quality images, variable frame rates to capture fast-speed and slow-speed action, and a cine-gamma curve and cine-like color matrix to emulate the look of film.

In its strategy to offer increasing sizes of P2 cards annually, Panasonic announced that it will offer an 8GB P2 card in Fall 2005 with the capability to record for 32 minutes in DVCPRO or DV, 20 minutes in 720p/24, 16 minutes in DVCPRO50, and eight minutes in 1080i/60 and 720p/60.

In addition, Panasonic announced enhancements to its AJ-SPX800 camcorder and AJ-SPD850 recorder. New options for the AJ-SPX800 include 24p frame rate recording and proxy video recording with three quality levels. The 24p option software upgrade allows the camcorder to instantly switch between interlace and 24p for delivering a film-like look for a wide range of programming. The new proxy video option (AJ-YAX800) allows the AJ-SPX800 to simultaneously record a low-resolution video copy for rapid viewing on a laptop or desktop PC and on a PDA, and, in an emergency, for transfer by connecting to an ubiquitous cable modem, DLP or dial-up connection. As a cost-efficient optical disc storage solution, the new AJ-DVD850 4.7GB DVD-RAM/DVD-R recordable drive installs easily in the AJ-SPD850.

Partner Companies Displays an Array of P2-compatible Systems