SINCLAIR BROADCAST GROUP’S WNYO-TV PURCHASES DVCPRO P2
* Buffalo WB Station Selects Solid-State Solution for Start-Up News Operation *
LAS VEGAS, NV (April 18, 2004) – Panasonic announced today that Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc.’s WNYO-TV, Buffalo, NY, has made an initial investment in DVCPRO P2 solid-state memory products for its latest News Central start-up. DVCPRO P2 series products form the core of Panasonic’s next-generation IT-based Electronic News Gathering (ING) system, and are being showcased here at the company’s NAB ’04 exhibition.
WB affiliate WNYO-TV (Channel 49) has purchased the range of DVCPRO P2 products –AJ-SPX800 2/3” cameras, AJ-SPD850 studio recorders, AJ-PCD10 card drives, AJ-P2C002 2GB cards and accessories. Sinclair Broadcast Group is one of the largest and most diversified broadcasting companies in the country today. Sinclair owns and operates, programs or provides sales services to 62 television stations in 39 markets. Sinclair’s television group reaches approximately 24% of U.S. television households and includes ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, WB and UPN affiliates.
All of Sinclair’s news-producing stations currently utilize Panasonic’s DVCPRO tape-based ENG equipment.
Sinclair’s Vice-President of Operations & Engineering Del Parks said, “Our ongoing objective within Sinclair has been to move to a tapeless IT infrastructure for newsgathering. We have installed 13 Avid Unity and Lanshare nonlinear news editing systems, and P2 certainly seems to deliver the IT tapeless acquisition element to round out the process. We’re eager to implement the equipment at WNYO-TV, and determine what work flow advantages the new format delivers.”
He added, “The AJ-SPX800 camcorder delivers high-quality video, and has the appealing benefits of no moving parts and direct integration into a PC. The fact that it has a preset News Gamma feature that is specially optimized for the demands of field news acquisition is a real plus.”
Parks said that he anticipates that P2 will integrate well with Sinclair’s existing Avid NLE infrastructure. “As the latest of our news start-ups, WNYO affords us the opportunity to evaluate P2, and then consider the format as we undertake future replacement of ENG equipment throughout our News Central system.”
Panasonic’s DVCPRO P2 series products are fully compatible with DVCPRO, the industry’s standard for digital newsgathering, and provide a seamless migration path to DVCPRO HD. DVCPRO P2 offers nonlinear acquisition and instant access to material, high-speed file transfer, laptop field editing without requirement for proxy videos, and compatibility with off-the-shelf data storage drives for low-cost archiving, while eliminating traditional digitizing and ingesting operations. The DVCPRO P2 system eliminates transports and mechanisms, resulting in a significant maintenance cost-savings because of the absence of any moving parts that can break down or wear out from repetitive use. Moreover, DVCPRO P2 products are resistant to environmental extremes including shock, vibration, cold, dust, moisture and humidity.

About Panasonic Broadcast
Panasonic Broadcast & Television Systems Co. is a leading supplier of broadcast, professional video and presentation products and systems. Panasonic Broadcast is a unit company of Matsushita Electric Corporation of America, the principal North America subsidiary of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (NYSE: MC), one of the world's leading producers of electronic and electric products for consumer, business and industrial use. For more information on Panasonic Broadcast products, access the company’s web site at www.panasonic.com/broadcast.