GRACE & WILD, MIDWEST'S LARGEST PRODUCTION/POST RESOURCE, PURCHASES EIGHT PANASONIC D-5 HD MASTER VTRS FOR RANGE OF HIGH-DEFINITION ASSIGNMENTS
SECAUCUS, NJ (February 10, 2005) - Grace & Wild, Inc., the largest full service creative technical resource in the Midwest, has made a recent purchase of eight Panasonic AJ-HD3700B D-5 HD mastering VTRs to be used for various high-definition production and postproduction tasks by two of its operating divisions, Postique and hdstudios.

Postique (Southfield, MI) is a premiere video post production boutique servicing national and regional advertising accounts, and specializing in visual effects, editing and telecine for broadcast commercials, music videos and interactive media.

hdstudios (Farmington Hills, MI) is the largest single source provider of production, post-production and media delivery services in the Midwest. Leading the country in high-definition services, hdstudios offers a complete high-definition television center; and is able to shoot, transfer and edit and deliver programming in HD or standard resolution. Projects comprise commercial spots, long-format entertainment, live events and business communications.

The company has taken delivery of four AJ-HD3700Bs (two each at Postique and hdstudios), and will install the remainder between the two facilities throughout the year.

According to Jeff Fleck, Postique's senior editor/HD specialist, since initiating assignments with the AJ-HD3700B, the VTR is proving equally versatile with film-based and tape-based material.

"D-5 HD is the highest-quality HD recorder around, and whenever clients are interested in originating film transfers and/or HD mastering, we advise them to choose the format," Fleck said. "Its compression is much less that HDCAM, so consequently the quality is higher. As the HD3700B provides eight channels of audio, a nice benefit is that your can encode Dolby surround when transferring to film without any further D/A, A/D conversions."

He continued, "The Panasonic VTR is operating seamlessly with our film transfer (the Spirit) and on-line (Quantel's EQ) systems and is compatible with standard-definition tapes, a critical consideration as Grace & Wild has been working with Panasonic D-5 equipment for years."

Fleck said that over the past few months, the AJ-HD3700Bs have been used on several national advertising campaigns for Doner Company (Southfield, MI) clients, including Minute Maid (the Simply Orange brand) and Circuit City.

"Regardless of whether their work originates in film or HD, we?re encouraging clients to move to HD post vs. SD," Fleck said. "Not only is the quality better, but they will also have an HD master available for any subsequent release -- and they?ll be familiar with the process."

Paul DeMars, General Manager, hdstudios, post production, echoed many of Fleck's sentiments. "Working in D-5 HD affords less compression and fewer artifacts," he said. "Most of our commercial work is currently being done in D-5, so it makes for a nice transition that we can use the HD3700B to record both formats (D-5 and D-5 HD)."

DeMars noted that hdstudios' production arm is already utilizing the D-5 HD VTR for HD recording in its on-site studios. "HD is poised to hit hard, we?ll be ready with the HD3700Bs," he added.

The AJ-HD3700 Series D-5 HD recorders are designed for challenging program mastering, high definition telecine, television commercial, and multi-format DTV and HDTV program production tasks. Panasonic's D-5 HD recorders have established an unprecedented reputation for image quality and have been selected as the HDTV delivery format by major U.S. broadcast and cable networks.

The AJ-HD3700B is a true universal international mastering recorder that can record, edit and playback both 625 PAL and 525 NTSC D-5 cassettes as well as D-5 tapes from all previous versions of this widely-adopted production machine. The AJ-HD3700B can record, edit and play back in 720p/59.94p, 1080/23.98p and 1080/24p HD formats. Its progressive image recording of 24-fps film sources without frame-rate conversion enhances artistic image expression and allows high-quality digital mastering of film content, such as movies and commercials, into formats suitable for broadcasting and DVD packaging.

For more information on Panasonic D-5 HD VTRs, visit www.panasonic.com/hdworld.

For more information on Grace & Wild and its divisions, visit www.gracewild.com.

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 Panasonic Corporation of North America. The company is the North American headquarters of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (NYSE: MC) of Japan, and the hub of its U.S. marketing, sales, service and R&D operations For more information on Panasonic Broadcast products, access the company's web site at www.panasonic.com/broadcast .