Tokyo, Japan, November 19, 2003 — Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (NYSE and PCX symbol: MC), best known for its Panasonic brand products, today announced it will work closely with Quantel, a U.K.-based designer and manufacturer of digital image processing and manipulation products, to offer compatibility between Panasonic’s DVCPRO Professional Plug-in (“P2”) solid state memory-based professional video products and Quantel’s generationQ editing and server systems. Panasonic and Quantel have a strong history of “partnering” in their efforts to make video capture and editing equipment that is compatible, cost-effective and easy to use.Seamless interoperability between these products will expand the opportunities for customers to benefit from the more efficient and less expensive workflow of tapeless acquisition and editing.
Quantel’s editing and server products are part of generationQ - a new concept that offers total scalability of both hardware and software across post production, graphics and broadcast for multiple resolution, team-working production environments.
“P2 memory card acquisition is the key to ING, or IT News Gathering, which is the next generation of true IT-oriented non-linear acquisition,” said Yoshihiko Yamada, Vice President at Systems Business Group, Panasonic AVC Networks Company, based here in Osaka. “The P2 card is compatible with standard PCMCIA slots, so customers can immediately begin editing. With Quantel’s support for P2 technology with DVCPRO and DVCPRO50, we see its broad adoption by news gathering organizations and a rapidly growing variety of associated applications.”
“The transfer of raw material from the acquisition device into the server environment has been the stumbling block, or ‘bottle-neck,’ of the process, if you will. Panasonic’s P2 card simply eliminates it,” said Quantel Executive Chairman, Richard Taylor. “We are delighted to be working with Panasonic in pushing back the boundaries of data acquisition and editing.”
The reduced operating cost of the DVCPRO P2 series provides compelling economic advantages. It eliminates maintenance because there are no mechanisms, optical disc, hard disk drive, or tape deck. P2 products also offer the toughness and reliability needed for news gathering in extreme conditions, such as intense cold, high humidity, rain, dust or snow, vibration or repetitive shock. The new P2 workflow brings greater productivity because the P2 card mounts immediately (like a removable hard drive would) on the news editing system. Because it uses solid-state memory, a P2 card allows literally tens of thousands of data rewrites with no degradation.
The P2 card is based on SD Memory Card technologies, the world standard removable flash media for consumer use. As the consumer market for such compact, portable and high-capacity storage grows, the P2 card will become much more affordable. The high-speed data transfer feature of the P2 card makes high definition (HD) recording and playback possible. As higher-capacity SD Memory Cards become available, HD compatible DVCPRO P2 equipment will be developed.
About Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (Panasonic)
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., best known for its Panasonic brand name, is a worldwide leader in the development and manufacture of electronics products for a wide range of consumer, business, and industrial needs. Based in Osaka, Japan, the company recorded consolidated sales of US$61.7 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2003. Matsushita's shares are listed on the Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka, Sapporo, New York (NYSE: MC), Pacific, Euronext Amsterdam, Euronext Paris, Frankfurt, and Dusseldorf stock exchanges.
For more information, please visit the global Panasonic website at http://panasonic.net/.