LIBERTY CORPORATION AGREES TO GROUP PURCHASE BUY FOR DVCPRO P2
* Several Stations Will Adopt Panasonic Solid-State Solution for News in 2004 *
LAS VEGAS, NV (April 18, 2004) – Panasonic announced today that group broadcaster Liberty Corporation (Greenville, SC) has entered into an agreement that will make DVCPRO P2 solid-state memory products available to its member stations, with three to four stations expected to convert to P2 news operations this year.
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.
A major group television broadcaster, Liberty Corp. owns 15 network-affiliated television stations, NBC, CBS and ABC affiliates mostly throughout the South. Liberty also owns CableVantage Inc., a cable advertising sales group serving eight cable companies representing nearly 500,000 subscribers.
Predominantly, Liberty Corp.’s stations now utilize Panasonic’s DVCPRO/DVCPRO50 tape-based ENG equipment.
Liberty Corp.’s Vice-President of Engineering and Technology Steve Smith said, “What sold us on P2 technology was its characteristics of no moving parts, instantaneous access when the P2 card is placed in a PC or NLE system, and the virtual elimination of media costs—in short, a system that is not only tapeless but exceedingly cost-effective. It’s also clear that P2, like the previous DVCPRO model, is intrinsically scalable to HD.”
While the stations converting to P2 newsgathering in 2004 have not yet been named, Smith anticipates those stations that still use Beta SP or were early DVCPRO investors will be among the first. “As we transition to P2 newsgathering, we will reposition our digital tape gear for other applications,” he added.
Smith said that stations will initially integrate P2 with existing Edit Star equipment, but will be exploring various types of editing interfaces—for example, new Avid editors—as the transition to P2 ENG operations continues in 2005 and beyond.
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.