Recent Press Releases

* 19 Network-Affiliated Stations Will Purchase the Range of P2 Products*

LAS VEGAS, NV (April 18, 2004) – Panasonic announced today that all of Media General, Inc.’s 19 television stations that produce news will convert their newsgathering operations to the DVCPRO P2 series solid-state memory format.
Six stations will be equipped with the range of DVCPRO P2 product this year—WFLA-TV (NBC affiliate in Tampa, FL), WKRG-TV (CBS affiliate in Mobile, AL), WNCT-TV (CBS affiliate in Greenville, NC), WTVQ (ABC affiliate in Lexington, KY), WJBF-TV (ABC affiliate in Augusta, GA) and KWCH-TV (CBS affiliate in Wichita, KS). Panasonic’s DVCPRO P2 series products form the heart of its next-generation IT-based Electronic News Gathering (ING) system, and are being showcased here at the NAB ’04 exhibition.
Headquartered in Richmond, Va., Media General is an independent
communications company situated primarily in the Southeast with interests in newspapers, television stations and interactive media. Media General’s 26 network-affiliated television stations reach more than 30 percent of the television households in the Southeast and nearly eight percent of those in the United States.
Ardell Hill, Media General’s Senior Vice President, Broadcast Operations, said that the conversion of news operations to DVCPRO P2 is expected to move quickly throughout 2005, with all the stations equipped with the new format by 2006. He anticipates that, in addition to electronic newsgathering (ENG), the stations will use DVCPRO P2 for various content production assignments including commercials and promotions.
Hill said, “The industry has been talking about ‘the tapeless television station’ for the past decade, but the roadblock has been field acquisition. With P2, Panasonic presents us with a clear roadmap to a genuine tapeless operation over the short term. What’s more, P2 moves us to an environment where the acquisition tool has no moving parts, which means a ruggedized camera with less maintenance, improved reliability and lower power consumption.”
Hill continued, “P2 also affords Media General the opportunity, in the case of many of our stations, to skip an entire generation of tape-based product. P2 is the right answer for us, especially as we’ve come to rely on Panasonic support and product reliability.” (Five of the six Media General stations converting to P2 this year currently use Beta SP; WFLA-TV utilizes DVCPRO50.)
Hill said each of the stations produces 20+ hours of news programming weekly. All of the group stations are moving toward a nonlinear editing environment, where P2 material will be edited on Thomson GVG Vibrint Newsedit NLE systems.
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 direct 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's elimination of mechanical transports results in 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 stresses 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.