SCRIPPS HOWARD BROADCASTING’S WEWS-TV INVESTS IN DVCPRO P2
* Cleveland ABC Affiliate Takes First Step toward Media-Less ENG Production *
LAS VEGAS, NV (April 18, 2004) – Panasonic announced today that Scripps Howard Broadcasting station WEWS-TV (Cleveland, OH) has made an initial investment in the company’s DVCPRO P2 series solid-state memory products for electronic news gathering (ENG) and electronic field production (EFP). Panasonic’s DVCPRO P2 series products form the core of its next-generation IT-based Electronic News Gathering (ING) system, and are being showcased here at the NAB ’04 exhibition.
ABC affiliate WEWS-TV Ch. 5 (Ohio’s first television station, dating from 1947) has purchased the range of DVCPRO P2 products – the AJ-SPX800 2/3” camera, an AJ-SPD850 studio recorder, AJ-PCD10 card drive, AJ-P2C002 2GB card and accessories. Scripps Howard, one of the nation's first television broadcasters, owns 10 broadcast television stations (six ABC; three NBC; one independent) reaching one in every 10 homes in America. The company is one of the largest independent operators of ABC affiliates in the country.
Scripps Howard’s Vice-President of Engineering Mike Doback said, in addition to WEWS-TV’s purchase, that several of the company’s other stations are currently planning to purchase DVCPRO P2 products. “No moving parts are better than even one moving part,” he said. “P2 represents a natural evolution from our tape-based DVCPRO operations, and its IP protocol integrates nicely with our existing digital news rooms. The format can conceivably speed up editing in the field, as it eliminates digitizing and downloading, and as a content production company, we are keenly interested in anything that makes that process better and faster.”
John Workman, WEWS-TV’s Director of Engineering said, “Our intention is to use the P2 equipment for ENG for two live trucks equipped with laptop editors. With the ability for external Firewire drives to provide more than four hours of recording, the camcorders would also be very useful in remote production, sporting events, or events where longer recording times would require us to otherwise change tapes.”
He added, “What sold us on P2 was its ability to eliminate tape and its faster-than-real-time access/transfer of news footage into NLE systems. Also, with solid state technology, weather conditions will have less adverse effect on our ability to record.”
Workman said the P2 equipment would be immediately put into the field this spring, and that P2 news production will co-exist with the current DVCPRO infrastructure as the station replaces its tape-based cameras over the next few years. P2 material will be edited on Thomson GVG Vibrint Newsedit laptop and desktop NLE systems. WEWS-TV produces 25 plus hours of news weekly.
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, the 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.