PANASONIC ENJOYS GROWING DVCPRO P2 SALES, NEW PRODUCTS, P2-COMPATIBLE SOLUTIONS ON DISPLAY AT NAB

SECAUCUS, NJ (February 10, 2005) - Panasonic Broadcast announced today that U.S sales of DVCPRO P2 solid-state memory products are ahead of its forecast with 34 television stations having made purchases. Worldwide, more than 100 customers have purchased DVCPRO P2 products. "DVCPRO P2 sales are strong and growing and broadcasters are delighted with the faster, more efficient workflow and the almost instant access to digital content that our solid-state memory recording system offers over a traditional tape-based system," said Panasonic Broadcast President John Baisley. "NAB 2005 will be a 'don't miss' exhibition as we'll be debuting additional P2 products, and showcasing comprehensive, available nonlinear editing and storage solutions from our P2 Partners." "In addition, unlike our competition, DVCPRO P2 is HD-ready with a video transfer rate fast enough for high definition recording that's compatible with existing systems. We look forward to the opportunity at NAB to present to the industry the unique, inherent benefits that P2 can provide to all professional video users." New Products and Enhancements Panasonic today introduced the AJ-PCS060, a ruggedized DVCPRO P2 hard disk drive, and enhancements to its AJ-SPX800 DVCPRO P2 camcorder and AJ-SPD850 P2 VTR. The AJ-PCS060 speeds the transfer of recorded content into a computer, server or nonlinear editing system. The 2.5"-high 60GB hard disk drive with a P2 card slot can hold the contents of up to 15 4GB P2 cards. Via its high-speed USB 2.0 interface, the entire contents of a 4GB P2 card can be transferred by the AJ-PCS060 in approximately four minutes at 6.7 times normal speed for 25Mbps DVCPRO video. (See separate press release.) New options for the AJ-SPX800 include 24p frame rate recording and proxy video recording with three quality levels. The 24p option software upgrade allows the camcorder to instantly switch between interlace and 24p for delivering a film-like look for magazine shows, documentaries or cable programs. The new proxy video option (AJ-YAK800) allows the AJ-SPX800 to simultaneously record a low-resolution video copy for rapid viewing on a laptop or desktop PC and on a PDA, and, in an emergency, for transfer by connecting to an ubiquitous cable modem, DLP or dial-up connection. Users can select from three quality levels -- 1.5Mbps quality for on-air playback, 768kbps quality to transfer in almost real-time over a TCP/IP network, or 196kbps quality to transfer via a dial-up connection to the internet. As a cost-efficient optical disc storage solution, the new AJ-DVD850 4.7GB DVD-RAM/DVD-R recordable drive installs easily in the AJ-SPD850. (See separate press release.) Panasonic also stated that it will make additional DVCPRO P2 products and P2 media announcements at its NAB 2005 press conference. P2-Compatible Solutions from P2 Partner Companies Panasonic announced that the industry-leading companies in the Panasonic P2 Alliance --†Avid, Apple, EVS, Leitch, Pinnacle Systems, Thomson/Grass Valley and Quantel -- will have a multitude of available P2-compatible products and systems for sale at NAB. "We have spent the past year collaborating very closely with our Partners to develop comprehensive P2-compatible solutions. All our combined hard work has come to fruition," said Baisley. "P2-compatible products and systems will be demonstrated throughout the Panasonic booth and in the exhibits of our Partners. We are streaming along with the goal of seamless integration of P2 with our Partners' products." The Benefits of DVCPRO P2 DVCPRO P2 offers video professionals improvements in durability, speed, stability and accessibility and competitive advantages in acquisition, editing and being to air first with the story. Compatibility -†DVCPRO P2 is fully compatible with DVCPRO, the industry's standard for digital newsgathering, and with high-performance DVCPRO50 standard definition 4:2:2 recording, as well as providing a migration path to DVCPRO HD. Panasonic's strategy of a seamlessly connected family of products and formats -- 25Mbps DVCPRO, 50Mbps DVCPRO50 and 100Mbps DVCPRO HD -- is well accepted in the television industry. Significant Workflow Improvements -†DVCPRO P2 offers an IT-centric workflow that includes high-speed file transfer, laptop field editing without requiring proxy videos, and compatibility with off-the-shelf data storage drives for archiving, while eliminating traditional digitizing and ingesting operations. DVCPRO P2 is a media-less system in which a television station's budget for consumable media can be virtually eliminated. Now stations need not purchase consumable recording media except for archiving applications. Low Maintenance - The core DVCPRO P2 products -- AJ-SPX800 camcorder, AJ-SPD850 studio recorder and the AJ-PCD10 drive -- eliminate transports or mechanisms, which results in significant maintenance cost savings because of the absence of any moving parts that can breakdown or wear out from repetitive use. Environmental Stability - DVCPRO P2 is practically impervious to shock and vibration and offers outstanding resistance to environmental extremes including cold, dust, moisture and humidity. Benefits of the World's Leading, Compact, High-Capacity Storage The SD Memory card is the world's leading standard for compact, portable, high-capacity storage. Panasonic has taken full advantage of SD Memory card's substantial storage capacity and high transfer rate. P2 cards can be re-used almost indefinitely, since a card can be re-written a minimum of 100,000 times without performance degradation and its ultra-reliable connector will last for a minimum of 30,000 insertion and removal cycles 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