PANASONIC DVCPRO P2 SALES EXPAND GLOBALLY, NEW PRODUCT
LINE-UP INCLUDES BROADCAST-GRADE CAMCORDER, RUGGEDIZED PORTABLE DRIVE AND HAND-HELD P2 HD CAMCORDER
P2 Sales Rapidly Grow to More Than 150 Worldwide, Including Over 55 U.S. TV Stations
LAS VEGAS, NV (April 17, 2005) – Panasonic announced solid sales growth for its DVCPRO P2 equipment with more than 150 television stations having made purchases worldwide, including over 55 U.S. stations.
Significant, new broadcasters that have chosen P2’s IT-based workflow include Cordillera Communications in the U.S., ZDF and MDR in Germany, SVT in Sweden, Sogecable (CNN+) in Spain, TV3 in New Zealand, and Jiangsu TV in China.


Other major broadcasters are as follows
USA KAIT (Liberty), Jonesboro, AR
KALB-TV (Media General), Alexandria, LA
KBNT (Entravision), San Diego, CA
KCBD-TV (Liberty Corp.), Lubbock, TX
KFOX-TV (COX), El Paso, TX
KFTV-TV (Univision), Fresno, CA
KINC (Entravision), Las vegas, NV
KINT (Entravision), El Paso, TX
KIRO- TV (COX), Seattle, WA
KNVO (Entravision), Harrington/Brownsville, TX
KOAA (Cordillera), Pueblo, CO
KPAX (Cordillera), Missoula, MT
KPLC (Liberty), Lake Charles, LA
KRIV (FOX) Houston, Texas
KRON-TV (Young), San Francisco, CA
KRTV (Cordillera), Black Eagle, MT
KTNV-TV (Journal Group), Las Vegas, NV
KTRE-TV Lufkin, TX
KTVI-TV (FOX), St. Louis, MO
KTVU-TV (COX), Oakland, CA
KVOA-TV(Cordillera) , Tucson, AZ
KWCH (Media General), Wichita, KS
KXLN-TV (Univision), Houston, TX
New York 1(Time Warner Cable), New York, NY
SNN Channel, Sarasota, FL
WBNS-TV, Pittsburgh, PA
WBTV-TV (Jefferson Pilot), Charlotte, NC
WCSC-TV (Jefferson Pilot), Charleston, NC
WDEF-TV (Media General), Chattanooga, TN
WEWS-TV (Scripps), Cleveland, OH
WFLA-TV (Media General), Columbus, OH
WFTV- TV (COX), Orlando, FL
WHIO-TV (COX), Dayton, OH
WIAT-TV, (Media General) Birmingham, AL
WJBF-TV (Media General), Augusta, GA
WJHL-TV(Media General), Johnson City, TN
WJTV-TV (Media General), Jackson, MS
WKRG-TV (Media General), Mobile, AL
WLOX-TV, Biloxi, MS
WMBB-TV(Media General), Panama City, Florida
WMD (Entravision), Silver Springs, MD
WNCT (Media General), Greenville, SC
WNYO-TV (Sinclair), Buffalo, NY
WNYW-TV (FOX), New York, NY
WPXI-TV (COX), Pittsburgh, PA
WRBL-TV(Media General), Columbus, Georgia
WSAV-TV(Media General), Savannah, Georgia
WSLS-TV(Media General), Roanoke, VA.
WSOC-TV (COX), Charlotte, NC
WSPA-TV (Media General), Spartanburg, SC
WTOV-TV (Scripps), Steubenville, OH
WTVQ-TV (Media General), Lexington, KY
WTXF-TV (Fox Owned Station), Philadelphia, PA
WUNI (Univision), Boston, MA
WWAY (Liberty), Wilmington, NC
WWBT-TV (Jefferson Pilot), Richmond, VA
WWOR-TV (UPN/FOX), Secaucus, NJ
Canada CHRO-TV, Ottawa, ON
Mexico Multimedios Estrellas de Oro
Ecuador TC TV
Denmark DR(Danish Broadcasting Corporation)
Sweden Ljud & BildMedia
SVT
Norway Woldcam
UK Army Media Ops Group
Germany DW(Deutsche Welle)
IRT(Broadcast Technology Institute)
MDR
SWR (SUDWESTRUNDFUNK)
ZDF
France RFO (Reseau France Outre-mer)
Italy CANALE37
DigitalAdnKronos
RETE37
RTV38
TELE RAMA
CANALE37
Spain Mediapro
Sogecable(CNN+)
Televisio de Catalunya (TV3)
Television de Galicia (TVG)
TV Castilla La Mancha
Turkey ART
ATV / Kanal 1
FBTV
TV Albacete
Russia Center TV
China AHTV
BTV
CCTV
CHMTV
CQTV
CSTV
DGTV
DQTV
FJTV
GANSU POWER
GDTV
GOOD LUCK AD. GROUP
HBTV
HEFEI TV
JIANSU POWER
JJBCTV
JSTV
NJBG
QHTV
SBS
SD CATV
SDTV
SKY NEWS
SXTVS
SZTV
WZTV
XMTV
YTTV
YTV
ZHJTV
Japan CCY
JCN
ONT
SBC
New Zealand TV3


Here at NAB 2005, Panasonic also announced an expanded line-up of DVCPRO P2 solid-state memory products with the introduction of a shoulder-mount broadcast-quality camcorder, a ruggedized portable drive and the world’s first hand-held SD/HD camcorder with 24p HD recording.

“Our new products represent a significant expansion of DVCPRO P2’s capabilities in the field and deliver more flexibility and versatility to broadcasters and video professionals,” said John Baisley, President, Panasonic Broadcast. “The new, hand-held AG-HVX200 with its ability to record in multiple SD and HD video formats at different frame rates makes it truly worthy of being defined as revolutionary.”

Baisley continued, “Panasonic is experiencing solid, strong conversions to P2 and we are announcing several significant broadcast station group purchases here at NAB. We are delighted that broadcasters are enjoying the faster, more efficient workflow and the almost instant access to digital content that our P2 solid-state memory recording system offers over traditional tape systems. And I am confident that our new P2 offerings will make it highly attractive to the production community too.”

In addressing a TV station’s challenges during the HD transition, Baisley said, “broadcasters are greatly concerned on how they keep their operations functioning efficiently as they transition to HD. With its 640Mbps video transfer rate, DVCPRO P2 is HD-ready today, and offers compatibility with a wide range of systems from our P2 Partner companies and a superior migration path to HD.”

Introductions include Shoulder-mount Cam, Ruggedized Drive, Hand-held HD/SD Cam and 8GB P2 Card

Tailor-made for a wide range of newsgathering assignments, the cost-efficient, low-power AJ-SPC700 combines a high-performance 2/3” 520,000-pixel, IT 3-CCD camera with 60 fields interlace recording in 25Mbps DVCPRO/DV and 50Mbps 4:2:2 DVCPRO50 format on a P2 card. Switchable between 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios, the shoulder-mount camcorder delivers broadcast-level performance, with low smear, 750-line resolution, an S/N ratio of 63dB, a high sensitivity of F11 at 2000 lux, and minimum illumination of 0.5 lux (at +36dB).

The ruggedized AJ-PCS060 portable drive speeds the transfer of recorded content into a computer, server or nonlinear editing system. Weighing less than 1.5 pounds, the 2.5”-high 60GB hard disk drive with a P2 card slot can hold the contents of up to fifteen 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.

Offering flexibility and versatility never before available to broadcasters and video professionals, the
AG-HVX200 DVCPRO HD P2 hand-held camcorder provides 1080i and 720p recording with the production-proven image quality of 100 Mbps DVCPRO HD. The AG-HVX200 has two P2 card slots and records in 1080/60i, 30p and 24p; in 720/60p, 30p and 24p; in DVCPRO50, DVCPRO or DV. It also records 480i and 480p on Mini-DV videotape from a built-in tape mechanism. The HVX200 inherits many of the functions of the popular, shoulder-mount AJ-HDC27 VariCam™ camcorder, including exceptional DVCPRO HD quality images, variable frame rates to capture fast-speed and slow-speed action, and a cine-gamma curve and cine-like color matrix to emulate the look of film.

In its strategy to offer increasing sizes of P2 cards annually, Panasonic announced that it will offer an 8GB P2 card in Fall 2005 with the capability to record for 32 minutes in DVCPRO or DV, 20 minutes in 720p/24, 16 minutes in DVCPRO50, and eight minutes in 1080i/60 and 720p/60.

In addition, Panasonic announced enhancements to its AJ-SPX800 camcorder and AJ-SPD850 recorder.
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 a wide range of programming. The new proxy video option (AJ-YAX800) 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. 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.

Partner Companies Displays an Array of P2-compatible Systems

Panasonic also announced that the number of industry-leading companies in its P2 Alliance has increased to fifteen – Avid, Apple, Canopus, Dalet, Dayang, EVS, Focus Enhancements, Leitch, Microsoft, Omneon, Pinnacle Systems, SGI, Telestream, Thomson/Grass Valley and Quantel. Panasonic and its P2 partner companies are displaying a multitude of available P2-compatible products and systems in its booth as well as in each partner company’s NAB exhibit.

“Panasonic and our P2 Alliance companies have closely collaborated to assure compatibility and ease of use between P2 and our partners’ industry-leading systems,” said Baisley. “Our goal of offering seamless integration of P2 with our Partners’ products is becoming a reality.”

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 broadcast and production markets.

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.

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 since a card can be re-written on without performance degradation.

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.