PANASONIC ANNOUNCES ITS EXPANDED P2 DVCPRO HD LINE WITH FULL BANDWIDTH HD QUALITY FOR BROADCASTERS

SECAUCUS, NJ (February 16, 2006) – Panasonic announced today that at NAB 2006 it will expand its offering of advanced P2 DVCPRO HD products, bringing the wide-reaching benefits of reliable solid-state acquisition and contribution quality high definition video to broadcasters and video production professionals. The new P2 DVCPRO HD products offer Panasonic’s P2 solid-state memory recording without the moving parts of other tape, hard disk, and optical disc based systems. This insures the highest reliability, especially in challenging conditions of extreme temperature range, shock, and vibration. These new P2 products offer a significant reduction in maintenance costs, longer useful product life, and immediate access to recorded video (no need to digitize, ingest or create proxy video files) and metadata. And by utilizing a standard PCMCIA interface and computer file structure, P2 DVCPRO HD acquisition fits easily into any standard IT infrastructure. The new multi-format P2 DVCPRO HD products are distinguished by their ability to record in 720p, 1080i or 480i which addresses the requirements of diverse HD broadcast applications. P2 DVCPRO HD products offer full bandwidth, contribution quality HD with independent intra-frame encoding, 4:2:2 color sampling, and less compression making HD content easier and faster to edit and more able to stand up to image compositing versus long GOP MPEG-2 systems. In addition, they are backwards compatible with existing DVCPRO50, DVCPRO and DV-based facilities. “Our new P2 DVCPRO HD products deliver the highest reliability and quality to broadcasters as they initiate or expand their HD capabilities,” said Robert Harris, Vice President of Marketing, Panasonic Broadcast & Television Systems Company. “We’re confident that these new HD products will build on the success of P2 DVCPRO, which has been adopted by an expanding number of top U.S. broadcast groups, including Cordillera, Cox, Entravision, Fisher Broadcasting, Liberty, Media General, Nexstar, and Raycom.” The new members of the P2 DVCPRO HD product family will include the 2/3” AJ-HPC2000 shoulder-mount camcorder, AJ-HPS1500 studio recorder, the AJ-HPM100 mobile recorder/player and the AJ-PCD20 P2 drive. In addition, the revolutionary AG-HVX200, a hand-held P2 DVCPRO HD camcorder, is currently available, and it provides video professionals a powerful and versatile yet highly affordable professional high definition camcorder. Advanced P2 DVCPRO HD 2/3” Camcorder Offers Highest Quality, Versatility, and Reliability The new AJ-HPC2000 is equipped with three HD resolution 2/3” CCDs and 14-bit A/D processing offering exceptional dynamic range and low light recording in 720p, 1080i HD or 480i formats. The 2/3” CCD imager allows the use of widely-available professional quality lenses and accessories. The camcorder offers high sensitivity, F10 at 2000 lux, and can capture images at a minimum illumination of 0.032 lux (at +62dB) addressing the most challenging requirements of broadcasters. The highly-reliable AJ-HPC2000 features five P2 card slots for enhanced on board recording capacity. Each P2 card is hot swappable and can be plugged directly into a laptop PC or P2 portable recorder such as the new AJ-HPM100. An additional card slot is provided for optional accessories such as a Proxy Video Encoder. An SD card slot is also included for recording and replicating setup information useful in multi-camera productions. Extensive signal connectivity and control capability comes standard with the AJ-HPC2000. The product includes HD-SDI, genlock, time code, composite video, IEEE1394 (AVC), and USB 2.0. Four channels of uncompressed audio are supported with XLRs, stereo front mic, and Unislot wireless mic connections. The AJ-HPC2000 includes pre-record, which means it can start recording from the moment it’s switched on, so users can feel confident that they won’t miss an important shot. Its P2 card hot swap function provides the option of unlimited recording time, because it allows a user to replace any card (except the one being recorded on) on the fly. Other key features include a Color LCD monitor (with GUI menu control). P2 DVCPRO HD Recorder Provides the Bridge for HD & SD Production Environments The AJ-HPS1500 solid state recorder/ player provides upgradeable capacity utilizing five P2 card slots. The more cards that are added, and as the storage capacity of the cards increase, the more overall recording time you have. In addition, the recorder offers two slots for adding removable hard disk drives. The removable drives are highly beneficial for use as an economical video back-up or archive, for real-time data transfer, for play-list creation and for a variety of edit functions. The AJ-HPS1500 is a high-performance P2 DVCPRO HD solid-state memory studio recorder that serves as a bridge between high definition and standard definition, with the capability of optional downconverting and upconverting between SD and HD recorded material. With capabilities of G-bit Ethernet, USB 2.0 ports, IEEE-1394 (AVC), and HD-SDI as well as SD-SDI input/outputs it is a highly versatile device to use as a ingest station at a broadcast of production facility. A wide variety of input sources can be combined and prepped from transfer to editing, or play-out. The deck offers easy operation from its VTR-like panel complete with Jog/Shuttle dial, as well as Video Encoder adjustment control, a front-panel Graphic User Interface (GUI) and play-list making and playback capabilities. A built-in 3.5” color LCD simplifies browsing and selection of clips, and reduces the requirement for an external field monitor. Standard A/V outputs/inputs on the AJ-HPS1500 include: analog component, composite and reference video, digital audio (AES/EBU Ch1 – Ch8), analog audio (XLR, Ch1 – Ch2), monitor out, and time code in/output. Remote control can be accomplished via RS-422A, RS-232C and GPI. Mobile P2 DVCPRO HD Recorder Brings Powerful Capabilities into the Field Highly portable and versatile, the compact AJ-HPM100 mobile recorder/player is fully equipped for field work with a 9” widescreen LCD monitor, a six-slot P2 drive, an SD card slot, a jog/shuttle dial, function buttons, stereo speakers and AC/DC operation. The easily-transportable recorder is high definition/ standard definition switchable and records in DVCPRO HD, DVCPRO50, DVCPRO and can play back with upconverting and downconverting between standard and high definition formats. With 8GB cards in the six P2 slots, the AJ-HPM100 can record for 192 minutes in DVCPRO, 96 minutes in DVCPRO50, and 48 minutes in 1080i and 720p. The AJ-HPM100 has IEEE 1394 (AVC) and USB 2.0 interfaces, RS-422 for remote control, an array of input/outputs including switchable HD/SD SDIs, analog composite, analog HD component, analog 4-channel audio, time code and analog HD component output. It is ideal for field applications like searching for clips to generate a “selects list’” developing play list, copying P2 content, backup recording for live broadcasts, and playback for transmission via satellite back to the broadcast facility. New P2 Drive Offers Enhanced Capacity and High-Speed Data Transfer via USB 2.0 or IEEE 1394b The AJ-PCD20 internal/external drive is designed for high-speed file transfer of DVCPRO HD, DVCPRO50 DVCPRO video into nonlinear editing systems and servers. A user can mount five 8 GB P2 cards (containing up to 160 minutes of recordings in DVCPRO, 80 minutes in DVCPRO50 and 40 minutes in DVCPRO HD) at the same time and have access to the contents on all five cards for continuous editing of recorded clips in sequence. With the AJ-PCD20, digitizing is eliminated, so that material can be accessed almost instantaneously. As an internal drive, the AJ-PCD20 installs in a standard PC type 5.25” bay drive enclosure, and through its high-speed USB 2.0 or IEEE 1394b interfaces, connects to the host computer, and through that computer to a television station’s local area network (LAN). For in-the-field use, the AJ-PCD20 serves as a stand-alone external drive and teams with a notebook PC or Mac PowerBook for editing and playback. The drive offers Windows 2000/XP and Mac OS X compatibility. The AJ-HPC2000 shoulder-mount camcorder, AJ-HPS1500 studio recorder, and the AJ-HPM100 mobile recorder will be available in Fourth Quarter 2006. Pricing will be announced at NAB 2006. The AJ-PCD20 will be available in July. About Panasonic Broadcast Panasonic Broadcast & Television Systems Co. is a leading supplier of broadcast and professional video 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.