The roll out of P2 product begins in February and will take four months to deliver 89 AJSPX900 cameras to all ABC sites around Australia and their many overseas bureaux. Numerous AJ-SPD850 P2 decks, AJ-HPM100E P2 Mobiles, AJ-PCS060 P2 Stores and other accessories will also be supplied as part of the contract.

This contract represents one of the largest single purchases of Broadcast P2 equipment in the world. Together with the recent adoption of P2 in the US by the Fox Network for their 35 company owned stations, this means that P2 will continue to make significant inroads into worldwide Broadcast markets as is has done for the past three years. Panasonic is proud to enter into a partnership with the ABC for this major roll out of P2 product in Australia.

The hand held AG-HVX202 continues to be an outstanding success locally and around the world. Its release saw the introduction of HD to the P2 line up. The camera continues to be adopted by many new users who are taking advantage of the many benefits offered by the P2 solid-state workflow. This and the ABC's decision to adopt the 2/3" Broadcast SPX900 camcorder ensures P2 will have a bright future in Australia.

This year will see the introduction of three new Broadcast P2 HD Camcorders, all utilising 2/3" CCD's. The AJ-HPX2100 will be the first, released this month. The HPX2100 is targeted at HD Production and News. A budget and high end EFP model will follow. Full details will be released shortly.

About P2

At the heart of the P2 series equipment is the innovative P2 (professional plug-in) card. This solid-state card is neither tape nor disc and requires no moving parts. This makes the P2 card extremely rugged, and it brings outstanding anti-vibration and anti-shock performance to the P2 camera-recorder. Its high data transfer speed, ruggedness and expandability usher in an entirely new era of mobility.

P2 records in MXF - a file format whose exceptional PC versatility is transforming the news production workflow. The P2 cards mounts directly into the PC card slot so you have instant access to data for nonlinear editing and for faster data transferring into the network which makes P2 a fusion of the best of the AV and IT worlds. It goes way beyond today's generation of equipment. P2 introduces a new age in news acquisition - one in which conventional ENG gives way to a more mobile, reliable and faster IT-based news gathering (ING).

P2 offers both HD/SD multi-format capability and multi-codec recording means that P2 can be used for any news gathering and content production.