PANASONIC AND GRASS VALLEY JOIN FORCES TO ENHANCE K2 ARCHITECTURE FOR AVC-LongG

AVC-LongG COMPRESSION TYPE SUPPORTED FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER BY BROADCAST SERVERS

AMSTERDAM. 13 SEPTEMBER 2013 -- Panasonic Professional Camera Solutions announces that it has assisted its long-time partner Grass Valley® with the integration of AVC-LongG support in its offering. Grass Valley’s newest upgrade to its K2® server products now includes powerful management support for this compression type, which is part of Panasonic’s new AVC-ULTRA codec family of products. Grass Valley’s K2 Summit® and K2 Solo® are the first broadcast servers on the market to support playout of the AVC-LongG recording format.

Panasonic’s AVC-ULTRA offers recording in full HD to meet a variety of user needs from mastering to transmission. AVC-LongG, designed for applications where file size is critical, offers up to 10-bit, 4:2:2 sampled recording in a much smaller file size, saving storage costs and transfer times over MPEG-2 while maintaining equal or better video quality.

K2 Summit and K2 Solo are based on Grass Valley’s unique high bandwidth architecture. The These AVC-LongG-supporting servers guarantee that on-air channels never drop a frame of video, while simultaneously delivering consistent bandwidth for file transfers and editing operations. In addition, Grass Valley’s newly announced EDIUS® 7 nonlinear video editing software also supports this Panasonic codec.

"Our customers have been eager to utilise the high video quality and efficient workflow of AVC-LongG from shooting to editing and playout", said Kunihiko Miyagi, Director of Panasonic’s Imaging Business Division. "Thanks to our long-term partnership with Grass Valley, AVC-LongG editing on EDIUS 7 and material management on K2 servers will be possible. We believe that AVC-LongG content captured by the Panasonic AJ-PX5000G P2 cameras and AJ-PD500 recorders will enhance data transfer efficiency while maintaining high video quality, allowing us to provide our customers with an improved workflow."

"With support for Panasonic's new AVC-LongG format, Grass Valley takes advantage of the sophistication of our K2 architecture to allow for the rapid implementation of the newest and best broadcast servers in the industry," said Mike Cronk, Senior Vice President Marketing, Grass Valley. "News organisations and media groups looking for the latest generation of ENG cameras will now have the confidence they need to deliver content to air without any issues or hiccups."

The new versions of the AVC-LongG-supporting K2 Summit and K2 Solo servers will be available August 2013, with software upgrades available for models sold within the past year. Older versions of K2 Summit are field-upgradable.

The updated versions of K2 Summit and K2 Solo, as well as EDIUS 7 will be on display at Panasonic’s booth at IBC, #9.C45 and at Grass Valley’s own booth, #1.D11 & 1.E02, from 13 till 17 September. Alternatively, please visit: http://business.panasonic.eu/broadcast-and-proav.