With its solid-state strategy firmly in place, Panasonic announced several additions to its P2 DVCPRO HD product family for NAB. Filling in some holes in the solid-state system's production chain, there's a new studio recorder (AJ-HPS1500), a portable edit system (AJ-HPM100) and a double speed P2 drive (AJ-PCD20). Because a camera still doesn’t feel "right" to professionals until they can heft it on their shoulders, the company also plans to unveil a working model of the new AJ-HPC2000 P2 HD shoulder-mounted camcorder, which uses three progressive 2/3-inch CCDs and records at 720p, 1080i and 480i. The camera, which isn't scheduled to ship until November, is expected to be much cheaper than a Sony HDCAM and "probably a little more" than the $26,000 XDCAM HD. And finally, signaling the end of the CRT era, the company announced that LCD would take over its NAB display and announced anew 26-inch production quality LCD monitor, the BT-LH2600W.
On the solid state recording front, the 2 GB P2 card has been discontinued, but the prices of the 4 GB (now $650) and 8 GB ($1,400 list) have been reduced. Pre-NAB, there’s no word on a 16 GB version.
The AJ-HPS1500 features five P2 card slots as well as two additional slots for adding removable hard disk drives, which can be used for video back-up or archiving, real-time data transfer, play-list creation and for editing. The unit can be ordered with (optional) up/downconversion capability between SD and HD material. Inputs include G-bit Ethernet, USB 2.0, IEEE-1394 (AVC), and HD-SDI as well as SD-SDI.
Because the HPS1500 is designed as an ingest station for stations and production facilities, a variety of input sources can be combined. The deck offers VTR-style controls, such as a jog/shuttle dial, as well as video encoder adjustment control, a front-panel graphic user interface (GUI) and playlist making and playback capabilities. A built-in 3.5-inch color LCD offers browsing and easy clip selection.
The AJ-HPM100 portable recorder/player features a 9-inch widescreen LCD monitor, a six-slot P2 drive, an SD card slot, a jog/shuttle dial, stereo speakers and AC/DC operation. It's HD/SD switchable and supports the DVCPRO HD, DVCPRO 50, and DVCPRO formats. With 8 GB 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 refresh rate on its new generation of plasma and LCD panels is so good that, for the first time ever, the company will not have any CRT monitors in its booth at NAB this year. Occupying center stage will be the BT-LH2600W. The display has two (auto-switching) SDI/HD-SDI inputs, a high-speed response with no blurring; the industry's lowest delay (due to an image processing circuit that converts interlaced into progressive signals with no visible delays); a waveform monitor that graphically displays luminance levels-from zero to 108 IRE-in any of the monitor's four corners; and a split screen/freeze frame function for scene comparison and critical color matching (for previewing live input vs. freeze frame).
Panasonic said it is addressing the significant backorders of its $6,000 AG-HVX200 camcorder and, with renewed factory support, hopes to fill new orders within 60 days. If you still can't get one by April, there will be about 30 P2/DVCPRO tape cameras at the booth.
For more information, visit http://www.panasonic.com/broadcast/