Panasonic Commits to P2 Media

Declaring that "solid state is the next generation" of camera-capture technology, Panasonic Product Line business Manager Jan Crittenden Livingston has found that converts to P2 digital acquisition "would rather have a pencil stuck in their eyes" than revert back to shooting tape.

"I told a customer who was used to using big, professional cameras for a lot of aerial photography that he needed to try P2, so he rented some gear and gave me call," she relates. "'How could I go back to tape?' he asked. 'P2 is so fast, so easy – it's transformed my life.'"
Such transformative moments are commonplace with shooters who make the move to P2 even if they don't expect it. "Everybody knows how to do tape," Livingston notes. "They don't think they know file-based workflows. But it's what they do every day in Word or PowerPoint except the files are bigger. Once they figure out the file-based workflow for production, they don't want to go back to tape."

The advantages to working with solid-state technology are many. "There are no moving parts to the product so you end up with higher reliability and no concerns about environmental effects on the camera from rough usage or temperature and humidity," she says. "Everything that was a nemesis for tape has become a thing of the past, so the long-term cost of ownership has come down."

Advantages extend into postproduction, too, where specialty recorders have been replaced by the camera as transfer source with the laptop or desktop computer often acting as the editing platform.
"You can start postproduction instantly – there's no waiting to get back to the edit suite to start editing," she points out. "And you have full control and use of your computer as you ingest footage since it's a background operation." A P2 shooter on an extremely tight turnaround used his laptop on a flight from Chicago to New Jersey to practically complete a rough cut of a job he needed to quickly post to his client's FTP site.Now P2 customers are delving further into how to archive and manage their data. "They recognize that P2 is a whole toolbox," Livingston explains.

The first year the race committee for the famed Iditarod used P2 cameras in challenging arctic conditions it was simply delighted to be able to capture footage for the length of the race and get it up on the Internet. But the second year "they started to pay attention to metadata," she reports. When footage was offloaded from P2 cards at checkpoints, metadata about the shooters, their locations and more was noted and sorted into file folders. The race finished March 23.

"By the beginning of May they had finished editing 120 hours of footage," says Livingston. "By talking to the shooters they knew where the stories were; they just had to go to that location folder. They were amply rewarded by doing a little bit of homework." The race committee is now archiving to Quantum LTO 600 series drives with HD Log from Imagine Products as the database software "so if they want to find Participant X crossing the finish line they can just search their database."

Committed to solid-state technology, Panasonic continues to "push P2 forward" with high-end cameras like the AG-HPX2000 and AG-HPX3000. Both feature the AVC Intra codec, a 10-bit, 4:2:2, I-frame-only algorithm which delivers images "that look like D5 HD," Livingston notes. A 32-gig P2 card, currently the largest, records 80 minutes of DVCPRO HD at 24p; with two card slots in a camera that provides 160 minutes of recording time. A 64-gig card is expected to be available starting in November.

 

Sony Opts For Optical-Disk Technology

Sony introduced its XDCAM optical disc technology in April 2004 with a Standard Definition line of products, debuted its HD optical disc cameras two years later and started shipping the PDW-700 camcorder, the latest in its XDCAM HD 4:2:2 line, after NAB 2008. The PDW-700 boasts a 2/3-inch imager and full 1920/1080 HD recording, supports 1080i and 720p frame rates, and offers 8 channels of uncompressed 24-bit audio.

"Worldwide we have shipped over 31,000 units since we introduced the SD cameras," notes John Studdert, director of sales and marketing for optical and network products at Sony Electronics. "This is the fastest acceptance of any format in our history. Optical disc technology has been an unprecedented success as far as durability, reliability and quality."

"Our Professional Disc media has a shelf life of over 50 years and 1,000 rewrite cycles are guaranteed," says Group Marketing Manager Wayne Zuchowski. "They're a perfect medium for people who like the tangibility of tape and who want to write it once and put it on a shelf." XDCAM HD discs are now cheaper to buy than HD tape, adds Studdert.

The PDW-HD1500 AVIT XDCAM HD optical recorder is a full HD and IT recorder which can record any data file to disc. "It's so innovative – nobody else has been able to create a recorder that uses removable media recording full HD, 8 channels of uncompressed audio and data files," Zuchowski notes. The unit is especially handy for productions with multiple content sources, such as Flash memory and MP3 audio – even P2 media. It saves metadata too – from scripts to PowerPoint to production notes – for easy access during postproduction and when material has been archived.

The new XDCAM HD product line has already seen action in some farflung destinations. NBC deployed 30 PDW-700s at various venues at the Beijing Olympics and used 177 PDW-HD1500s to record HD video from all venues. Mark Burnett Productions will be using the cameras and decks on Survivor 18: The Ultimate Challenge starting this fall. A PDW-700 spent several weeks on the Congo River for a National Geographic documentary shoot and in the Galapagos Islands for the HDNet show Dan Rather Reports.

Domestically, CNN turned out the cameras for both political conventions, CBS is using them for 60 Minutes segments, and they've been used for the production of BMW and Geico national commercials.

Although Sony has made strong gains with its optical disc technology, Studdert reminds us that the company maintains "different solutions for different applications." Its compact, lightweight 1/2-inch CMOS sensor PMW-EX1 SxS PRO format handheld camera records onto a media card, based on ExpressCard technology.

Some customers choose to use both the disc and media card solutions, with the PDW-700 as their A camera and the EX1 capturing B roll. The aforementioned Galapagos Islands shoot deployed a PDW-700 for topside and beauty shots and an EX1 in an underwater housing. "The footage intercuts beautifully," says Zuchowski. "Both the XDCAM line and the EX1 share the same MPEG2 compression technology."
"We believe we have the best of both worlds!" Studdert declares.