‘Open Systems, Open Minds’ is the title of Panasonic’s display at nab, and its focus will be digital solutions at production, broadcast and consumer levels. Terry Horbatiuk, Panasonic Canada’s senior manager, systems engineering group, concedes what the manufacturer’s offering ‘is not really sexy, but it sure is cost-effective.’

Panasonic is presenting a dvcpro hd product family which includes the AJ-HD150 studio vtr, AJ-HDC10A and AJ-HDC20A camcorders, AJ-HDR150 multi-resolution video server, and AJ-A1000 edit controller. Street dates for these products are staggered – March, April, May, and September, respectively, with the availability date of the AJ-A1000 to be announced in Las Vegas.

The new equipment line brings Panasonic’s digital video format, currently popular for ENG usage, into the hd domain for studio and field production as well as for post applications. dvcpro hd utilizes the same cassettes and form factor as dvcpro and DVCPRO50, easing the hd changeover at all levels of the industry.

Heading Panasonic’s dvcpro hd family is the AJ-HD150, and like any good parent, this vtr is all-inclusive, gladly playing with all professional dv-based formats, including DVCPRO Progressive, DVCPRO50, DVCPRO, DVCAM and DV. An optional internal converter (AJ-UDC150) can play back standard definition (480i or 480p) dvcpro cassettes as hdtv signals.

‘While people will look at it as a new product, in effect it’s the same tape and it’s the same compression scheme,’ says Horbatiuk. ‘If you’re a station using DVCPRO50 and 25 Mbps 4:1:1 material for news acquisition, and you buy a couple of AJ-HD150s with the upconverter boards in them, those tapes will play back through that deck, and out will come 1080i for playback, recording, and editing. You’re in the Hi-Def world at an economical cost.’

The difference between the two new 3-ccd camcorders is that the AJ-HDC20A offers 2.2 million pixels, while the AJ-HDC10A offers one million. The 15-pound (6.8-kilo) camcorders offer good field mobility and provide 46-minute recording in 1080i and 1035i. To help videographers keep the hd format in mind, there is an optional 16:9 black-and-white viewfinder (AJ-HVF20) for the AJ-HDC20A.

The AJ-HDR150 is the first commercially available video server offering multi-resolution recording and playback in the dvcpro compression format. In dvcpro hd resolution, it can record and store up to five hours of footage, and 20 hours at dvcpro resolution.

The AJ-A1000 edit controller can control up to five vtrs as the heart of a dvcpro hd editing system. It is a compact model with a built-in switcher control panel for full control of cross-points, matte color, wipes, and fades.

Horbatiuk relates how Panasonic’s innovations will allow customers to continue shooting in their preferred digital format, without the pressure of immediately going hd. Producers will not be forced to purchase new tape libraries, and archival material shot today in dvcpro and DVCPRO50 will be usable in future hd environments.

‘In terms of the partnerships we have out there, we are not having people jump through hoops to accept a ‘new format’ – DVCPRO HD is the logical expansion of the format into HD,’ he emphasizes.

This kind of compatibility will keep global markets wide open for broadcasters. Programs shot here in one digital format can easily be exported to other markets where playback in another format is the norm. How broadcasters take advantage of these opportunities, Horbatiuk notes, is entirely up to them.

‘At the last nab, an awful lot of people were asking ‘How do I get from here to there?” he recalls. ‘There were answers – not just from us, but from all the manufacturers – the only big issue is you have to decide to do it digitally. Having said that, there’s a whole realm of possibilities. [The only question is] what would you like to do with the business?’