Canadian staff at Sony and Panasonic are frantically preparing for their participation at NAB, where they will both help launch a variety of video products aimed at their wide client bases.

Sony is enticing NAB-goers to ‘ride the HD wave,’ in anticipation of accelerated HD broadcast and production. In 2000, Sony introduced its revolutionary 24P HDW-F900 high-definition camcorder; one year later, George Lucas walked onstage at the Sony press conference to sing the praises of his experience with the new capture system on Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones.

And the Sony/Lucas association continues to evolve. Last summer, Lucas shot Star Wars Episode III in Australia on Sony’s new high-end HD offering, the HDC-F950, which, like Panasonic’s VariCam (launched at NAB2001), offers ‘undercranking’ functionality. According to Brian Young, Sony of Canada’s marketing group manager, content creation, another benefit is the camera system’s full 10-bit RGB recording, allowing for high-end matting and FX work. While Lucas used a prototype, the HDC-F950 recently came on the market and is sure to be a star attraction at Sony’s NAB booth.

The HDC-F950 records in Sony’s new HDCAM SR format, which Young reports has been adopted by several other film productions and was chosen as the master production and delivery standard for broadcasters Fox, Turner, and CBS.

Sony will also have its XDCAM Professional Disc System cameras and players, which represent a further step toward tape-less workflow. XDCAM uses optical media capable of recording multiple formats, including DVCAM and MPEG IMX resolution, onto disc. Young says that rental facilities and broadcasters including Toronto 1 have already ordered XDCAM products.

In addition to XDCAM’s usefulness to journalists and broadcast producers, who can transfer hi-res clips across IP networks at high speed, Young says an SD 24p option provides a benefit to the production community as well.

‘[It’s] for people looking for a lower-cost alternative to hd 24p production,’ he says. ‘They’re looking for something that will give them the same 24p feel and allow them to employ the standard-definition tools they already have around them.’

Meanwhile, Panasonic will look to dazzle NAB guests with its DVCPRO Professional Plug-in, or P2, technology. In this case, images are captured on P2 Secure Digital memory cards, which can handle DV, DVCPRO and DVCPRO50 formats, and transferred directly to editing software without any digitization or conversion.

‘P2 is a fundamental technology shift that is also going to deliver significant benefits to broadcasters and news organizations in terms of speed, operational efficiency and increased ruggedness of equipment,’ says David Craig, product manager, broadcast and security systems, Panasonic Canada.

He adds that the memory cards can be reused without data degradation, and errors caused by extreme shooting conditions are reduced since the cards do not involve mechanical parts. The AJ-SPX800 P2 camcorder is slated for a spring release.

And while Panasonic may not have a Lucas onside, it does have plenty to crow about at NAB for its involvement with indie filmmakers, and not exclusively in the HD realm.

Veteran U.S. director of photography Nancy Schreiber (Celluloid Closet, Your Friends and Neighbors) received the excellence in cinematography award at the recent Sundance Film Festival for the feature drama November, starring Courtney Cox, shot on Panasonic’s AG-DVX100 mini DV 3-CCD camcorders. The production used the camera’s film-style 480p/24fps image-capture format before transferring to film. Panasonic will have its upgraded AG-DVX100A model at NAB.

Meanwhile, helmer Noah Kadner shot his recent l.a. feature debut Formosa on Panasonic’s AJ-SDX900 DVCPRO Cinema camcorder, which offers DVCPRO or DVCPRO50 recording, 16:9 capability, a 24p acquisition option, and cine-style lenses. The camcorder should be of great interest to filmmakers at NAB.

-www.sony.ca

-www.panasonic.ca