An exclusively tapeless production universe is still a few years away, but solid-state capture is here to stay. And Panasonic has now been joined by Sony, which unveiled its film magazine for the digital age at the recent National Association of Broadcasters conference in Las Vegas.

Panasonic’s press event showcased the deployment of its P2 technology – a digital video format which allows for recording on a solid-state flash memory card – for the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race this past March and April.

‘What the P2 was able to accomplish will be the norm and standard in the near future,’ said Iditarod’s director of communications Chas St.George, adding that five AG-HVX200 cameras, five AJ-HPX2000s and 150 8G cards covered the 1,150-mile course from start to finish in high winds and 60-below temperatures.

With an eye to a May release for expanded 16G cards, and 32G by the end of the year, Panasonic has taken only four years to gather 25,000 customers worldwide. The manufacturer also announced a five-year warranty, which takes effect in May, covering all full-sized P2HD cameras and workflows.

‘You can ingest P2 material, and look at video clips across multiple P2 cards. The entire workflow. Customers are asking for speed of production,’ said Avid CMO Greg Estes, who was on hand at the event to announce Avid’s support for Panasonic’s AVC-Intra codec, which is also now supported by Apple’s Final Cut Pro.

Panasonic further announced that it will supply 35 Fox stations with P2 cards.

‘It’s in the recording [stage] where gains are to be found,’ said Fox Entertainment Group head of engineering Andy Setos, noting that Fox employs hundreds of P2 camcorders in the field. Solid-state technology means that endless man-hours of labelling and tape storage will give way to the P2.

‘It’s now an HD world,’ said Setos. ‘Investment in SD equipment is ill-advised at this time.’

Not to be outdone, Sony unveiled its tapeless solution, SxS (S-by-S), which is being developed in conjunction with SanDisk and will be adopted in Sony’s XDCAM EX professional camcorder line, which has sold 21,000 units. 16G memory cards are expected to ship through SanDisk and Sony later in 2007.

It also had an answer for Iditarod and Panasonic’s Fox announcement. After a teaser unveiling immersive 3D footage shot at the NBA All-Star game in Las Vegas by James Cameron and Vince Pace (screened with Sony’s SXRD 4K projector, which will roll out on Muvico’s 200 screens in the U.S.), the manufacturer displayed XDCAM footage sent over the Internet from Antarctica shot on the PDW-F350.

CNN will immediately begin using XDCAM HD camcorders and decks for high-definition ENG and news production applications, helping to build a library of native content for the launch of its HD network.

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www.panasonic.ca