Rolling The Dice At NAB with New Panasonic Pro Video Products

Earlier this week, we briefed key trade media on new Panasonic professional video products that will make their formal debut at the National Association of Broadcasters show (April 11-14 in Las Vegas, NV). Highlights included a new 9-inch LCD production monitor with the best image quality in its class, new P2 workflow tools that deliver blazing fast data transfer speeds and deep price reductions across our line of high-capacity, high-speed P2 cards (see photo album of product shots below).

I’m pleased to announce the new BT-LH910, a powerful, 9-inch LCD monitor for field and studio applications, which features a new high brightness, high contrast IPS panel

that affords the best picture quality in its class; newly-developed 3D assist functions; and professional interfaces including HDMI and 3G-SDI. Equally suitable for production, broadcast and institutional applications, the cost-effective BT-LH910 can be utilized on-camera as an electronic viewfinder, on location, and in mobile or live

settings. The BT-LH910 offers production-level critical viewing with 1280 x 768 WXGA pixel resolution, the highest in the 9-inch and under professional LCD monitor category.

Another new offering is the solid-state AG-HPD24 P2 deck that boasts powerful features such as 3D synchronized record/playback; native 24P recording with variable frame rates; a super-fast USB 3.0 interface; and 24-bit, four-channel audio recording in AVC-Intra 100/50. Supporting the burgeoning 3D production industry, two HPD24 units can be synchronized for master-quality, full resolution isolated left/right channel 3D recording, either from cameras mounted on a 3D rig (such as Panasonic’s AK-HC1800 multipurpose cameras) or the company’s AG-3DA1 integrated dual-lens 3D camcorder.

We also unveiled the AJ-PCD30 P2 drive, a new three-slot P2 device with a super-speed USB 3.0 interface that delivers the industry’s fastest offloads from a solid-state source.

Effective immediately, Panasonic’s E-Series of 64GB, 32GB and 16GB P2 cards will carry suggested list prices of $695, $480 and $380, respectively. The new pricing reflects a whopping 30% reduction in the company’s popular 64GB P2 card. Gotta love that!

A few other announcements we made:

• A versatile wireless system for our new AJ-HPX3100 master quality 1080p P2 HD camcorder that simplifies the process of utilizing user-selected metadata

• AJ-SF110 Video Ingest software and AJ-SF100 Linear Open-Tape (LTO) Archive software to facilitate the secure storage and easy retrieval of P2 content

• AVCCAM Importer software, a QuickTime plug-in that eliminates the need to convert AVCHD files to ProRES422 files before editing in Final Cut Pro

You can get more details on all the new Panasonic pro video products on our website or check out some of the media coverage on Broadcasting & Cable, StudioDaily and TVTechnology.

In the “know when to hold ‘em” category, we plan to make some major announcements in the acquisition category at NAB so stay tuned.

Click for a sneak peek at some of Panasonic’s new pro video products.

Guest Post, Jim Wickizer, Panasonic Solutions Company