Sony XDCAM HD solutions popular with TV stations in Asia-Pacific

27 May 2008

The Philippines/Australia/New Zealand: Sony’s range of XDCAM HD camcorders and drive units proved to be the equipment of choice for television stations in the Philippines, Australia and New Zealand with a recent wave of acquisitions across the Asia-Pacific.
The ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation (ABS-CBN), the largest integrated media and entertainment company in the Philippines, selected Sony PDW-F355 XDCAM HD camcorders and PDW-U1 drive units for its deployment for tapeless production. The company plans to roll out 45 XDCAM HD camcorders and 6 drive units across its stations.
As the leading media company in the Philippines, ABS-CBN runs its flagship network Channel 2 and around two dozen other television stations and 10 affiliated stations.
The XDCAM HD camcorders and drive units enable ABS-CBN to experience the seamless workflow production delivered by Sony’s Professional Disc optical disc media as well as the operational efficiencies offered by HD/SD switchable recording and up/down conversion capability.
“Reliability and production efficiency are critical to our decision of investment. Sony has been working extensively with us to offer a variety of solutions that can enable us to fulfill our needs in programme production”, said Raul Bulaong, head of technical operations division, ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation.
“With Sony’s XDCAM HD, we now have the right technology that is highly flexible for both SD and HD production. This capability allows us to pave the way for future migration to HD-based operation with minimal further investment,” he added.

Across Oceania, the Seven Network, the largest metropolitan network in Australia, purchased Sony PDW-510 XDCAM camcorders, PDW-1500 decks and PDW-U1 drive units for its migration to tapeless production. Initially the equipment is deployed in its Sydney and Canberra studios.
The Seven Network broadcasts nationally from its broadcast centre in Melbourne into all capital cities in Australia. The use of XDCAM camcorders and drive units will enable Seven Network to use operational efficiencies offered by an IT centric format. This will extend from camera crews in the field to editing and archiving processes.
“With XDCAM being a proven format in the industry, it made our decision much easier when considering which format was to be rolled-out for our news acquisition,” said Trevor Bird, group technical services general manager at the Seven Network.
“Sony provides us with technology that will assist with our current and future workflow requirements. On top of the XDCAM format reliability, Sony’s commitment to service and support gives us confidence for the future. Vendor support for the life of the product was an important part of the selection criteria,” he added.
Further south, TVNZ Broadcast Services, the production arm of Television New Zealand, has acquired Sony PDW-700 XDCAM HD 422 camcorders as the start of its transition to high definition field production.
TVNZ were sold on the comprehensive feature set and high level of specification of the PDW-700. The cameras will be used on lifestyle shows such as the popular “Mucking In” series and other magazine shows.

“The PDW-700 is a logical step for TVNZ; we currently use the standard definition PDW-530P camera and we want to enhance our productions by shooting in HD, so we are keen to take advantage of the PDW-700” said Paul Hedges, TVNZ northern operations manager.

“XDCAM HD has brought a different dimension to video acquisition and it has proven to be extremely reliable, robust and convenient”, said Kozo Fujita, head of Sony’s broadcast and content creation Asia Pacific. “We would like to see more and more professionals in South East Asia’s broadcast community to adopt the technology and be able to enjoy the tremendous advantages of XDCAM HD disc-based operation such as instant random access and network connectivity.”