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At the recent National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas, Sony demonstrated their Professional Optical Disc format. This is the professional version of Blu-Ray Disc, and it will be available in the fall. Sony was already demonstrating working professional camcorders that were recording directly to the POD format, with playback on several different portable and studio players.
SONY'S NEW PROFESSIONAL OPTICAL DISC SYSTEM TO OFFER SIGNIFICANT WORKFLOW ADVANTAGES System Includes 24-Frame and 30P Capabilities LAS VEGAS (NAB, Booth #SU-4015), April 6, 2003 - Sony Electronics' professional optical disc system will make its public debut at this week's National Association of Broadcasters convention. Available in the fall, the comprehensive product line is poised to reshape electronic news gathering (ENG), electronic field production (EFP) and digital cinematography applications. Sony's optical disc system includes two camcorders, a battery-or AC-powered mobile deck, a compact deck, a studio deck and rewritable 12-centimeter (5-inch) media. CNN will test the optical disc system within its ENG operations. The global cable network will test the integration of the new systems with contemporary tape-based systems this fall in order to exploit and measure the efficiency and economy gains promised by the new technology. NBC will utilize the optical disc system in its coverage of the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece to create profiles of athletes from around the world, one of many featured attractions in NBC's coverage of the Games. Dispatch Broadcast Group will deploy the equipment at WBNS-TV in Columbus, the Ohio News Network and WTHR-TV in Indianapolis. "I believe that our professional optical disc system will transform the broadcast industry in ways it hasn't seen since the Betacam® format's arrival nearly 20 years ago," said Stephen Jacobs, senior vice president of Sony Electronics' broadcast and professional systems division. "In addition to offering superb picture quality, our optical disc system will offer significant workflow innovations, streamlining field acquisition and field editing, and enabling material to move at high-speed from the field to the station for editing." Optical Disc Workflow Advantages The professional optical disc system achieves workflow innovation by recording both the high-resolution original, as well as a lower-resolution but frame-accurate proxy audio and video. From the camcorder, or a battery-operated mobile deck, ENG and EFP teams will be able to transfer the proxy information to laptop editors or back to the studio at up to 30 times faster-than-real-time, so producers can immediately start writing scripts or editing programs. Based on the data, field engineers will be able to transfer the high-resolution footage either as video or as a data file over IP networks, saving precious time during breaking news coverage. In the case of compact decks or studio decks, this proxy material will transfer at up to 50 times faster-than-real-time. Comprehensive Product Line Sony's optical disc recording technology integrates seamlessly with existing tape-based products by using industry standard DVCAM® and MPEG IMX™ codecs. The optical disc system also offers 24-frame shooting capabilities with an optional card that can be inserted into either camcorder. The 24-frame capability extends Sony's hierarchy of digital motion picture acquisition systems for documentary and independent movie production. Full interoperability of tape and disc-based systems allows ongoing return on investment of existing infrastructure while opening the optical disc system's new possibilities. Optical decks will accept both formats and will interchange material across a broad range of analog A/V, digital A/V and information technology (IT) standards. The optical system supports both the i.LINK® and Ethernet interfaces for transferring assets as Material eXchange Format (MXF) files and is also remote management capable via Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) over IP networks.
The two camcorders both have up to 30 times output capabilities of low-resolution, frame-accurate proxy audio and video. The PDW-510 DVCAM model and the PDW-530 MPEG IMX/DVCAM model will be offered for suggested list prices of $19,900 and $34,000, respectively. The battery- or AC-powered PDW-V1 optical disc mobile player is a mobile deck that plays back DVCAM and MPEG IMX recordings for display on a built-in LCD or external standard monitor. The deck has a single optical head with a data transfer rate of up to 72Mbps. This supports up to 30 times faster-than-real-time transfer of low-resolution proxy video over i.LINK and Ethernet interfaces, in addition to MXF file transfers over a 100-BaseT network connection. Through these interfaces, the unit can record or output data files. The PDW-V1 mobile deck will have a suggested list price of $7,000.
The PDW-3000 optical disc studio deck is a standard editing deck that offers both DVCAM and MPEG IMX recording and playback, and provides a full complement of analog A/V, digital A/V and IT interfaces, including the i.LINK interface and Gigabit Ethernet port. The dual optical head design has a data transfer rate of up to 144Mbps and supports up to five times faster-than-real-time transfer of full-resolution DVCAM audio and video and up to 50 times real-time transfer of low-resolution proxy audio and video. Transfer speeds for MPEG 4:2:2 video range from four times real-time for MPEG 30Mbps to two-and-a-half-times real-time for MPEG 50Mbps. Supporting audio, video and remote-control interfaces, the studio deck works seamlessly with both non-linear and linear editing systems. The studio deck will be available for a suggested list price of approximately $26,000.
Optical Disc Media Building upon proven CD-RW/DVD-RW technology, the blue-laser optical disc system carries far greater information than conventional red lasers allowing a significant increase in data density. This yields a storage capacity of 23.3GB per disc - a five-fold increase over DVD's 4.7GB. Data transfer rates are as high as 144Mbps with the compact deck and the studio deck. The rewritable five-inch media is encased in a protective cartridge, making the recording surface resistant to dust, shocks and scratches in the rigors of field use. Jacobs said that the heat-resistant medium is designed to record, erase and re-record more than 1,000 times and to read the written data more than one million times. He added that the disc's life expectancy is anticipated to extend beyond 30 years. The blue laser disc offers familiar disc-type benefits, including split-second random access, no physical head contact during record/playback, and cost efficiency associated with the media. A single disc holds 90 minutes of DVCAM video material or 45 minutes of MPEG IMX material recorded at 50 Mbps, 60 minutes at 40 Mbps, and 75 minutes at 30 Mbps. A street price of less than $30 per disc is anticipated at introduction. |
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Both the
PDW-510 DVCAM camcorder and the PDW-530 MPEG IMX/DVCAM optical disc camcorder
deliver superb imaging with 2/3-inch Power HAD™
image sensors and 12-bit analog-to-digital converters. Features include
loop/interval recording on a built-in cache memory, Ethernet or wireless LAN
interfaces through optional PC-card adaptors and a 2.5-inch (viewable area,
measured diagonally) LCD monitor for playback, marking good shots and
re-sequencing clips.
The PDW-1500 optical
disc compact deck is an NLE companion deck, a half-rack feeding/recording
machine for non-linear editing (NLE). The dual optical head design has a data
transfer rate of up to 144Mbps and supports up to five times
faster-than-real-time transfer of full-resolution DVCAM audio and video and up
to 50 times real-time transfer of low-resolution proxy audio and video via its
i.LINK or Gigabit Ethernet interfaces. Transfer speeds for MPEG 4:2:2 video
range from four times real-time for MPEG 30Mbps to two-and-a-half-times
real-time for MPEG 50Mbps. The PDW-1500 compact deck will have a suggested list
price of approximately $15,000.