LAS VEGAS (NAB Booth # SU906) April 13, 2008  – ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation (ABS-CBN), the largest integrated media and entertainment company in the Philippines, has selected Sony PDW-F355 XDCAMä 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 Discä 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.

In addition to the impressive quality and ease of operation, ABS-CBN was impressed with the flexibility of data management offered by XDCAM HD, including in-camera editing capabilities, the ability to easily browse footage as thumbnails and preview content on the camcorder’s LCD screen, high-speed transfer of proxy A/V and high-resolution data using the MXF file protocol, and immediate random access to data in the field or at the station using the Sony Professional Disc media.

“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.”

Providing a high level of versatility to suit a broad array of shooting application, the PDW-355 is highly versatile and cost-effective HD camcorder that is equipped with three 1/2-inch-type HD CCDs and offers HD recording in 1080/59.94i, 50i, 29.97P, 25P and 23.98P modes, as well as DVCAM-format recording.

The PDW-U1 is a powerful addition to the XDCAM HD lineup, offering a compact, mobile and highly cost-effective solution in a variety of applications. It serves as an external drive connected via a common USB interface and enables material recorded on Professional Disc media to be viewed directly on a PC, and it can also be used as a source feeder for nonlinear editing systems.