PARK RIDGE, N.J., June 27, 2006 – Sony Electronics is introducing new transfer software for use with the Macintosh® OS X version 10.4 “Tiger” that provides native interoperability between Sony’s XDCAM® HD Professional Disc™ system and Apple’s Final Cut Pro® nonlinear editing software.

            The software will be available free of charge online from www.sony.com/xdcamhd and will be demonstrated by both companies during a 12-city tour that begins June 28.

            The tour, which is run by Apple®, will feature product demonstrations and technology tutorials, and kicks off in Dallas and Miami.  It continues through August, making stops in Boston; San Francisco; Los Angeles; Washington, D.C. area; New York; Atlanta; Chicago; Detroit; San Diego; and Minnetonka, Minn.  At each stop, Sony and Apple executives and product specialists will be on hand to demonstrate system interoperability.

            “Final Cut Studio is one of the first non-linear editors to provide a comprehensive workflow with our XDCAM HD system,” said Bob Ott, vice president for optical and network systems at Sony Electronics. “This is an important collaboration between us and Apple that can provide tremendous benefits and efficiencies to our customers.”

            “The industry is in the midst of a dramatic transition to both high-definition and tapeless production,” said Rob Schoeben, Apple’s vice president of applications product marketing. “Working in close collaboration, Sony and Apple have paved the way by defining the world’s first complete XDCAM HD workflow, from acquisition to post.”

            Sony’s XDCAM HD equipment and media offer the flexibility of recording 1080i video in three data recording rates: 25 Mbps, 35 Mbps, and 18 Mbps.

            The XDCAM HD system records high-definition content to Sony’s existing Professional Disc single-layer media using an HD MPEG-2 Long GOP video compression codec.

            The same Professional Disc media used in the standard-definition version of the XDCAM system is also compatible with the new HD version.

            Industry professionals can now record up to two hours of high-definition content on the versatile optical media, maintaining their workflow continuity by combining HD resolution with the same IT-based benefits made possible by the blue laser-based XDCAM technology since its initial launch.

            “I am a long-time Final Cut user and now I’m a big fan of Sony’s XDCAM HD cameras,” said Jody Eldred, a director/DP and Emmy-winning cameraman for ABC News whose credits include CBS television shows “JAG” and “NCIS.” “They’re a great match. The ability to plug an XDCAM camera directly into my MacBook Pro’s FireWire® port and start editing immediately in HD using Final Cut Pro-- no matter where I am in the world-- is really astounding and is going to be a huge benefit to my work.”           

            Final Cut® Studio is Apple’s ultimate HD video production suite that features Final Cut Pro 5, a major upgrade to the Emmy® award-winning editing software for DV, SD, HD and film. Final Cut Studio features state-of-the-art tools that complement Final Cut Pro 5, including Soundtrack® Pro, an audio editing and sound design application that makes video projects sound as good as they look; Motion 2, the world’s first real-time motion graphics application with GPU accelerated 32-bit float rendering; Compressor for pristine format conversions and encoding of digital content for DVD, the web, cell phone, and iPod; and DVD Studio Pro 4 for professional DVD authoring.