NAB 2008, Las Vegas, April 14-17

Sony is introducing new products and prototype concepts that can enhance the XDCAM® HD workflow. These include an MPEG TS Adapter and future technologies such as a metadata workflow, coexisting operation between Sony’s Professional Disc™ media and the SxS PRO memory card, and a new field recorder.

“Sony continues to develop powerful and unique workflow ‘bridge’ solutions,” said Bob Ott, vice president of professional and optical products for Sony Electronics. “These bridges can be between the studio and the field, or between the Professional Disc and the SxS PRO card. We are focused on enhancing the total XDCAM workflow.”

The new MPEG TS Adapter, HDCA-702, is ideal for OB van applications, which often need to spend several thousands of dollars for HD encoders to convert baseband video into DVB-ASI, in order to transmit content back to their studios.

The adapter has an HD-SDI input and a DVB-ASI output and an i.LINK® (HDV™) output. It attaches to the back of Sony’s new XDCAM HD422 PDW-700 camcorder, essentially turning the camera itself into an encoder. The HD-SDI input is available for wider connections to current XDCAM camcorders such as the PDW-F355 model and Sony’s HDCAM™ camcorders.

In a microwave transmission workflow, users can still record 50 Mbps per second, with high picture quality and the adapter will simultaneously output a DVB-ASI low bit rate signal.

The bit rate is selectable in order to accommodate limited bandwidth resources. Once the stream is received by the microwave, then any decoder in a studio can decode the MPEG2 stream.

In response to customer requests for improved communications between XDCAM technology and newsroom computer systems, Sony is also demonstrating an enhanced metadata-based workflow.

For example, during the news production process, each story is assigned a “slug,” which becomes the keyword for each individual story. Additional information, or “assignment metadata,” is also assigned and registered into newsroom computer systems.

Producers can view and add metadata to check on specific assignments, and send information directly to a videographer’s camcorder in the field via a Wi-Fi device such as a Smart Phone. The photographer can then start working on the same story the producer specified.

When the disc is delivered back to the studio, and the editors ingest the clip into an NLE, the story name matches with the one in their NRCS. As a result, the metadata travels from the newsroom to the play-out device, significantly reducing the risk of playing a wrong clip on the air.

Sony is also developing workflow solutions that take advantage of each type of XDCAM tapeless media – the optical Professional Disc and the solid-state SxS PRO memory card. For example, the XDCAM Clip Browser V2.0 software with optional plug-in allows seamless interoperability with SxS PRO memory content to the Professional Disc products, to enhance the advantages of each.

And a future solution will allow the PDW-700 optical disc camcorder to record onto both Professional Disc and SxS PRO media simultaneously, through the use of a flash media adapter on the camcorder.

Sony is also featuring a prototype field recorder that will offer sophisticated file-base video/audio editing on large LCD screen with supporting XDCAM transmission operation such as DVB-ASI OUT, FTP by gigabit Ethernet to enhance filed HD production.

Source: http://www.sonybiz.net/biz/view/ShowPressRelease.action?pressrelease=120...

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