ARRI makes major investment in Sony HDCAM SR High Definition equipment

Leading equipment manufacturer ARRI and its UK rental company, ARRI Media has made a major commitment to the top-end HDCAM SR High Definition (HD) production format.
ARRI Media has invested in a total of 16 Sony SRW-1 / SRPC-1 HDCAM SR compact portable recorders to offer the highest quality HD recordings to the features market. The HDCAM SR format records full bandwidth 4:4:4 digital HD, which is ideal for the highest quality capture of images and for mastering Digital Intermediate work.
SRW-1 / SRPC-1 HDCAM SR VTR with the ARRIFLEX D-20 ARRI Media has been working with six SRW-1 portable units since Spring 2005 for recording full bandwidth 4:4:4 digital HD, and the success of the system has prompted the company to invest in an additional 10 systems. The SRW-1 portable VTR records full bandwidth 4:4:4 or 4:2:2 digital HD at a variety of progressive and interlaced picture capture rates, including an incredible double speed 880 Mbps mode for transparent 4:4:4 recordings. It also features 12 channels of independently editable 24-bit audio. The SRW-1 utilises the small half-inch HDCAM SR cassette, providing 50 minutes of recording at 1080/24P (standard record mode).
Bill Lovell, Product Manager, Digital Cameras at ARRI said: “The SRW-1 is a practical field recorder, suitable for top-end HD production by TV Drama, Feature Film and Commercials clients. Coupled with our ARRIFLEX D-20 camera it will allow our customers to produce high quality material in a wide variety of settings and record it on a tape based system, which has many advantages.”
Richard Lewis, Chief Engineer, Marketing at Sony Professional Solutions Europe said: “We are delighted that ARRI Media has chosen Sony HDCAM SR technology to help further develop Digital Cinematography in the features market. HDCAM SR offers significant benefits in terms of workflow, storage capacity, flexibility and low running cost for features and commercials work, together with the ultra high reliability of tape.”
ARRI Media has a formidable reputation as a supplier of film and High Definition production equipment to the feature film and television markets, including Sony HDW-F900 and HDW-750P HDCAM camcorders extended since the Spring, with the addition of HDCAM SR recorders.
Sony www.sonybiz.net.
(SP)