France 3 Selects Sony XDCAM To Upgrade Its Outside Broadcast Equipment

XDCAM is the new format chosen by France 3 to replace the Betacam SX equipments in its regional and Parisian centres.
The company has based its decision on previous experience with XDCAM over the last two years, since the station already has around twenty camcorders at its disposal.
The company's commitment to XDCAM forms part of a mid-term effort by France 3 to replace its stock of Betacam SX equipment. The first batch of around 100 Sony XDCAM camcorders and a set of decks were delivered in January 2007 to all its regional centres.
For outside broadcasts, sports reporting and documentaries, the Sony XDCAM range brings performance, flexibility and ergonomics to the production process. XDCAM relies on breakthrough recording and optical media technologies to deliver the transfer speeds and storage capacities required for daily productions in the television industry. Developed in response to the real needs of the most demanding broadcasters, Sony XDCAM uses Professional Disc technology, which offers several innovations in comparison to conventional tape-based systems.
From its conception, XDCAM has been designed to be totally compatible with the MXF open file format (Media eXchange Format). Adopted by numerous hardware manufacturers and all the industry leaders, the MXF format represents the standard for networked file exchange. From now on, thanks to XDCAM, computer technology is involved right from shooting.
A spokesperson for France 3 stated: "In the Sony XDCAM family we have found a toolkit
perfectly suited to our technical needs."
(CL)