Sony Advances XDCAM Systems For Tapeless Environment

At NAB Sony unveiled the continuing evolution of its XDCAM line with a tapeless acquisition system based on a flash card storage and retrieval system.
These technologies involve recording to ExpressCard high-speed flash media, as well as 50 Mbps 4:2:2 optical disc recording. Sony also unveiled new optical-disc based XDCAM products, including the PDW-F355 camcorder, PDW-F75 deck, and the PDW-U1 external drive.
In addition Sony revealed that future versions of the XDCAM system are planned to include a camcorder and deck with multi-format 2/3-inch HD progressive CCDs (1920 by 1080), recording bit-rate of 50 Mbps, 1080 and 720 native recording and eight channels of audio. The camcorder, deck and drive will support both single- and dual-layer versions of Sony’s Professional Disc media for the XDCAM system, which enables recording up to approximately 100 minutes at 50Mbps HD 4:2:2.
The planned XDCAM EX unit will expand upon Sony’s XDCAM line of tapeless acquisition systems, using flash memory technology: the SxS memory card specification, with high-speed transfer technology compliant to the ExpressCard standard.
ExpressCard offers a high-speed small form factor card marking Sony’s awaited evolution to flash media that will potentially open the door to a broader range of applications for tapeless production.
Sony are looking to a market where the XDCAM EX camcorder will most often by used by one person; a smaller production environment suited to flash media acquisition and subsequent editing on an NLE / archive system.
The planned camcorder is based on MPEG-2 compression technology with three, ½-inch chips. It will be switchable between 1080/60i and 720/60P, and be capable of recording 1080/50i/30P/25P/24P and 720/50P. The camera will also have slow and quick motion functionality.
The camera will feature two card slots, and users will be able to record approximately 120 minutes of content on two 16 GB cards.
Increasing interoperability with this new XDCAM EX technology, a range of non-linear editing manufacturers are developing compatible interfaces, including Adobe, Apple, Canopus, Dayang, Main Concept, New Auto, Sobey and Sony Creative Software's Vegas, in addition to Sony’s XPRI NS.
(SP)