Archive notice: This article was originally published on April 26, 2010. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
“Sony Professional continues to focus on powerful solutions for the XDCAM HD family that serve as a bridge between location shooting and the studio, or between Professional Disc and SxS memory card,” said Sebastian Leske, responsible Product Manager at Sony Professional. “Our goal is to continue developing the entire XDCAM workflow steadily.”
Two of these new developments are the XDCAM-based SONAPS news production system for small to medium-sized broadcasters and the powerful XDCAM Archive system.
Also new is the single-sided quad-layer version of the XDCAM Professional Disc with a storage capacity of 128 GB. This corresponds to more than four hours of video footage in XDCAM HD422 at a data rate of 50 Mbps, making it ideal for long recordings or archiving.
Sony Professional also announced an XDCAM drive compatible with the four-layer disc. Thanks to a combined read/write head, it can read and write data faster.
Sony Professional is also developing workflow solutions that make optimum use of the potential of tapeless XDCAM media – Professional Disc and SxS memory card. Users can employ the XDCAM Station hybrid recorder universally, for example. It has internal storage, a Professional Disc drive and SxS memory-card slots, as well as a VTR-like control function. XDCAM Station is the new centrepiece of the XDCAM workflow in network environments. It is capable of multitasking and allows simultaneous access by multiple users. Direct Access and frame-chase editing also improve interoperability with nonlinear editing software, while standard user interfaces and common protocols simplify interoperability within the network system. In this way, XDCAM Station optimises the functionality and performance of any network.
An additional advantage of the XDCAM workflow is the use of metadata. Last year, Sony announced the introduction of a Wi-Fi adapter that allows users to connect their mobile devices to an XDCAM camcorder and record metadata directly on location. This function simplifies the automatic ingest of material. With the help of metadata, users can search specifically for relevant data such as recording date, location and comments, as well as archived proxy AV data, and retrieve it quickly. The name of this XDCAM metadata workflow technology is XM Pilot.
Also new is a file-management system linked to SONAPS’ file server that increases network performance based on a standard PC network. In addition, new and improved playout-server programs make operation of the playout server more secure.
These new configurations are a cost-effective solution for small to medium-sized broadcasters that want to integrate the system into an NRCS, computer-graphics or archive system, for example.
During NAB 2010, Sony Professional also presented an archive-management system that provides functions such as “Offline Shelf Archive Management with Proxy Preview” as a turnkey solution. The XDCAM archive system can be connected to external systems – including those from third-party providers – through a web-based interface. It is expected to come onto the market in July 2010.
