Amsterdam, Netherlands -- Broadcast-equipment giant Sony is using the IBC2007 show here to demonstrate a working version of the solid-state XDCAM camera that it introduced at the National Association of Broadcasters’ convention.
The new PMW-EX1 XDCAM EX compact camcorder will begin shipping in November at a list price of 6,500 euros ($8.875). It records high-definition video on two 16-gigabyte PC Express solid-state memory cards, with each 16 GB "SxS PRO" card capable of storing one hour of HD video (at 25 megabits per second). To support the new camera, Sony also developed a viewing deck and a simple PC Express disk-drive unit.
"We firmly believe now is the time to enhance our XDCAM lineup with a solid-state option," said David Bush, director of marketing for Sony Europe.
Sony -- which it has sold some 23,000 XDCAM optical-disc units to date -- announced that its Blu-ray-based XDCAM discs will now feature dual-layer recording, giving a disc a continuous recording time of up to four hours. It added that an XDCAM HD camcorder and deck that use higher-quality 4:2:2 encoding will be available in early 2008.
Sony also announced two new LCD monitors and reported large sales of its SONAPS networked news-production system to RAI in Italy and Canal+ in France.
