Ikegami Press News

TV AZTECA CHOOSES IKEGAMI EDITCAM3
FOR MULTI-PURPOSE TAPELESS PRODUCTION ENVIRONMENT

Major Network Sees Editcam3 Advantages for Its Current
and Future Production Workflow Needs Both in the Field and Studio

MAYWOOD, NEW JERSEY, March 30, 2005: TV Azteca, whose two national television networks and more than 300 owned-and-operated stations throughout Mexico make it one of the world's largest Spanish-language broadcasters, has chosen Ikegami's Editcam as the cornerstone of a comprehensive tapeless production initiative designed to address all of its program-creation needs. Editcam is a proven performance leader in tapeless video acquisition, and Ikegami's DNS-33W Editcam3 is a next-generation 520,000-pixel AIT (Advanced Interline Transfer) CCD camcorder that can record up to three hours of nonlinear DV50 (50Mbps) digital video on an 80GB hard-disk-based FieldPak2 cartridge; a flash memory version RAMPak is also available. And because FieldPak2 uses the same compression scheme as all Avid nonlinear editing systems, Editcam3 video can be edited immediately without time-consuming conversion.

» DNS-33W Editcam3 camcorder

"We have a huge infrastructure of Avid editing, which we started using for news in 1997,"explains Jorge Pickering, TV Azteca's Director of Production Services. "Then we adopted Avid two years later for soap operas, and now we are transitioning from tape to full digital nonlinear production for everything we do, including news, sports, entertainment, and musical programming. We have standardized on five Avid Unity-based networks and have scores of Avid editing systems. And the best solution on the market for nonlinear video-acquisition for those Avids is the Ikegami Editcam3. It's a reliable solution that integrates into our production workflow. Editcam3's FieldPaks will speed the editing process for news reporters"laptops in the field, as well as here in our studios."

Ikegami's DNS-33W Editcam3 camcorder features such revolutionary recording innovations as Retroloop (so camera operators never miss a shot), a film-style Timelapse feature, and Intelligent Recording, which automatically finds empty space on the FieldPak2 for instant recording anytime "Record start"is pushed.

"We explored two other tapeless camcorder options, but neither is immediately useable in the Avid environment,"Pickering notes. "Other issues included expense, media-conversion delays, and quality issues. Ikegami's Editcam3, however, is a practical, working, robust, all-data tapeless environment. We're even archiving everything as data so we'll never have to digitize again. And when the Editcam's RAMPak becomes more affordable we can move to that technology. Choosing Editcam3 means we're going in the right direction both for today and tomorrow."

In addition to purchasing upwards of 50 DNS-33W Editcam3 camcorders, TV Azteca is also acquiring 36 SAT-110 readers to feed FieldPak2 video to journalists"laptop editors.

"With the SAT-110 readers we can do editing in the field and either transfer that through IP or use our satellite truck if we're shooting football or some other sport and then transfer the video immediately onto our premises"Pickering says. "Other SAT-110 readers will be used in the Avid area of our studio to qualify material for ingest into our servers. This way, we don't have to ingest all the material we acquire in the field but just what's going to be used. We'll have better administration of our storage."

TV Azteca has also bought 20 Ikegami DNE-31 portable tapeless FieldPak2 recorders for use in its mobile production trucks, which are used for sports, musical programs, and other special events.

"The DNE-31 portable tapeless field recorders enable our trucks to leave on a Friday and do two or three soccer games,"Pickering adds. “Instead of having to erase the truck's Sony server for the next game or use a VTR, we use FieldPaks, which can then be brought into our premises and transferred to the Avid Unity server."

Pickering also notes that Mexico is transitioning to HDTV. "We are starting to acquire in HD for some productions, we're getting an HD sports truck, and in the studio we are working to fully understand all the issues behind HD in set construction, lighting, and HD workflows in our tapeless environment."

At NAB 2005, April 18-21 in Las Vegas, Ikegami will introduce its Editcam HD camcorder, which uses Avid's DNxHD high-quality mastering codec to record full 1920 by 1080 HD-resolution images that can also be edited on laptop and desktop systems in real time. Editcam HD currently employs a data rate of 145 Mbps (Megabits per second) to provide 1080/60i, 1080/24p, and 720/60p recording and playback using FieldPak2 recording media. The DNxHD codec also supports 220 Mbps for increased performance in the future. Ikegami will be exhibiting in booth No. C-5426.

"TV Azteca has always been moving into the latest technologies and we like being a step ahead," Pickering concludes. "Editcam3 gives us the full benefit of being nonlinear. Ikegami has always been a very well-known brand of camera for high-quality video. Definitely the quality and support is there, and we are quite happy with our decision."

About Ikegami: Ikegami is one of the world's leading manufacturers of high-quality professional broadcast equipment. Ikegami offers a broad range of TV cameras for ENG, EFP, Studio, HDTV, CCTV, and Medical Imaging. Ikegami products have received various Emmy Awards for Engineering Excellence. The company's universal High Definition TV cameras have been widely accepted by the broadcast industry as it continues the transition to the High Definition Television Format.

For more information about Ikegami and the location of the Regional Office nearest you, call Ikegami's Maywood NJ headquarters at 201-368-9171 or visit www.Ikegami.com. Ikegami: Tapeless".Wireless".Seamless.