Radiotelevisione Italiana (RAI) has invested €6 million in a three-year project that will see it transition to an HD infrastructure based around Sony's tapeless XDCAM HD422 product range.

The deal with Sony will result in an installation of 180 PDW-700 camcorders and 180 PDW-HD1500 decks across the broadcaster's operation, covering everything from news gathering to drama and documentary production. The investment follows on from a series of trials using the XDCAM kit at major sporting events across Europe.

XDCAM systems will be used as a drop-in replacement for traditional VTRs allowing XDCAM discs to be used within a traditional tape-based workflow. The PDW-HD1500 decks will also then serve as IT drives making file transfers to non-linear editing (NLE) systems more efficient.

"RAI is committed to moving towards HD content production and this agreement with Sony represents the first pillar in our plan to create a proper platform to migrate to High Definition," commented Andrea Lorusso Caputi, Director of Production TV Department. "The XDCAM format and Professional Disc media are critical as they allow us to maintain our current workflow process, whilst offering innovative new IT features to deliver further tapeless operational capabilities."