Print Page 1/31/2002

JVC is taking the wraps off its first camera to offer the advanced MPEG-4 video compression format. The camera, introduced in Japan initially, will make its debut and be ready for shipping at NAB2002 in April.

The GY-DV300 camcorder is available in NTSC and PAL formats and features 1/3-inch CCD pick-up with up to 380,000 (NTSC)/440,000 (PAL) effective pixels and a newly developed 12-bit DSP. A large, manually controlled 14:1 power zoom lens enables professional imaging. In addition to the IEEE-1394 Firewire-standard I/O DV connector, the optional Web adapter enables live feeds and streaming broadcasts over the Internet. The camcorder, which weighs 1/4 kg, is a breakthrough for JVC in several areas, according to company spokesman Dave Walton.

"To begin with, it's the first JVC camera that's built in this form factor ¾ a small lightweight handheld 3-chip camcorder," Walton says. "It's not built off a consumer chassis design at all. It is built with the input of ENG newspeople, realizing that it's now almost part of the standard repertoire to carry a camera of this type, when you can't get into areas with a larger camera."

The camcorder is a first for JVC to combine DV recording with MPEG-4 compression, providing the versatility needed for both ENG and webstreaming. Compression is done in realtime and allows the shooter to forgo time-consuming editing.

"You can do several things with the [MPEG-4] stream," Walton says. "You can record it onto a memory card in the camera; in addition, you can output it through a wireless or a wire LAN card to a PC or node that will allow you to stream it to the Internet. So you could literally operate this with a wireless LAN card at an event and be streaming live output from the camera right onto the Internet."
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