During a ceremony at the recent CES convention, Panasonic Corp. accepted a Technology & Engineering Emmy Award for the development of its removable solid-state P2 video recording format. Panasonic has sold 220,000 P2-based video camera/recorders products worldwide since its introduction in 2003.
John Baisley, Executive Vice President, Panasonic System Communications Company of North America (PSCNA), said, “Since its inception nearly a decade ago, the P2 recording format has provided video users extensive productivity benefits and Panasonic continues development of the P2 format with new HD and now 3-D models.”
The P2 recording media and accompanying hardware helped usher in file-based production, both in the studio and in the field. It facilitated news stories getting to air faster and reduced broadcasters’ videotape costs. Also, according to Panasonic, it reduced maintenance and operating costs by eliminating mechanical transports from cameras and recorders.
Advances in P2 technology have included memory cards growing from 2GB to
64GB while declining in price and attaining transfer rates up to 1.2 Gbps, as well as the introduction of increasingly powerful codecs such as the master-quality 10-bit 4.2.2 AVC-Intra codec, and, most recently, AVC-Ultra, a new compression platform with the capability of delivering 4K 4:4:4 quality, while also offering lower bit rates to handle mainstream professional video applications.
Launched in 1948, the Technology and Engineering Emmy Awards honor development and innovation in broadcast technology and recognize companies, organizations and individuals for breakthroughs in technology that have a significant effect on television engineering. Panasonic has won a total of 16 Emmys, 12 of them for advancements in the area of digital video technology.
