ABS-CBN commits to tapeless ENG

ABS-CBN, the Philippines-based global multimedia conglomerate with bureaus in Asia Pacific, Australia, Canada, Europe, Japan, the Philippines, the Middle East and the United States, has purchased 75 Ikegami GFCAM HDS-V10 Flash RAM HD tapeless camcorders to deploy in its Philippines news network.

ABS-CBN will use the Ikegami GFCAM HDS-V10 camcorders for ENG, current affairs and documentary-program production.

According to Danton Wieneke, head of engineering for news and current affairs for ABS-CBN, three factors led ABS-CBN to settle on the camcorder: SD and HD image quality, durability and technical support. “When it comes to imagery, we love its wide latitude and its super knee feature,” said Boying Palileo, head of news camera operations.

The GFCAM is a rugged, broadcast-grade ENG camcorder that employs three 2/3in AIT CCDs and is available in native 1080i or 720p versions. The GFCAM records HD images in MXF-compliant MPEG-2 50Mb/s long GOP or 100Mb/s I-frame only at a variety of frame rates, including 60i, 24p, 25p and 30p.

The camcorder employs GFPAK media, a removable flash RAM pack with up to 128GB capacity, a high-speed SATA interface and a USB port for instant access to file-based video from laptop or desktop editing systems. The camera also can record to Ikegami’s new CF ADAPTOR, a GFPAK-style cartridge loaded with off-the-shelf CompactFlash Type I media for plug-and-play use.