SECTION MEETING REPORT

Michael Taylor from Sony Corporation began by discussing the need for application-specific equipment for broadcast as opposed to industrial usage, and outlined the design criteria for the Sony Betacam-SX line of VTRs. These include robustness, ease of editing and operating cost.

The unique feature of the Betacam-SX line is the inclusion of an internal hard disk drive to which taped video can be copied and then used as a standalone disk-based non-linear editing system. Mr. Taylor also pointed out that since the SX is also backwards-compatible with the rest of the Betacam series of tape formats, it makes for a smooth transition to digital and disk-based video for users of those formats.

Michael went into the Sony implementation of the MPEG 4:2:2 profile at main level specification and compared the resultant sampling rates with other digital formats. He also discussed the decision to not use narrow tape, with the benefit of added robustness of both the tape cassette assembly and the data recorded on it, by allowing for extra surface area to add redundant data. Also mentioned was the reduced maintenance cost achieved by redesigning the drum to use multitracing heads in place of dynamic-tracking heads.

An explanation of the DNW-A100 deck's operational and editing capabilities followed. Mr. Taylor demonstrated the ease of operation, as the deck's front panel layout is essentially similar to other Betacam machines. In addition to the record/playback and edit functions, he explained how the machine can also be used as a standalone time delay recorder, which can give up to 12.8 hours with external drives. He concluded his portion of the program with some information on the field acquisition equipment available, as well as a demonstration of a laptop computer based editing controller.

Ed Boland discussed the BVM-20 video monitor which was used as part of the equipment demonstration. The BVM-20 uses an external control panel, which allows many monitors to be controlled from a single panel. It also features advanced set-up functions including self alignment of colorimetry using either Sony's probe or those of various manufacturers including Philips and Minolta. Mr. Boland also demonstrated the LCD projector which was used to display the slides used in Mr. Taylor's portion of the presentation.

A question-and-answer period was followed by hands-on demonstrations for the attendees.

Submitted by:

Frank Maynard, WKBD-TV Secretary/Treasurer, SMPTE Detroit Section 810-355-7129 maynard@oeonline.com