Panasonic P2 drive, 3D deck + WiFi

Panasonic will show a new P2 drive, archiving software, a 3D-ready deck, and WiFi metadata handling at NAB. It has also reduced P2 card prices. 

The AJ-PCD30 P2 Drive (above) boasts "the industry’s fastest offloads from a solid-state source " thanks to its USB 3.0 interface. It has three card slots, and is claimed to be able to transfer AVC-Intra 100Mbps footage at more than 15x real-time, making it particularly well suited for use in long-form production. It will be available this Summer and could cost about €2,000.

Its new AG-HPD24 half-rack deck (above) will have synchronized 3D recording and playback; native 24p recording with variable frame rates; USB 3.0; HDMI output; and 24-bit, four-channel audio recording in AVC-Intra 100/50. It is claimed to make 10-bit, 4:2:2 master-quality video "affordable and portable". It will be available in the Summer priced about €5,000.

Panasonic talked about the new wireless system for its AJ-HPX3100 1080p P2 HD camera at IBC, and should have it shipping at NAB. It will allow users to playback proxies and add or display metadata wirelessly from an iPad, iPhone, or any web browser.

The system requires the installation of the new AJ-WM30 wireless module (above) and AJ-SFU3100 software, with suggested list prices of €130 and €1,300 respectively.

Panasonic is also introducing new software for archiving: the AJ-SF110 Video Ingest software and AJ-SF100 Linear Tape-Open (LTO) Archive applications, to facilitate the secure storage and easy retrieval of P2 content. The software supports all P2 card sizes, formats and frame rates. The AJ-SF100 software for archiving P2 files to LTO, Blu-ray disc or other storage devices features proxy creation, metadata editing and working with database software (SQL server) functions. The AJ-SF110 for video ingest via FireWire or SDI converts the footage on a connected video recorder to P2 files such as AVC-Intra 100/50, DVCPRO HD, DVCPRO 50, DVCPRO and DV during ingest. The AJ-SF100 LTO Archive software and AJ-SF110 Video Ingest software should be available in May costing about €4,000 and €2,000, respectively.

There will also be new, free AVCCAM Importer software, a QuickTime plug-in that eliminates the need to convert AVCHD .mts files to ProRes 422 files before editing in Final Cut Pro. It will be available this Summer from Panasonic's web site.

P2 prices reduced

Panasonic has announced lower list prices for its P2 cards. The E-Series of 64GB, 32GB and 16GB cards will be available with RRPs of €505, €350 and €276 respectively (ex VAT).

The robust E-Series P2 cards offer fast transfer speeds (up to 1.2Gbps) - faster than most rival solid-state memory cards.

By David Fox