KFMB-TV Goes Tapeless with Sony XDCAM

San Diego CBS affiliate KFMB has adopted the Sony XDCAM optical disc-based system for its newsgathering operations.

The station is using the XDCAM and Sony VTRs for field and studio operations, streamlining the processing and shortening time between capturing and editing footage, and getting it to air, according to engineering and photography teams.

The Sony Professional Disc system is equipped with reusable read/write cycles and the media takes up less space than a videocassette for archiving.

"We used to archive to 90-minute Betacam SP tapes and that takes up a lot of shelf space," Lochmann said. "Now, we can get probably four or five discs in the space that could hold just one Betacam SP tape."