ABC is equipping 10 of its owned-and-operated stations with Sony's XDCAM Professional Disc system for ENG and studio operations.
This adoption of optical disc technology, which began last year with WLS-TV in Chicago, is continuing in April with an XDCAM rollout at WTVG-TV in Toledo and KTRK-TV in Houston. The remaining seven ABC stations will begin using the XDCAM system over the next 18 months.
XDCAM allows stations to streamline their operations. ENG crews can react quickly and capture critical sound bites using the cache-recording feature, which captures up to 10 seconds of audio and video even when the camcorder is in stand-by mode.
The system's in-camera editing capabilities lets crews review footage as thumbnails on the camcorder's LCD screen and quickly switch back to capture mode without worrying about recording over footage, a common issue with tape-based systems. The LCD screen also eliminates the need to have a separate playback monitor available for field producers.
For more information, visit www.sony.com/professional.
