Pro AV Catalog

With professional HD recording media options more diverse now than ever – from tape and flash memory to hard-disk and optical disc – Sony Electronics is once again giving video professionals the information they need to make the right production decisions. The fourth installment of Sony’s popular “Online HD Media Seminars” will cover a comprehensive range of topics related to HD media formats, tapeless workflows, file-based recording, care and handling and more.

            Led by Wayne Desmond, Sony’s national training manager for its Media & Applications Solutions Division, the free seminars, lasting about 45 minutes each, will be held in two sessions: Feb. 17 and 18, and March 24 and 25, with each series of dates covering two main topics – “Sony Tapeless Systems: Acquisition to Archive” and “The Next Generation of Sony’s HDCAM SR Format.”

            “Our customers have so many choices in terms of how they can manage their workflow, or how their clients want content delivered, and choosing the right media is a big part of the equation,” Desmond said. “From the front-end of content acquisition through storage, mastering and archiving, Sony wants to ensure that users are getting the best possible performance from all of the products in their workflow, and that’s exactly what these seminars are designed to do.”    

The first session focuses on tapeless recording workflows. Providing a deeper exploration of media options from acquisition to archive, Desmond will offer participants insight on various technologies, compression schemes and the benefits and potential challenges to using each. The seminar will include tips for getting optimal performance out of technologies such as the SxS PRO™ memory cards used in Sony’s XDCAM EX™ camcorder line, the dual- and single-layer versions of Sony’s Professional Disc™ optical media and their professional hard-disk drives. 

Also covered will be mobile storage solutions for field production, as well as how media formulation and manufacturing impact the reliability of a format’s performance.

The second session topic focuses on the recently announced expansions to Sony’s HDCAM SR technology, including a “future-proof” upgrade path to 35mm imaging and SR file-based production; the planned delivery of new SR memory solid-state media; and more cost-effective BCT-SR series tape pricing.

As always, Desmond will offer primers on staying ahead of the technology curve, and how to use new recording media to lower costs while increasing the quality of acquisition and mastering. Additionally, he will address Sony’s latest advancement in HDCAM SR compression, SR Lite, based on MPEG-4 technology and offer tips on care and handling of this highest-end magnetic media.