Panasonic Begins Booking 3D Business

Takes orders for camcorder, unveils 3D monitor

By Glen Dickson -- Broadcasting & Cable, 2/12/2010 3:00:00 PM

Panasonic, which made a big splash at the Consumer Electronics Show last month by demonstrating a $21,000, dual-lens 3D camcorder alongside consumer 3D HD sets, announced Thursday (Feb. 11) that it is now ready to take orders.
While Panasonic's higher-end VariCam units are already employed in specialized 3D camera rigs that use two cameras, the company decided to develop the integrated, dual-lens camcorder to "try to simplify 3D production and bring it more into the mainstream market," says Panasonic Broadcast VP of Marketing and Business Expansion Bob Harris. Harris says that Panasonic may eventually create a higher-end 3D HD camera for live production, but for now was getting a lot of interest in the affordable AG-3DA1.
"We've been getting lots of calls," says Harris. "People say they want to buy the camera now-it's amazing how much demand is out there."
In that vein, Panasonic has also introduced a professional 25.5-inch LCD production monitor, the BT-3DL2550, which is equipped with a polarizing film that allows 3D images to be viewed with simple passive glasses. The monitor, which features full 1920 x 1200 resolution, can also be used to display 2D left-and right-eye images in a side-by-side fashion. It will also ship in September at a suggested list price of $9,900.
Panasonic has also developed two companion products for its popular P2 HD solid-state camcorders that are designed to make the field-production workflow easier. One, the AJ-PCD2, is a single-slot P2 solid-state memory card drive that can connect to a desktop or laptop computer via USB 2.0 cables to allow rapid file transfers from a P2 card for editing and storage. It will be available in April at a suggested list price of $350.
The other companion product is the AG-MSU10 portable P2 media storage unit, which is designed to facilitate the fast back-up of content from a P2 camcorder in the field without requiring a computer or other external device. The battery-operated MSU10 will have a slot for a P2 card and another for a large, removable 2.5" SATA solid-state drive (Panasonic is still deciding on the exact specifications), and can connect to PCs and laptops through USB 2.0 and eSATA connectors. It features a 3.2" LCD screen, to provide thumbnail display of P2 files, and supports master-quality 10 bit AVC-Intra (100/50) and DVCPRO HD, DVCPRO50, DVCPRO and DV recording formats. It will allow content to be transferred from a P2 card to the solid-state drive at four times real-time when recording in AVC-Intra 100 or DVCPRO HD.
The MSU10 will be available in October at a suggested list price of $2500.
"It's a P2 card offload device, and it aggregates content from multiple cards," explains Joe Facchini, VP of sales and product management for Panasonic Broadcast. "If you're shooting documentary style, you tend to shoot a lot of content and you want to put it in one place. Right now, you're shipping it in a shoebox back to the office. This solves that."