Client:  Production houses, Mumbai and Kolkata

Project: Episodic television production

Industry: Soap Production

Vendor: Visual Technologies India Pvt. Ltd.

A remarkable development in the High Definition (HD) wave engulfing the Indian broadcast industry today is the beginning of production of Indian episodic television in HD, dominated primarily by the Panasonic DVCPROHD AJ-HDX900 camcorder. The camera has been adopted by many renowned production houses and famous producers in the industry in the recent past. Famous production houses and individual producers like UTV, Sphere Origins, Balaji Tele-films, Fire Works Producton, Play Time Creations, Creative Eye, Raktsamband Productons and Sri Siddivinayaka in Mumbai and Jishu Dasgupta, Blues & Tron Video in Kolkata have started using HD camcorder and DVCPROHD videotape recording format for their esteemed and well known projects.

Today there are over 20 serials On Air at prime time on different channels which are being shot on Panasonic AJ-HDX900, for instance Do Hansoon Ka Joda, Jyoti, Bandini, Sarvgun Sampan, and Raktsamband on NDTV Imagine; Tere Liye and Tere Mere Sapne on Star Plus; CID, Aahat and Godh Bharai on Sony; Tujhse Lagi Lagan and Yeh Pyaar Na Hoga Kum on Colors. Fanaa and Kitni Mohabatein by Balaji Telefilms which are currently under production using AJ-HDX900 will also be on air soon on Star TV and NDTV Imagine respectively. On regional channels, Khkhono Megh Khkhono Bristi, Nachbe Radha, Sholoana, Binni Daner Kaoi on ETV Bangla and Char Diwas Sasuchi on ETV Marathi are all shot using the AJ-HDX-900. Besides episodic television, Panasonic has been ushering in a new era of HD independent films, music videos, commercials and new media projects.

The Panasonic HD camcorder accepts ordinary DVCPRO tape. It does not require a special HD tape which makes it very cost effective as it cuts down the recurring expenditure. At this point in time, when the move to solid-state, hard-drive, and disk-based capture appears to be inexorable, the HDX900 may well be amongst the minority of tape-based HD broadcast cameras which is very much IT-focused. It is the first DVCPRO HD shoulder-held camera-recorder to come equipped with IEEE 1394 digital output, offering simultaneous output via FireWire which integrates nicely into a web streaming or hard-drive recording environment.

AJ-HDX 900 camera in fact is a video camera version of the famous Panasonic Varicam camcorder developed by Panasonic for film production. With a new film like gamma curve with three choices and a newly developed dynamic range stretching (DRS) function, it meets the requirement of all types of high-end production. The AJ-HDX900 is also compatible with a newly developed Remote Control Unit (RCU), for added operational and functional flexibility and can also be used as studio camera for multi-camera production.

Panasonic, AJ-HDX900 multi-format DVCPRO HD camcorder can record HD in 1080/50i, 720/50p, 1080/25p (over 50i) and 720/50p (over 50p) formats. It records full production-quality (4:2:2) video at 100 Mbps by using DVCPRO HD compression codec on quarter inch width metal particle tape. Camera has 2/3" three progressive CCDs of 1 mega pixels each which capture the pictures in native progressive mode. It is a 14 bit A/D camera. With exceptional sensitivity of F10 at 2000 lx, camera captures outstanding pictures in lighting as low as 0.032 Lx. As the perfect complement to the AJ-HDX900, Panasonic is making the AJ-HD1400 compact recorder.Combining the virtues of low price and high performance, the HDX900 brings serious production capability to prospective owner/operators, rental houses, and production companies who derive the bulk of their income from cable, news magazine, and corporate programming indeed anyone with an eyepiece on the bottom line.