The TV technology marketplace is as dynamic as any in the business, with hardware and software vendors continually coming and going, rising and falling.

But one segment of that marketplace has been relatively stable—that of camcorders for electronic news gathering. It sometimes seems that it has always been Sony vs. Panasonic.

As TV broadcasting makes the move to HD field acquisition over the next few years, that storyline appears unlikely to change much.

Both companies have introduced strong products that have secured their future in the market, although it may be too early to say who will ultimately wind up with the biggest share of it.

In an interview with TVNEWSDAY, top Panasonic marketer Bob Harris talks about the Panasonic P2 format and why it is the best choice for broadcasters as they transition to file-based workflows and HD from the field.

An edited transcript:

As we head into NAB, what’s the pitch on P2?

Broadcasters have realized the benefits of solid state, things such as reliability and file-based work flow and others along that line. We’ve made tremendous progress in terms of the number of stations that have adopted it. Other manufacturers are now being pressured to get involved in solid state. We’ve seen that manifested in some new products.

Are you talking about the Sony XDCAM EX?

Yes. The fundamental benefits of P2 are certainly being appreciated—ultra reliability, the lack of moving parts, environment robustness, format flexibility, compatibility with the existing DVCPRO infrastructure and, of course, AVC-Intra, which gives provides bandwidth efficiency plus master quality. And then, of course, there’s the faster, file-based work flow.

The HPX2000 is a full production quality two-thirds inch camera. Broadcasters can use their two-thirds inch lenses and then move to HD two-thirds inch lenses as they go.

When we first introduced P2, we had 2 gigabit cards. Now we’re shipping 32 gigabit cards. So, recording time is just not an issue anymore.

We also offer an intraframe approach to encoding that really simplifies the editing process, speeds it along. That’s appreciated by many of our customers as well.

One of the interesting features is the digital gain that literally turns night into day. It will allow you to shoot content where even the eye can’t see. We have demonstration material where a police car at a scene, you can hardly see what kind of vehicle it is. With the digital gain, you can see the officer in the car.

You know, of course, we announced last year that we offer a full five-year [limited] warranty on these products. It’s putting our money where our mouth is. I think that our customers appreciate that, too.

So, again, promoting these fundamental benefits, promoting the momentum that we have with P2 and expanding the appeal of the product line through new acquisition products as well as work flow products is our message going into NAB.

What’s your market share with the P2?

We’re not prepared to release the numbers right now. We probably will at the NAB, but the numbers that we released at IBC this past fall, are well in excess of 60,000 units worldwide.

Within that population are more than 600 broadcasters, 260 here in the United States. So we have made significant progress. We have the majority of the share transitioning to this type of HD technology.

I keep an informal list of which station groups are in which camp, Panasonic or Sony. My P2 list now includes Fox, Sinclair, Media General, Raycom, Cox, Dispatch, Fisher and Comcorp.

Did you say Cordillera, Evening Post, McGraw-Hill and Gray Television? They’re in, too.

That’s quite a list. This marketplace is often told in terms of Sony and Panasonic, but then we saw Scripps make a big commitment with JVC and Grass Valley has got a camera. Is there room for a third major player here, or a fourth?

I don’t really think so. I think that time has come and gone.

The top of the line HPX2000 sells for $27,000. I’ve had a number of broadcasters tell me that they’re looking for lower cost cameras—prosumer grade cameras, $10,000 or less—that they can integrate into their newsrooms for special applications or just to get more cameras out on the street. Do you see that cutting into your professional sales?

Of course, we sell professional cameras under $10,000. The HVX200 has been utilized by a very large number of stations and again it’s a very affordable camera [at $6,000]. We also, of course, have the HPX500, which is a highly affordable full two-thirds inch camera that’s I think positioned very well for many of the smaller broadcasters. It goes for about $14,000.

Broadcasters were supposed to be flush with cash this year because of the heavy political spending, but it looks like the business might be tighter than that because of the economic outlook and the writers strike and other factors. Have you felt any of this? Do you feel broadcasters pulling back from making capital expenditures?

Yes. I believe that some have probably slowed up a little bit because of some of these factors. By the way, the writers strike certainly has affected the production market. That doesn’t mean that we’re suffering by any means, but certainly we would have enjoyed much stronger growth without the writers strike.

As you know, 60 or 70 stations have gone HD. Most of them are content to take this hybrid approach, HD from the studio, 16 x 9 SD from the field. It seems like they don’t want to disrupt their normal replacement cycles on the ENG gear. Would you agree with that assessment?

We believe that there’s going to be pressure once the studio is HD to go 16 x 9 in the field. That’s the first pressure. The second pressure will be a migration to HD.

We see a lot of people rushing to get into 16 x 9 capability. HD has been held up because of infrastructure issues, including microwave. When all of those issues are resolved, there’ll be a quicker rush to HD acquisition.

You mentioned microwave. We know that the BAS upgrade has been a mess. It won’t be completed for another two years. Has that slowed down the market for cameras?

That is a minor obstacle I would say at this point, but it’s a concern. I would say that our sales are on budget. We see the growth of HD just getting better and better.

How do you handle the objection of: I prefer to have media that I can take out and throw in a drawer and store on a shelf—the optical disc approach that Sony has?

The issue here is that basically P2 is kind of the engine. It basically is that temporary storage device that you use to acquire and transfer content. Because it’s IT compatible, you can back up content on things like passport drives. You can buy a 250 gigabyte passport drive for $130 or so. When you get that drive back to your home base, you just mount it and you’re immediately editing. There’s no reingest or need for special decks and things like that. So I think there’s a lot of advantages to this sort of IT file-based approach.

But, very realistically, some customers are used to using tape and it takes a little while to make that transition. Once they see the advantages of this file-based solid-state work flow, I think they clearly enjoy them.

As you said, the latest P2 card holds 32 gigabytes. Are we going to see bigger ones?

I wouldn’t be surprised if you see more. But at this point, we have customers that are saying to us you know what, we need about 30 minutes and you know, that’s well in excess. So capacity’s just not an issue anymore.

The camera handles five of these cards, right? So, what kind of time do I get if I load it up with five 32s?

At full resolution, full frame rate [AVC-Intra 100 or DVCPRO HD], you get basically one minute per gigabyte. At AVC-Intra 50, you get roughly two minutes per gigabyte. Of course, if you’re shooting in SD, then it’s four minutes per gigabyte. So certainly they have an extraordinary capacity within those cards.

Any way you cut it, it seems like plenty for news.

Really. When meeting with our customers, they’re saying to us, you know I really don’t need any larger cards.