Scottish broadcaster, Scottish TV, has today announced its investment in Sony PMW-400L cameras as the company future-proofs the newsgathering tools that support its comprehensive local news service. Scottish TV invested in 25 Sony PMW-400L cameras as well as wireless adapters and accompanying field production equipment to support the news workflow across its five sites, all supplied by Sony Professional Solutions Specialist Dealer CVP. The new XDCAM cameras and tools will be used across all of Scottish TV’s newsgathering operations, allowing for workflow continuity and a seamless transition from acquisition through short-term storage and data transfer.
The initial move will see Scottish TV continuing to shoot its local news coverage in SD IMX50, using the new kit within Scottish TV’s Avid Interplay production environment. However, in the future Scottish TV will be able to transition smoothly to HD, thanks to the PMW-400’s compatibility with both the IMX50 and HD422 standards, meaning the tools will support current needs as well as helping Scottish TV prepare for a high definition future.
As part of its investment, Scottish TV also purchased 25 of Sony’s CBK-WA101 wireless adapters, which accelerate the newsgathering workflow by enabling easy transmission of content over a wireless network from any of the company’s new PMW-400Ls. Connecting directly to the PMW-400L, the CBK-WA101 adapter enables the transmission of both proxy files and high-resolution content to a broadcast station, on premise server or cloud environment via 3G/4G/LTE/Wi-Fi
Sam Dornan, Channels Operations Manager at Scottish TV, said: “With five dedicated production sites across Scotland, and a wide geographical area to cover, easily integrating footage into the news production workflow is both challenging and vital to us. Sony’s wireless adapters will be instrumental in achieving this, but the proven XDCAM codec was one of the main reasons we decided to invest in Sony’s technology. The strength of the workflow that the codec enables means that our teams will be able to easily ingest, edit, and export their content as video files, crucial as we look to the future for our newsgathering teams.”
As part of this workflow, Scottish TV invested in eight PMW-1000 memory recording decks and four PMW-50 SxS Field Gear units. Both the PMW-1000 and PMW-50 support SD and HD, with the memory deck providing recording and playback, and the rugged Field Gear unit supporting a variety of outputs. These include analogue composite, HD/SD-SDI, HDMI, analogue audio, headphone, iLink and USB.
Colin Mendham, the sales manager at CVP who managed the deal, commented: “We’ve worked closely with Scottish TV as it transitions to Sony’s XDCAM tools, ensuring we deliver the best support we can. Having initially worked with Scottish TV to identify its needs in newsgathering technology, we then conducted exhaustive technical and operational tests, field trials and head-to-head comparisons, and Sony’s equipment came out on top. The PMW-400L delivers the high quality needed for HD broadcast within an efficient, established workflow, making it one of the best newsgathering tools on the market. This investment will ensure that Scottish TV is fully equipped to deliver the best possible news footage to its viewers for years to come.”
Scottish TV is the latest news organisation to invest in Sony’s XDCAM tools, following the recent announcement that ITV has invested in over 190 PMW-200 and PMW-400L cameras for its regional newsgathering operations.
