Sony is expanding its XDCAM® line of tapeless acquisition technologies with the introduction of the PMW-500 shoulder-mount professional camcorder – designed for broadcasters, live event production, documentaries, rental companies or any professional application requiring a versatile and high-performance camcorder.

The new camcorder combines the exceptional picture quality and performance of Sony’s PDW-F800 optical disc camera with the operational flexibility of recording onto solid state SxS memory cards. The PMW-500 is equipped with three 2/3-inch Power HAD FX CCD image sensors and can record both 1080 and 720 HD pictures at 50 Mb/s.

“The PMW-500 represents the next step in the evolution of the XDCAM product range of tapeless technologies,” said Bob Ott, vice president of product marketing and management, Sony Electronics’ Professional Solutions of America. “Customers have been requesting an XDCAM HD422 memory camcorder to complement the phenomenally popular optical disc camcorder, and this new model is an ideal solution.”

The PMW-500 has two slots for recording onto SxS Memory Card* cards. First introduced to the XDCAM EX family in 2007, SxS memory cards provide an extremely high level of reliability and fast access to recorded data, both critical in demanding professional operations. Sony is also adding a new higher capacity 64GB (SBS-64G1A) card which can record 2 hours of material at HD422 50Mbps MXF mode, or more than 4 hours in DVCAM mode and has an increased transfer speed of 1.2Gbps** (SBS-32G1A & SBS-64G1A).

Other key features of the PMW-500 camcorder include:

• XDCAM HD422 codec for exceptional picture quality at low data rate.
• Switchable between MXF and MP4 for recording in XDCAM HD422, XDCAM HD and XDCAM EX modes.
• Option to record MPEG IMX and DVCAM material allowing users to migrate to HD at their own pace.
• Interoperability with major NLE systems enabling smooth workflow migration.
• Lower power consumption for extended record time during shooting.
• Four channels of uncompressed 48 kHz digital audio.

Another major introduction at IBC is XDCAM Station, a family of professional media recorders that bridges the worlds of SxS Memory card and Professional Disc. There will be three models in the line-up:

• XDS-1000 - featuring an SxS Memory card slot and internal HDD storage
• XDS-PD1000 - featuring an SxS Memory card slot, a Professional Disc drive and internal HDD storage
• XDS-PD2000 - featuring an SxS Memory card slot, a Professional Disc drive and internal SSD storage

Depending upon the model chosen, customers can copy material from SxS memory cards or Professional Disc onto the hard disk or solid state storage within the XDCAM Station. The material can then be accessed for non-linear editing or can be replayed under slow motion control. SDI input and output and network capability allows the device to function as an MXF gateway linking XDCAM media, baseband video and networked operation. The Professional Disc based models will also be able to record and read Sony’s new higher capacity 128GB quad layer Professional Discs, PFD128QLW.

The XDS-1000 will be available in March 2011, with the XDS-PD1000 and PD2000 available in summer 2011 along with the PFD128QLW quad layer disc.

The PMW-500 camcorder will be available in November. The camcorder can be used in a studio configuration, using an HD camera adaptor (model XDCA-55), and camera extension unit (model XDCU-50), which are also available in November. These studio options also work with Sony’s PMW-320 and PMW-350 camcorders, when used with a 50-pin interface.