CBC/Radio-Canada Standardizes on Sony Betacam SX Digital Platform; One of Sony's Most Significant SX Sales Worldwide.

TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 18, 1999--

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) has selected Sony Betacam SX(R) and related MPEG-based technology to replace nearly 2,000 Betacam(R) and Betacam SP(R) videotape recorders and camcorders across its English and French networks.

The decision to standardize on Sony Betacam SX came after extensive operational testing at CBC's Winnipeg Broadcast Centre. Over the next three to five years, Sony Betacam SX and related MPEG recorders will completely replace all analogue recording technology used for CBC News, Current Affairs and Sports programming.

The move will greatly enhance the CBC's news gathering and production capabilities while providing a solid migration path to digital television (DTV) and the emerging MPEG production and distribution environment.

"Sony Betacam SX provides the CBC with numerous advantages as we position ourselves for the world of digital television," said Gaetan Jacques, General Manager Technical Production and Engineering for the CBC French Television Network. "Betacam SX offers exceptional editing capabilities, excellent slow-motion and switchable PAL/NTSC studio decks for international compatibility. The tape format gives us longer recording times, which reduces tape costs significantly. And, with 4:2:2 digital component 16:9/4:3 switchable cameras, CBC is guaranteed a future-proof system providing a widescreen source for SDTV and up-conversion capability to HDTV."

"With this investment, the CBC has positioned itself as one of North America's most innovative, forward-thinking broadcasters. By providing for the transition to DTV, CBC is guaranteeing viewers will receive optimal broadcast images today, with a cost-effective migration to our widescreen future," said Pat Whittingham, Executive Vice President, Broadcast & Professional Group, Sony of Canada Ltd. "Now, with commitment from three of Canada's largest networks and several major independents, Sony Betacam SX has become the format of choice where high quality and cost effectiveness are paramount in a variety of broadcast applications. The CBC purchase marks one of Sony's most significant SX sales worldwide to date and the largest in our history in Canada."

Sony Betacam SX is the digital successor to the analogue Betacam SP format that has been the industry standard for news and documentary production for many years. While initially optimized for electronic news gathering (ENG), sports and documentary applications, the expanded Betacam SX product line now delivers the digital advantages of superior picture quality, portability, high-speed image transfer and non-linear editing for both NEWS and production.

To help news organizations facilitate the transition to the digital environment, Sony has made Betacam SX backward-compatible with Betacam and Betacam SP. This was an important consideration for CBC, given its extensive Betacam tape library.

With the advent of DTV, broadcasters worldwide are preparing for the transition to a new broadcast and distribution family. DTV will enable the broadcast of wide-screen, standard definition (SDTV) and high definition (HDTV) images, providing viewers with astonishing clarity, resolution and colour.

"The move to Betacam SX represents a tremendous cost savings for us," said Rudi Lingohr, CBC's Director of Broadcast Engineering, English Networks, "Betacam SX affords us double the recording time of SP -- providing significant savings in raw tape and archival costs, editing and conversion time, and eliminates the headaches of running short of tape stock as Betacam SP analogue tapes can be re-recorded digitally. Not only is the image quality far superior, but editing with the pre-read feature and image transfer is much quicker and easier. The 4:2:2 Profile @ML compression technology @ 18Mbps is key to the extended recording time. A small cassette can record up to 62 minutes, while three hours is now possible in the larger cassette size. Where even higher quality is required for the most demanding graphics and production applications, Sony's MPEG recording family provides a migration path. Maintaining compatibility to Betacam SP and Betacam SX and Sony's total 1/2" approach that is both scalable and extensible is truly a comfort to the CBC given the uncertainty of future needs," noted Lingohr.

Sony Betacam SX has been used for many major CBC projects over the past few years. At both the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta and the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, Sony Betacam SX enabled CBC Sports to deliver extraordinary pictures to Canadians back home. Several CBC foreign news crews have implemented Sony Betacam SX to ease the sharing of news footage and to reduce excess baggage costs.

CBC is Canada's National Public Broadcaster and provides radio and television services in English and in French via conventional networks and stations and specialty channels.

The Broadcast and Professional Group (BPG) is a division of Sony of Canada Ltd., offering products for image capture, production, display, data recording, duplication, and electronic photography/publishing. BPG also markets professional video and audio equipment for broadcast, production, business, industry, government, medical and education through a network of authorized dealers.