CBS Television Station Division Selects Panasonic DVCPRO News Automation Systems For WCBS/New York and KCBS/Los Angeles.

Business/Technology Editors

NAB2000

LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 9, 2000

Panasonic Teams with Mandalay on HDTV Natural History Series,

"Eye to Eye"

Panasonic, Tiernan, Synergistic Found Digital Broadcast

Resources Alliance

Here at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convention, CBS Television has agreed to purchase Panasonic DVCPRO News Automation (DNA)(TM) digital video server systems, valued at over $3.2 million, for its leading Owned Television stations, WCBS-TV (New York, NY) and KCBS-TV (Los Angeles, CA). Each station has also purchased AJ-HDR150 DVCPRO multi-format video servers and AJ-HD150 DVCPRO HD studio VTRs.

The Panasonic DNA systems will be used at WCBS and KCBS for news production, storage and three-channel playback to air. DNA is Panasonic Broadcast's end-to-end DVCPRO solution, offering the benefits of the world's most popular professional digital recording format, DVCPRO, in a powerful central server system. DVCPRO, with more than 100,000 units in use worldwide, has become the standard for cost-effective digital acquisition and recording. With DNA, DVCPRO processing easily and transparently integrates into news production environments to complete the digital news production and delivery chain.

"The Panasonic DNA system meets all the requirements of our stations' news operations. It's a highly-automated turnkey system delivering high quality video and audio, and it's proven to be highly reliable at our Philadelphia station, KYW-TV," said Paul Puccio, Vice President of Operations and Engineering, CBS Television Stations Division.

Warren Allgyer, President, Panasonic Broadcast, said, "We're gratified that CBS is implementing Panasonic DNA systems in its leading stations in the nation's two largest markets. In the hyper-competitive news markets of New York and Los Angeles, the newsBYTE/DNA combination will allow these CBS stations to accelerate their news editing process and deliver news to air faster."

Panasonic also announced that it is teaming with Mandalay Media Arts (Los Angeles, CA) on the production of the groundbreaking natural history televisions series, "Eye to Eye", in high definition television.

"Eye to Eye" is a series of six one-hour shows to be produced by Mandalay Media Arts (MMA), Japanese broadcaster NHK and The Safari Network for the Fall 2001 television season. As a testament to the high-quality of Panasonic's DVCPRO HD format, six of the world's foremost, award-winning wildlife producers -- who have spent their careers shooting film -- will utilize 12 Panasonic DVCPRO HD camcorders to capture these unique entertainment experiences. Masaru Ikeo of NHK and Barry Clark of MMA are the series' executive producers. DVCPRO HD is the natural extension of the DVCPRO format into high definition for studio, field production and post applications.

Peter Guber, renowned producer and co-chairman of Mandalay Media Arts, said, "We're thrilled to have the opportunity to collaborate with Panasonic on this landmark series. HDTV is the next best thing to being there, and with the new DVCPRO HD camcorders in the hands of the true artists of the natural history genre, we look forward to bringing a new level of cinema-style image making and storytelling to the television screen."

"Eye to Eye" is one of several innovative high-definition projects in production and development at MMA. The company's two-hour HD special "Sahara" premieres on PBS at 9pm on May 24. The six, one-hour "Eye to Eye" programs will be acquired, edited and playback in Panasonic HDTV formats.The series will be mastered on Panasonic's new, full-bandwidth D-5 High Definition multi-format recording system, which will allow for easy conversion to any high definition or standard definition format for delivery.

With Tiernan Communications Inc. (San Diego, CA) and Synergistic Technologies Inc. (Canonsburg, PA), Panasonic Broadcast is founding the Digital Broadcast Resources (DBR), an alliance that will provide end-to-end digital television solutions for broadcasters.

To expedite broadcasters' migration into digital and data broadcasting, the alliance offers the vital expertise of its founding members in Standard Definition and multi-format High Definition production equipment and systems, critical encoding, decoding and transmission equipment for data and digital broadcasting, as well as extensive systems integration capabilities, including the incorporation of other vendors' equipment. The alliance is open to other manufacturers as projects may dictate.

The alliance will offer complete solutions organized under one banner, with a single contract, single contact, and single point of responsibility.

The three companies founding the alliance have collaborated successfully on SD and HD projects and bring strong commitments to the delivery of innovative technological solutions to meet the challenges broadcasters face.

Los Angeles-based Panasonic Broadcast & Television Systems Co. is a leading supplier of broadcast and professional digital video and audio products and systems. Panasonic Broadcast is dedicated to providing customers with comprehensive equipment choices, from Emmy Award-winning D-5 high definition and DVCPRO digital VTRs to ultra-bright presentation systems and advanced digital audio mixing consoles. Panasonic Broadcast is a division company of Matsushita Electric Corporation of America, the principal North America subsidiary of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (MC, NYSE), one of the world's leading producers of electronic and electric products for consumer, business and industrial use.