Sea Studios/National Geographic Television Adopt DVCPRO50 Progressive for 8-Hour TV Series, "The Shape of Life".

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 13, 1999--

Sea Studios Foundation (Monterey, CA), an international renowned production company that specializes in high-caliber natural history programming, has just begun shooting of a television series titled "The Shape of Life" with Panasonic DVCPRO50 Progressive equipment. The series of eight, one-hour episodes telling the story of the elegant body plans that have sustained animal life on Earth for 550 million years will air nationally in the year 2001. "The Shape of Life" is a co-production with National Geographic Television of Washington, DC.

Sea Studios will utilize AJ-PD900WA 2/3-inch, 16:9/4:3 switchable 3-CCD DVCPRO50 Progressive camcorders to shoot the series and the AJ-PD950 DVCPRO50 Progressive studio VTRs during post-production of the series. The 480P footage obtained with the Panasonic cameras will be intercut with film-originated material for the final programs.

Founded in 1984 by filmmaker Mark Shelley and biologists Robin and Nancy Burnett, Sea Studios specializes in natural history video, audio and multimedia programs for television, aquariums, zoos and museums. The company has pioneered several videographic techniques, such as video-boroscopy, underwater time-lapse and video-microscopy, that it will deploy with the DVCPRO Progressive camcorders. Sea Studios has provided production services for many television specials and documentaries for National Geographic, including `Sea Nasties" (a comedy starring Leslie Nielsen and poisonous marine animals), "The Lost Fleet of the Guadacanal," "The Mystery of the Lusitania" as well as producing "Dive to Midnight Waters." The company has also contributed to exhibits at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Saint Louis Zoo, Florida Aquarium and Oakland Museum, among many other venues.

"'The Shape of Life' has as its subject nothing less than the origins of existence, and throughout the extensive pre-production and research processes, we've always been committed to the highest achievable video quality," said Shelley, the executive producer for the series.

"As our distribution plans want to provide for an HD master (as well as NTSC and PAL), we looked for a feasible way to produce HD without having to shoot HD, given the costs involved," he continued. "Until I saw prototypes of the DVCPRO50 Progressive equipment at NAB in 1998, I'd thought we'd have to shoot in 525i and upconvert. I wasn't satisfied with that option, because of the inherent problems with interlace artifacts and resolution when you go up from 525i.

"Having a progressive scan frame, which eliminates those issues and upconverts beautifully, made a lot of sense. While we evaluated 525i, 480P/30fps, even 1080i cameras, we were persuaded that the DVCPRO50 Progressive 480P/60fps camcorders were our best choice. Not only were we getting the benefits of progressive, the compact camcorder is packaged in a lightweight, rugged system that can withstand high-humidity, submersion and constant exposure to salt water, which characterize our standard shooting conditions."

Warren Allgyer, President, Panasonic Broadcast & Television Systems Co. (PBTSC), said, "The Shape of Life is a sure-to-be powerful natural history series for all to enjoy. Panasonic DVCPRO50 480P/60 will deliver exceptional quality images as the series' video origination format. And for upconverting to 1080i or 720P, 480P images have shown that they produce significantly better quality than 480i originated pictures."

Christine Weber, executive producer of National Geographic Television's Program Enterprise Group, added, "We're excited that the series has elected to use Panasonic 480P, which we consider the best current solution for underwater video production and upconversion to HD. I'm pleased Sea Studios is using a format that seamlessly offers side-by-side production of a high-end standard television image and a viable progressive-scan image for the high definition future."

Locations for "The Shape of Life" will include the South Pacific, the Caribbean and Monterey Bay. Series shooting began last month, and will continue through the summer of 2000. The series will devote hour-long programs to eight of the major body plans--sponges, cnidarians (jellyfish and kin), flatworms, mollusks, annelids (earthworms) arthropods (insects, spiders, lobsters), echinoderms (starfish, sea urchins) and chordates (fish, birds, humans). As is typical on natural history shoots, all the underwater/near water footage will be acquired on video; land and people will be shot on Super 16 film.

"DVCPRO50 Progressive and Super 16 represent an ideal combination," said Shelley. "We'll be able to acquire very high quality wide screen video and very acceptable film material."

He continued, "While we've just begun actual shooting, we subjected the AJ-PD900WAs to extensive pre-production tests, which included matching the cameras, affixing specialized natural history lenses and experimenting with colorimetry settings for tanks, lights and various water conditions. The cameras operated very well, and the test results were spectacular.

"The series is privileged to have Martin Dohrn, one of world's top nature photographers, as our DP. Martin spent considerable time matching his lenses to the camcorder, and was extremely impressed with the results. He very enthusiastically endorsed the decision to acquire with DVCPRO50 Progressive."

Shelley explained that the AJ-PD950 VTRs will be used throughout post-production for both off-line and on-line editing. A 480P clone of the Super 16 material will be made; then, the AJ-PD950 can playback all footage into NLE systems. The final EDL will be used both for HD and SD (standard definition) on-line editing. D-5 HD will be used as the master post production format. This allows very high quality, 16:9 NTSC and 16:9 PAL submasters to be struck from the D-5 HD master tapes.

Capable of recording either 16:9 or 4:3 images, the AJ-PD900WA DVCPRO50 Progressive camcorder features three 2/3-inch (520,000 pixel in 16:9, and 400,000 pixel in 4:3 aspect ratios) M-FIT CCDs, 60 minutes of progressive recording, 10-bit digital processing and a signal-to-noise ratio of 63dB, minimum illumination of 1.6 lux. It consumes less than 28 watts of power and fully-operational weigh under 14 pounds. It offers a bayonet mount for 2/3-inch lenses as standard.

The AJ-PD950 DVCPRO50 multi-standard studio VTR with built-in progressive recording and playback offers compatibility between the 25 Mbps 4:1:1 and 50 Mbps 4:2:2 DVCPRO signal structures and is switchable between 525 (NTSC) and 625 (PAL).

PBTSC (NYSE/PCX: MC) is a leading supplier of broadcast and professional video and audio products and systems, including the Astrovision(R) large-screen video display. PBTSC 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. For more information on Panasonic, visit www.panasonic.com/broadcast.

Editor's Note: Color photography available upon request.