BBC Technology Group’s project to move to tapeless HD production by 2010, is to trial the Grass 
Valley™ Infinity Digital Media Camcorder and related products from Thomson. The initial phase of the Starwinder project sees tapeless acquisition systems from Grass Valley and one other manufacturer undergoing intensive trials over the next year to determine the Corporation’s future policies.
For such a large organization, a smooth transition to new technology is vitally important. The Grass Valley Infinity Series program is designed to make such a transition seamless, capable of capturing in all common standard-definition and high-definition (SD/HD) standards even on the same recording medium, and supporting both today’s widely recognized recording formats (including the DV and MPEG-2 families), as well as JPEG2000, seen as the best open option for the future.
Rather than being tied to any proprietary video recording medium, the Infinity camcorder offers a range of recording systems based on commodity IT technology. The REV PRO™ disk is based on the Iomega® REV 35GB removable hard disk system, and is built into every Infinity camcorder, as are slots for professional-grade CompactFlash cards. The use of standard CompactFlash cards gives all the benefits of solid-state recording at off-the-shelf media prices. Infinity also carries USB and Firewire (IEEE 1394) interfaces for connection to other external recording devices, and gigabit ethernet network ports for direct connection of the camera to a networked storage system.
The combination of Grass Valley’s skills and experience in broadcast technology with the use of a broad range of commodity IT storage and connectivity technologies has led to the Infinity being described as “It-immersed”.
“We designed the Infinity camcorder as a completely new approach to ENG and EFP acquisition, one which gave all the choices back to the user”, said Marc Valentin, president of the Grass Valley business within Thomson. “In a single unit – and even on a single shoot – it supports the transition to HD, and allows the user to select not just the compression scheme but the recording medium itself to match the requirements of each individual task.”
“It fits into today’s workflow, and helps the broadcaster develop the ideal workflow for the future, and we are delighted to be working with the BBC, one of the world’s leading media organizations, on their transition into the tapeless future.”
