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Panasonic PBITS HQ: Contact PBITS France: Andoni Larrucea Guilhem Krier European Communications Manager Marketing Manager Tel: +49 611 235 481 Tel: +33 1 55 93 67 24 E-mail: [email protected] E-mail:[email protected]

Photo Link: www.wallstcom.com/Panasonic/HS400Award.zip

For Immediate Release

Panasonic AV-HS400A Switcher Named ‘Best Production Product’ at SIEL-SATIS-RADIO 2008

WIESBADEN, Germany — 31 October 2008 — Panasonic PBITS Professional & Broadcast Systems has announced that the AV-HS400A compact multi-format live switcher has won the Best Production Product award at the SIEL-SATIS-RADIO 2008 exhibition in Paris. Launched in September, the AV-HS400A was selected as the winner from a shortlist of eight products by a panel of media professionals and editors.

“The SIEL-SATIS-RADIO awards recognise the most innovative products, and Panasonic has a strong tradition of innovation in the broadcast industry,” said Guilhem Krier, Product Manager at PBITS France. “What’s exciting about the AV-HS400A is that it opens up a new strand of business for buyers who need a way of providing top-quality production facilities in a compact and ergonomic package. In the mobile market, operators have usually had to pitch for HD business using large trucks which are expensive to hire. Now, with the AV-HS400A, operators can develop smaller units which provide all the facilities needed for quality HD production, but are much more appropriate to production budgets in the expanding HD drama and entertainment markets.”

The AV-HS400A’s flexible MultiViewer capability allows operators to dispense with the usual routers, matrices and banks of monitors by running the preview and monitoring on a single high-resolution display.

The AV-HS400A can output four, six, or ten images from different sources to a single high- resolution display, and the modular architecture allows the standard four HD/SD-SDI inputs More… and four HD/SDI outputs to be expanded to support up to eight inputs and eight outputs with optional I/O boards. For added creative flexibility, the switcher offers a broad selection of wipe patterns including 3-D digital effects, and features a high-quality chroma key for applications such as a green screen in broadcast and production. The AV-HS400A features 4:2:2 signal processing throughout.

Following from its highly successful predecessor, the AV-HS400A adds important functions and enhancements designed to extend the switcher’s abilities in live broadcast and OB applications. An evolutionary key function offers 3-D effects and a flying key function enabling easy key positioning, size adjustment and omnidirectional edge specification. The AV-HS400A’s renowned multi-view display option is enhanced to provide a more ergonomic user environment with features including green tally display of the input selected by the preset bus, switchable display and editing of input material names, and five-level brightness controls on image, frames and background labels.

Extending the versatility of the switcher, the AV-HS400A offers direct control for an attached AW-HE100 HD integrated camera or Panasonic’s pan/tilt camera head, giving operators control over pan, tilt, zoom and focus. By connecting Panasonic’s additional control panel, the AV-HS400A provides switching and operation for up to five cameras and pan/tilt heads.

For further multi-format capability, the AV-HS400A adds two new optional input and output boards providing greater scalability with dual analogue composite inputs with built-in up- conversion, and dual BNC HD/SD-SDI outputs with built-in down-conversion.

More information is available at www.panasonic-broadcast.com or by phone at +49 611 235 481.

PBITS PR Agency Contact: Marguerite Clark Wall Street Communications Tel: +33 1 45 25 36 91 E-mail: [email protected]

About Panasonic Panasonic Corporation is a worldwide leader in the development and manufacture of electronic products for a wide range of consumer, business and industrial needs. Based in Osaka, Japan, the company recorded consolidated net sales of 9.07 trillion yen (US $90.7 billion) for the year that ended 31 March 2008. The company's shares are listed on the Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, and New York (NYSE Symbol: PC) stock exchanges. For more information on the company and the Panasonic brand, visit the company's Web site at http://panasonic.net/.

More… About PBITS Panasonic’s Professional & Broadcast IT Systems Business Unit is part of Panasonic Audio Visual and Computer Systems Europe (PAVCSE), a division of Panasonic Marketing Europe GmbH. The company is a leader in the development of video formats and core products for broadcast and professional A/V, including camera-recorders, video recorders, monitors and mixers. Panasonic’s P2 systems provide the reliability of solid-state production with immediate connectivity to existing IT infrastructures, allowing for completely tapeless workflows. www.panasonic-broadcast.com

About P2 HD P2 HD all-solid-state products offer high-definition recording without the mechanical wear and environmental limitations of tape, hard-disk and optical disc-based systems. P2 HD ensures the highest reliability, especially in challenging conditions of extreme temperature range, shock and vibration. P2 HD products provide a significant reduction in maintenance costs, longer useful product life, and immediate access to recorded video (no need to digitize, ingest or create proxy video files) and metadata. P2 HD provides the reliability of solid-state production; the immediate connectivity to existing IT infrastructures; the speed, ease-of-use and portability of P2 cards; and interoperability with leading NLE systems.