Presteigne expands HD range with a major equipment purchase from Sony

As part of an overall investment of €10 million on HD equipment so far in 2005, the new Sony HD equipment complements Presteigne’s existing HD offerings and builds on the success of the Sony HD fly-away de-rig - portable production system - put into action earlier this year.
Presteigne’s continued commitment to HD makes it one of the largest HD hire companies in Europe.
The latest purchase includes a total of 30 HD recorders, including mastering quality SRW-5500 HDCAM SR decks as well as HDW-M2000P HDCAM recorders – bringing Presteigne’s HD VTR stockholding to 40. Presteigne has also ordered 10 HDC-1500 HD portable cameras to add to its existing Sony HDC-950 multi-format HD studio cameras. It is also the first UK company to place a firm order for a number of the upcoming Sony HD Super Slo-Motion systems, which will be available in 2006.
Presteigne Managing Director, Mike Ransome, said: “The future is clearly high definition and many European OB companies and broadcasters have rightly made huge investments in HD equipment and infrastructure. We have held in-depth talks with many of them and listened to what they say about their current and future equipment requirements. OB companies need help from hire companies to cope during the busy times and for larger events. Our €10 million expenditure this year reflects our drive to stay as the number one European hire company helping this exciting change to HD.”
In addition to the ‘boxed’ equipment, the success of the Sony HD fly-away de-rig has led Presteigne to build two further systems to offer increased capacity. Flexibility of the systems allows anything from a small 4-camera unit with 16x16 matrix, up to a 25-camera unit with 128x128 matrix. Another key part of the HD fly-away unit is the lightweight LCD monitor stack, based on 34 of the latest Sony LMD-171W 17-inch widescreen multi-format LCD monitors. The two new fly-away systems will be operational in February 2006.
Presteigne is also opening a new office in Cologne, Germany in preparation for the World football championships being held in 2006, which are being recorded in HD.
(SP)