ITN makes major format commitment to DVCAM for ITV News

ITN, the world’s largest independent news organisation, has made a major format commitment to DVCAM for its ITV News operations.
As part of a significant investment in newsgathering equipment, ITN has bought over 50 of the latest Sony DSR-450WSP DVCAM camcorders and over 30 DSR-1500 DVCAM compact editing recorders, for all its ITV News operations in the UK and overseas.
ITN has also invested in HVR-Z1E HDV camcorders, operating in DVCAM mode. ITN provides three daily national news programmes for ITV1, as well as the ITV London regional news and showbiz news bulletins for ITV2. It also supplies newsgathering and SNG facilities for GMTV.
Keith Cass director of technology at ITN, explained why the news organisation has made a switch of formats for ITV News. “We only had one choice: the DSR-450WSP DVCAM has a fantastic track record, we know the strengths and pitfalls of the format and felt we were on safe ground. It is also priced very competitively. Having launched in the early nineties, DV is a proven compression format.
“We took the decision in conjunction with our customer, ITV, who has also adopted DVCAM for their regional news operations. As many of our ITV News bulletins include material from the ITV regions and we have reporters in many of their newsrooms, there is an advantage in working on the same format.”
ITN says the DSR-450WSP camcorders and DSR-1500 portable recorders are working with portable non-linear editing systems and compatibility between the three was crucial. The DSR-450WSP camcorders are also compatible with ITN’s existing HVR-Z1E HDV camcorders. The HVR-Z1E HDV camcorders are capable of recording in both high definition HDV mode, or DVCAM. ITN’s reporters use the HVR-Z1E camcorders as a second camera source or in situations where a full sized ENG camcorder is inappropriate or risky.
“The first step was the choice of the camcorder,” said Malcolm Smith, Head of Operational Engineering at ITN. “The key aspects were that it had to be 16:9 capable, it had to have some sort of Firewire IT type connectivity and we wanted SDI output – plus, of course, compatibility and excellent value for money.”
(GB)