At NAB, Panasonic Broadcast Europe was able to announce growing support and commitment by a number of key European broadcasters for Panasonics DVCPRO P2 memory card technology and ING, the tapeless IT news gathering system.
RFO in France, Réseau France Outre-mer, the French public broadcaster with responsibility for serving French territories round the world has decided to use Panasonics P2 solid state technology. RFO was one of the first European broadcasters to adopt DVCPRO technology in the late 1990s. Sogecable, Spain’s leading pay television group and a major European media organisation, is studying the adoption of P2 technology for a future replacement of its ENG DVCPRO equipment. DVCPRO equipment is widely used across Sogecable media organisations including Canal+,CNN+, and Canal Satélite Digital. ZDF in Germany will be purchasing P2 to fully evaluate the technology. ZDF is a major user of DVCPRO equipment. Danish Broadcast , a major user of DVCPRO equipment announced that it would also be purchasing a first set of P2 units to fully evaluate the technology. Swedish Television (SVT) which purchased 72 DVCPRO50 camcorders in the autumn of 2003 for its news operations announced at the time that the purchase decision was strongly influenced by developments on P2, which it was closely monitoring.
Panasonic has also been working closely with a number of other key European broadcasters, which form part of the global P2 Partners Programme to help in the development of the technology and products. The broadcasters involved include: TF1 in France, ZDF and MDR in Germany, the Sogecable Group (including CNN+ and Canal+) in Spain and ITN, BBC and Reuters in the UK.