Panasonic announced an agreement with Panavision and Deluxe Entertainment Services Group to supply the companies with more than $2 million in high-definition products over the next year. The deal includes Panasonic cameras, recorders, production monitors and plasma displays.The equipment will be widely available at Panavision’s and Deluxe Entertainment’s operations worldwide.”In the past few years, we have seen Panasonic products reach into ‘film-style’ television production, one of our core businesses,” said Bob Beitcher, president and CEO of Panavision. “As HD origination expands around the world, it makes logical business and technology sense for Panavision to offer a range of Panasonic equipment to our customers.”Until recently Panavision has been widely seen as a Sony-centric house, but last fall when the company acquired Plus 8 Digital along with its inventory of Thomson Viper cameras, Beitcher indicated that the company wanted to break out of that mold.”More and more, we see customer demand for non-Sony digital cameras, particularly for Panasonic’s Varicam and Thomson’s Viper,” said Beitcher. “We consider ourselves a world-class rental company that provides any gear that our customers are interested in renting.”In the multi-million dollar deal, Panasonic will provide both companies with a wide range of HD equipment including DVCPRO HD camcorders (AJ-HDX900 2/3-inch shoulder-mount, AJ-HDC27H VariCam HD Cinema, and AG-HVX200 P2 hand-held models), HD VTRs (AJ-HD3700 D-5 HD and AJ-HD1400 compact DVCPRO HD models), its full line-up of LCD HD monitors and its new 1080p plasma displays.
Written by Scott Lehane
