Elmwood Park, NJ (June 12, 1998) – Amway Corporation, a direct selling company with estimated retail sales of $7 billion worldwide, has added JVC's 4:2:2 component DIGITAL-S format to its production studio. Amway's Communications Division, headquartered in Ama, Michigan, produces industrial, corporate and motivational/inspirational videos used by more than 3 million Amway distributors around the globe.

In choosing DIGITAL-S, Amway's goal was to begin shifting away from one-inch tape to a digital format offering comparable record time, but with higher-quality video and no generation loss in dubbing.

"I was looking for a digital tape format that would replace the one-inch format, which is why having a format like DIGITAL-S with its two-hour record time was so important. Other digital competitors only offer 90-minutes of record time," said Tom Cooper, Amway's Senior Media Engineer.

Cooper said DIGITAL-S has given him a lot more freedom and fewer concerns. "With DIGITAL-S, we don't have to worry about submastering or about generational loss. The format gives us a lot more leeway to try things," Cooper said.

In its digital move, Amway purchased one BR-D85 4:2:2 digital editing recorder and two BR-D750 editing recorders. Cooper said the BR-D750s are connected to a Diamond DV-20 Digital Switcher in Amway's new, year-old digital studio – a mix of the traditional linear and non-linear.

JVC's BR-D85 is currently being used in Amway's analog studio, which will be relocated this fall to a new corporate studio location currently under design. At the new location, the BR-D85 will be used in production for closed captioning in serial digital, transferring, dubbing and archiving from one-inch tape format.

Looking toward the future, Cooper said Amway's long-term goal is to purchase four of JVC's new BR-D92 recorders that feature 4-channel independent audio. "Moving to 4-channel is one of our long-term goals," Cooper said.

Amway has become one of the world's largest direct selling companies by offering anyone the opportunity to have a business of their own. More than 3 million entrepreneurs in 47 affiliate markets have embraced the Amway business opportunity. They market more than 450 Amway nutrition and wellness, personal care, home care, home tech, and commercial products plus thousands of brand-name products through Amway catalogs, and a variety of services and educational products. Amway and its affiliates employ more than 14,000 people worldwide. For more information about Amway, visit www.amway.com.

JVC PROFESSIONAL PRODUCTS COMPANY, located in Elmwood Park, New Jersey, distributes a complete line of broadcast and professional equipment. For more information about JVC's DIGITAL-S, contact David Walton at 1-800-JVC-5825, or visit the DIGITAL-S web site at www.digital-s.com or the JVC web site at www.jvcpro.com.