Candlemaker Uses Digital Tape Format To Create and Archive Videos

Elmwood Park, New Jersey (June 18, 1998) – Yankee Candle Company of Deerfield, Massachusetts, a nationally renowned candle manufacturer, has selected JVC's DIGITAL-S with 4:2:2 processing as its digital videotape recording format to create and archive videotapes and commercials.

Yankee Candle Company, whose flagship store in Deerfield, Massachusetts has been called the "Disneyland of Candles," is a company on a rapid expansion track with 52 stores in 14 states. Primarily concentrated in the New England and Mid-Atlantic regions, Yankee Candle also has store locations as far west as Ohio and as far south as Florida.

Founded in 1969 by Mike Kittredge, Yankee Candle has consistently used videotape to record the company's rapid growth, documenting milestone historical events as well as fond memories. Yankee Candle also uses video to drive its retail marketing effort in its hugely popular flagship store in Deerfield where videos are displayed storewide. The company also relies on its in-house video department to produce training videos for its 1,000 employees and to create advertising spots.

Yankee Candle's recent decision to make the switch from an analog videotape format to digital was driven by the desire to preserve archived video in perpetuity, and to perform multi-generational edits without worrying about tape degradation.

"Our founder, Mike Kittredge, has always been a proponent of new technology and was an early camcorder user. We have some very archaic 3/4 inch Umatic, "M" format and older VHS footage shot in the early 1980s," said Tim O'Brien, Yankee Candle's Corporate Communications Director.

"With our new DIGITAL-S system, we can maintain the integrity of this archived video. It gives us a wonderful way to drop all of those older formats onto a digital archive tape and preserve it forever without having to worry about further quality deterioration," O'Brien said.

Video also is a key component in Yankee Candle's retail marketing approach. "Over two million shoppers visit our stores annually and watch the retail marketing videos being shown, especially at our Deerfield location. These retail tapes offer handy tips to customers – such as how to burn candles – and they play a very significant role in our overall retail marketing approach. Last year, Yankee Candle sold 10,000 retail videotapes as souvenirs to customers marking their visit to Yankee Candle," O'Brien said.

"With that kind of volume, it is important for us to have a format, like DIGITAL-S, that gives us clean and crisp video, as well as flexibility. With DIGITAL-S, we can painlessly perform edits and create multi-generational edits without degradation."

Yankee Candle's Video Department has three fully-equipped JVC editing suites which make use of S-VHS and DIGITAL-S machines. The DIGITAL-S machines, purchased two months ago, include: one BR-D51 DIGITAL-S Player; one BR-D85 DIGITAL-S Recorder with Pre-Read; and one KY-D29 Camera docked to a DIGITAL-S BR-D40 Recorder.

"Making the digital switch was easy because with DIGITAL-S we are still working with a tape format system. That was a great advantage for us because there was not a huge learning curve, so we were up and running fast," said Frank Netto, Yankee Candle's Video Production Specialist. "We use the DIGITAL-S system with our Pinnacle Alladin to create myriad of special effects using the BR-D85's pre-read function -- it's very amazing. Also, the BR-D85 is very cost-effective for us because with it, we don't need an extra machine to do A/B roll editing." Netto said DIGITAL-S' 4:2:2 processing and 3:3.1 compression is "as good as it gets."

He also likes that the fully-integrated system provides S-VHS playback so older tapes are not made obsolete. Netto contended that analog tapes played back on DIGITAL-S even look better. "When we play back our S-VHS on the DIGITAL-S machines, it even plays back cleaner," Netto said.

Another advantage, Netto explained, is that DIGITAL-S tapes each have over 90 minutes of storage and seamlessly integrate with the hard drive memory space of Yankee Candle's non-linear editing system. "This creates a perfect storage system for Yankee Candle."

"Yankee Candle has always used JVC equipment from day one, and the machines have really been workhorses for us. We like the quality, and the service has always been outstanding," Netto said. "We expect the same satisfaction with DIGITAL-S."

JVC PROFESSIONAL PRODUCTS COMPANY, headquartered in Elmwood Park, New Jersey, distributes a complete line of broadcast and professional equipment including cameras, recorders and editing products. For more information regarding 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.