Elmwood Park, NJ (November 5, 1997) – Universal Video Productions in Cranston, Rhode Island, has selected JVC's DIGITAL-S as its house editing format, joining the multitude of broadcasters, post-production and production facilities that have selected this high quality 4:2:2 component digital videotape format.

Among its many commercial and industrial projects, Universal Video Productions recently put DIGITAL-S to the test editing a national television spot for American Power Conversion, a Fortune 500 company.

According to Brian Jansen, owner of Universal Video Productions, DIGITAL-S performed superbly, especially in delivering high resolution for the complex graphics in the spot. "With other tape formats, there is a notable difference in the graphics when they are put on tape, but with DIGITAL-S, the graphics appeared crystal clear," Jansen said.

Universal uses the DIGITAL-S BR-D85 editing recorder with pre-read for all of its editing and mastering. The pre-read function is especially useful for their graphics work since they can effortlessly do layered picture-in-picture (PIP) windows in conjunction with their Pinnacle DVE board. Jansen explained that the BR-D85's pre-read function relieves them of the need to render on a non-linear editing system, which is time consuming. He also values the ability to preview edits in real time.

"We are very happy with the format," said Jansen. "It's fabulous!" The company considered other digital formats before purchasing DIGITAL-S, however, Jansen said the only format that compared with DIGITAL-S was Digital Betacam, which was cost prohibitive. "We own JVC's 22 series S-VHS editing recorders, and we were happy with them, so when we decided to go for a digital format, we naturally progressed to DIGITAL-S," he said. "It works out great because the formats are very compatible."

In addition, since about half of Universal's work is with graphics, they needed a digital format with 4:2:2 processing. "You can really see the difference between 4:1:1 and 4:2:2 when you're doing graphics, especially chroma keying," Jansen noted.

DIGITAL-S represents a dramatic breakthrough in both quality and price. Its 4:2:2 8-bit component digital signal processing and very mild 3.3:1 compression combine to produce a picture quality better than any analog system, any 4:1:1 digital system, and rivaling that of even the most expensive digital systems. DIGITAL-S has become the high-quality choice of broadcasters, producers and post-production houses that require a robust, multi-purpose format that produces superior picture quality and affords them the ability to perform complex editing techniques, like layering and chroma keying.

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