The PMW-500 personifies the Power of the Proxy.
Proxy AV is one of the great little secrets of the Sony XDCAM® HD format. Users run the gamut from those who aren’t aware of proxy to those who gush about it like religious converts. The PMW-500 camcorder is the first product to record proxy onto SxS™ media cards.
At a lightweight 2 Megabits per second, XDCAM HD proxy files give you a handy representation of your program’s audio and video, suitable for logging, shot selection, news scripting and rough edits. As digital files, proxy clips are easy to pop into a laptop, attach to emails, sling across a network or even drop into the timeline of selected NLEs. Where microwave links cannot be established, news directors even play proxy to air, as a professional alternative to cellphone video.
From the outset, proxy AV has been a feature of XDCAM HD products recording to Professional Disc® media. There hasn’t been proxy on SxS memory cards-until now. The PMW-500 is Sony’s first memory camcorder to record XDCAM HD422 at 50 megabits per second. It’s the first memory camcorder with Sony’s 2/3-inch Power HAD FX CCDs, the same imagers used on the PDW-700 and PDW-F800. And it’s the first to record proxy onto SxS cards.
But wait, there’s more. Plug in a USB thumb drive and you can record proxy on a convenient form factor that can travel separately from the full-res video. In early 2011, you’ll be able to wirelessly stream proxy directly to a laptop, even as you shoot. Just plug in the CBK-WA01 Wi-Fi™ adaptor to the camera’s USB port to make it happen. (The same USB proxy capability applies to the PDW-700 and PDW-F800 camcorders, which will also accept the CBK-WA01 Wi-Fi adaptor.)
My Sony colleagues are fond of talking about the “Power of the Proxy.” With the PMW-500, proxy becomes slightly more powerful. For more on the new PMW-500, visit our collection of videos at the VideON site.
