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(4/8/05) JVC plans to introduce ProHD, a new line of HDV-based products at NAB 2005. The new line of products includes two pro-level camcorders, an HDV videotape machine and more. In this exclusive DMN interview, Dave Walton, National Marketing Communications Manager of JVC Professional Products Company talked to Digital Media Net?s Charlie White about JVC?s HDV initiative and its implications for content creators. As an added bonus, inside you?ll see the first group of high resolution photos of JVC?s GV-HD100 HDV camcorder to be published anywhere in the world.
DMN: Last year at NAB you give us a little peek at your pro-level HDV camcorder, and so now I guess it?s time to roll it out. The readers want to know everything they can about this. First, for the people who aren?t familiar with what you?ll be introducing, tell us about your HDV camcorder and what it does.
Walton: Well, why don?t we start with the message, the concept we?re delivering, because it?s more than just a camcorder. In fact, we?re rolling out an entire new approach to high definition called ProHD. It?s not a single product, or even a tape format?it?s an affordable system approach that takes advantage of highly efficient data compression to bring full bandwidth HD into recording and distribution systems. We?re introducing two ProHD camcorders at NAB?a full-shoulder model called the GY-HD7000 and a smaller, lighter-weight the camera called the GY-HD100.
DMN: And a deck, too, right?
Walton: And a deck, and a bunch of other gear, too. Let?s zoom out a little bit to a wider angle here. The whole industry has been gearing up for high definition. JVC is a large consumer and professional electronics company?we?re very closely involved in the migration to digital and HD television. The numbers just speak volumes about what?s happening in this country. In 2005, there are expected to be more digital television sets sold to consumers than were in existence at the end of 2004.
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| [Click graphic for enlargement] JVC GY-HD100 HDV camcorder |
DMN: That?s a great stat!
Walton: And 40% of the new sets are expected to be flat panel-type sets. All of these are HD-capable. They?re not all going to be showing HDTV images, but they are either HDTV-ready or they have HDTV tuners?the FCC mandates that a lot of them have digital tuners, so people are putting these things in. We?re going to have close to 40 million sets at the end of this year. Program delivery organizations?cable companies, broadcast organizations, broadcasters?are now delivering content. And one of their biggest needs is more content. It?s amazing that this is a case where there is a huge demand for content in HD, and the production community is a little bit behind. One of the reasons for that is the equipment. The tools that have been used have been prohibitively expensive for most content creators. Sure, you can go out and rent them, but the reality is there?s quite an installed base of standard-definition equipment out there. People are still amortizing their investments. The content creation community is basically reacting to the existing demand, which has been, up until now, standard definition. But now, producers are realizing that increasingly there are calls for more programming, not from just broadcasters but even corporate users. Of course, this is going to explode when low-cost players become available, too. Add to that satellite, cable, and over-the-air broadcast, which is most of America, and an influx that will begin around the end of this year of portable playback devices, personal playback devices like Blu-ray and HD DVD?you?re just going to see our entire business explode into this transition to HD.
DMN: Sounds like a perfect storm to me, Dave.
Walton: Well, it?s one that?s been on the Doppler radar screen now for quite a few years.
DMN: Thanks for continuing my metaphor. [They laugh]
Walton: Everybody said, ?Is it really going to happen?? Steve Jobs said, ?This is the year for HD.? That was his big quote at MacWorld in January [2005]. I think everybody is seeing it that way. We certainly do. Last year, we announced an affordable HD vision. We previewed several prototypes along with demonstrating our JY-HD10, which was really a consumer-derivative prosumer product. It was a kind of ?get your feet wet? -type product. This year, we?ve fulfilled that vision and promise with the actual introduction, demonstration ? and very soon to be, delivery ? of a higher range of cost-effective production tools.
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| [Click graphic for enlargement] JVC GY-HD100 HDV camcorder |
DMN: Dave, when you guys were figuring out where to position this product, how to price it and what features it would have, how did you decide what constitutes ?affordable??
Walton: Part of it was, we had to look at the marketplace. You cannot design products in this day and age and expect to sell them competitively unless you take a close look at what customers have been spending and are willing to spend for products. Naturally, the competitive environment drives a lot of that. With a certain category product, we are forced to be competitive with what other manufacturers have. So we?re not just out here all on our own setting prices. We are looking at the competitive environment?the needs of the customers, the value offered by the product, and certainly not to be ignored, our cost of building it. This takes a lot of time and a lot of engineering resources to develop, so this all goes into the mix. Then we come up with a product that we expect will be successful. Even then, it?s still a crap shoot when you?re rolling the dice and promising the factory you?re going to move x-number of thousands of units?you sure hope you?re on the mark there. If they don?t produce enough, you?re short. If they produce too many, you?re overstocked. So it?s a game that involves marketing, it involves sales, it involves engineering. Nobody?s perfect at all that. We?re trying our best and we?re trying to be in tune. The thing that we don?t have at JVC that other manufacturers have a problem with, is that we don?t have the stratification within our own product line that requires us to protect certain other investments in higher-end products. If we had invested heavily in a high-end system that was expected to amortize over x-number of years, it would lock us out of certain things.
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