Avid Technology Inc’s hot property for the US National Associations of Broadcasters show in Las Vegas this week is an in-camera recording and editing system called CamCutter that it says can capture broadcast-quality footage straight to disk in digitised form instead of using analogue videotape and having to convert the video for digital editing. The Tewksbury, Massachusetts company will initially aim the system at news broadcasters. Avid developed the CamCutter with Ikegami Tsushinki Co, a broadcast equipment maker based in Tokyo. CamCutter will be sold as part of a field system that also includes a removable 2.5 hard disk FieldPak storing 15 to 20 minutes worth of broadcast quality images and a docking station. The MediaDock docking station can connect multiple FieldPaks and transfer digital images to another system on which several editors can cut stories simultaneously. CamCutter is available in two models, one that can be added to existing Ikegami Unicam cameras that costs $19,000 and the other an integrated system costing between $38,000 and $60,000 depending on the camera model. The docking station costs $4,900, the FieldPak disk drive is $2,500.
