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the cooperation of people in the industry. We had
to get hold of technical standards, use our
connections with chip manufacturers, and
collaborate with camera manufacturers. I suppose
you could say that we studied pretty much 24/7.
The thing I like about analog is that you can
connect to anything inexpensively. For example,
the thing that HDV, DVCPRO HD, and
HDCAM all have in common is analog
component output. There’s hardly ever a problem
with connection compatibility.
Naturally, analog implementation technology
has been cultivated for musical instruments and
audio equipment. There is also a manageable risk
during development. Eventually, our image
devices also got some attention when, 13 years
ago, Roland started selling the ‘Video-kun’
desktop video editor. It was a board that installed
in a PC. Since then we have been putting energy
into analog video.
Recently, the price of cameras with built-in
SDI has come down below the $10,000 mark so,
from now on, SDI will be used more and more.
Even so, for live shows, the superiority of analog
input–output will continue for a while.
That function was certainly a tough one. If it
can easily perform conversions, I think the
applications will open up. It is tough to achieve
conversion between 60 and 50 fields. But since
conversion from SD to 720p and vice versa is
one type of frame rate conversion, we needed to
provide that function.
Validating the conversions was really tough.
We started by making stuff we could use for
verification. We had to choose recording
equipment that could provide frame forwarding
and field forwarding. Then we had to check all
the camera and VTR connections, and more. It
involved a great deal of work.
On the plus side, while we were doing this, we
became aware of just how valuable the VC-
300HD would be. Even in the non-linear world,
where everything seems possible, we were put
through the ringer when it came to making
samples for validation. For the catalog, we have
drawn up a basic conversion matrix of the
formats. It lists frame rates, image pixels, digital
and analog, and types of media and so on. The
number of combinations of matrices we used for
validation is an amazing 3,200. Only after each
one was operable, could we then pass the test.
We have been thinking about upgrading.
Function expansion: that’s another feature of the
VC-300HD. We were keen to include a lot more
functions in the first model, but opted first to get
the product out. This way we were able to further
develop the product by listening to what
everyone said about it and use that feedback to
expand the functions and improve usability.
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