Houston Grand Opera Engages Panasonic HDTV Truck To Record ""Little Women"" Revival For PBS Airings

The groundbreaking Panasonic HDTV studio production truck will record three performances of Mark Adamo's opera ""Little Women"" at Houston Grand Opera (Houston, Texas), one of the country's leading opera companies. Houston Grand Opera is reviving Mr. Adamo's new American opera, which received its world premiere in March 1998. Mr. Adamo's adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's classic novel is the first of Houston Grand Opera's 24 world premiere operas to receive a revival. The new production of ""Little Women"" opened earlier in March 2000. In writing the opera, Mr. Adamo focused on three central events from the Civil War-era coming-of-age tale of the four March sisters - Meg's Wedding, Laurie's infatuation with Jo, and Beth's death - and unifies them dramatically with music. The HDTV recordings, being made at ""Little Women"" 's March 15, 17 and 18, 2000 performances, represent one of the first 720p, multi-camera performance productions and are being made for broadcast on 13/WNET New York's ""Great Performances"" series, to be seen over public broadcasting stations across the United States during the next television season. Michael Bronson and Brian Large are the Producer and Director, respectively, of the television production, and Mark Schubin is the Engineer-In-Charge. The television program is a co-production of Houston Grand Opera and 13/WNET New York. Last fall, the same production team utilized the Panasonic HDTV truck to record three performances of Jules Massenet's ""Le Cid"" at The Washington Opera, likewise for subsequent broadcast on ""Great Performances."" Bronson, a veteran of opera television production and the original producer of ""Live From the Met"" (now called ""The Metropolitan Opera Presents""), said, ""The management of Houston Grand Opera felt it was most appropriate to record this new American work with the latest technology. Based on our experience with the Panasonic truck at The Washington Opera, we were confident that recording ""Little Women"" in HDTV would ensure that the opera has enhanced distribution options and a long broadcasting life."" ""'Little Women' is a gem. I believe it will translate wonderfully to widescreen, HD television,"" said Houston Grand Opera General Director David Gockley. ""Mark Adamo's ""Little Women"" is a dream-come-true for an American opera producer: a new opera, based on a quintessentially American story. The decision of `Great Performances' to include ""Little Women"" in its next season's schedule of national high-definition and standard-definition broadcasts is another feather in the cap of this work."" Warren Allgyer, President, Panasonic Broadcast, added, ""Following the success of 'Le Cid,' we're excited to team once more with producer Michael Bronson to record this classic story in HD. Panasonic has made a firm commitment to promote HDTV with special event programming such as ""Little Women"", which provides an excellent showcase for HDTV's widescreen, high-detailed digital images and 5.1 surround sound."" Engineer-In-Charge Schubin said, ""There has been a dramatic improvement in the picture quality of the cameras since we last used the truck in November. It's a pleasure to pull up at an opera house, drag cables through holes, ducts, and doorways (and have them run over by trucks several times), and have everything work as soon as it's plugged in. There's no question about it; 720p looks great."" The 53-foot Panasonic HDTV truck, provided by Panasonic Broadcast & Television Systems Company, made history last fall as the production site of all the HDTV broadcasts of ""ABC's NFL Monday Night Football"" (MNF) games. These HDTV broadcasts were significant in that they represented the first season of regularly-scheduled HDTV broadcasts of sports in the United States, and extended through Super Bowl XXXIV in Atlanta, Georgia, last January. It was also deployed for the live HDTV broadcast of the 2000 National Hockey League All-Star game last month. The truck features an all wide-screen 16x9 monitor wall using flat panel plasma and LCD displays. Two Panasonic's PT-42P1 42"" Gas Plasma displays serve as the monitor wall's centerpiece.The Panasonic HDTV equipment integral to the operation of the production truck includes: - AQ-7200P 720p full-featured studio cameras and AQ-720P hand-held cameras will be used for acquisition. The 720p cameras generate 60 progressive frames/second to produce high definition images free from interlace artifacts. - AJ-HD2700 1080i/720p D-5 HD VTRs will be used for recording the operas. - AJ-UFC1800 Universal Format Converters make it possible to convert television signals between video formats recognized under the US ATSC-DTV standard. The Panasonic HDTV production truck is also outfitted with equipment from other video manufacturers, including Canon, Chyron, Fujinon, Leitch, NVision, Pluto, Snell & Wilcox, Tektronix, Tiernan and SGI . Los Angeles, California-based Panasonic Broadcast & Television Systems Co. (NYSE/PCX: MC) is a leading supplier of broadcast and professional digital video and audio products and systems. Panasonic Broadcast is dedicated to providing customers with comprehensive equipment choices, from Emmy AwardÆ-winning D-5 high definition and DVCPRO digital VTRs to ultra-bright presentation systems and advanced digital audio mixing consoles.