Non-Profit Portland Station Purchases 30 JVC Camcorders
Story Highlights
Portland Community Media TV has taken delivery of 30 new JVC GY-HM100 ProHD camcorders. Based out of Portland, OR, Portland Community Media TV (PCM-TV) is a a nonprofit organization dedicated to community access media production, video training workshops, and video production services for government and nonprofit agencies.
The camcorders are being used to train the general public, from seventh graders to senior citizens, many of whom have never used a video camera. Once trained, these community members can help produce original shows that air on any of the seven Comcast cable channels managed by PCM-TV that reach a half-million households in the Greater Portland region, as well as Internet outlets.
“Compared to other leading camcorders we demoed, the JVC GY-HM100 offered the best HD picture quality and performance for the price,” says Ray Larson, chief engineer for PCM-TV. “It also offered tremendous user-friendliness—an important consideration since many of our users are novices—without sacrificing the features and versatility of a more expensive HD camcorder.”
The compact, lightweight JVC GY-HM100 ProHD camcorder offers a file-based workflow using inexpensive SDHC solid-state media and native file recording for Apple Final Cut Pro. PCM-TV viewed this capability as an opportunity to transition from DVCAM tape to an efficient, tapeless production workflow.
Besides conducting training workshops and production sessions for the general public, a mainstay of PCM-TV’s business is producing polished video productions for government and non-profit agencies.
“To handle the demanding workload brought to us by our diverse clientele, we need to have a wide array of cameras and camcorders suited to every task level, and of course, in ample supply,” says Larson. “So another key consideration for us was the fact that the new JVC GY-HM100 complements the other camcorders we have in-house, most of which are also JVC. While we’re not trying to promote any specific camera brand to our clients, there are advantages to standardizing on the familiar operational approach offered by the entire user-friendly, affordable ProHD product line.”