Another new product unveiled by Sony at the NAB was the Sony PDW-U1 External Drive which is also part of the company's XDCAM® line of tapeless acquisition. While Sony has not released any specs we do know that the PDW-U1 features in the company's new optical-disc based XDCAM products.

The Sony PDW-U1 External Drive support both single- and dual-layer versions of Sony’s Professional Disc™ media for the XDCAM system, which enables recording up to approximately 100 minutes at 50Mbps HD 4:2:2.

“These new MPEG-based 4:2:2 products, including a camcorder and companion deck, will support the same media, the same proxy A/V, the same metadata, and the same file format as existing XDCAM gear,” said Bob Ott, vice president of optical and networked systems for Sony Electronics.

“Our XDCAM series of products will continue to evolve to meet the needs of the industry and continue to offer flexible, more capable and more affordable production systems,” Ott said.