News Releases

10/25/2001

Hitachi's DVDCAM Wins Emmy Award

Oct 25, 2001 09:00 AM

-- National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Recognizes Company for Pioneering Development of Consumer Camcorders and World's First Tapeless CAM--

NEW YORK, NY, October 24, 2001 -- Hitachi America, Ltd, a subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE:HIT) www.hitachi.us, today announced that Hitachi was a recipient of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Emmy Award for "Pioneering Development of Consumer Camcorders." The company's DVD-RAM camcorder (DZ-MV100A) was honored during the Technological/Engineering Emmy Award ceremony, held October 16, 2001 in New York. The ceremony honored companies and individuals for technology breakthroughs that have directly impacted television.

"Since 1979, Hitachi has been at the forefront of consumer electronics camcorder technology," said Yoshihiro Koshimizu, president and CEO of Hitachi America, Ltd.. "The development of the Hitachi DVD CAM represents yet another breakthrough in camcorder technology and is Hitachi's latest innovation to bolster its tradition of inspiring unique and solutions-based multimedia products for the increasingly digital world. We are honored to be recognized by the Academy. Hitachi also is proud to be playing a role in television through its wide range of both consumer electronics and professional broadcast equipment."

Under the guidance of Mr. Norio Ogimoto, currently general manager, Video Equipment Operation, Digital Media Products Division of Hitachi, Ltd., the company initiated development of the DVD CAM unit in 1999. It was first released in Japan October 2000, and in North America in January 2001. Designated the DZ-MV100A, it is the world's first DVD RAM-based camcorder with the ability to record high quality video and still images to a DVD disc instead of tape media.

With a history of innovation in the camcorder and consumer electronics industry, Hitachi produced its first video camera in 1979 and was one of the first manufactures to introduce a VHS camcorder to the consumer market in 1985. Leading the industry towards the future of consumer video recording technology, Hitachi introduced the world's only MPEG-based handheld recorder, the M2 MPEG CAM, in 1997. The predecessor of the DZ-MV100A, the M2 was the first consumer video recorder that could record real-time MPEG-1 movies.