Chris Hurd - dinner with DSE? Confirmation re: pro Z1?
 

Chris, you had indicated perhaps you'd be able to clear up 24p etc. with re: to pro Z1 with DSE since he too attended the Govt. Expo preview - just curious if you guys compared notes?

(holding breath starting now)

It was a great dinner, Mark, wish you were there... Paul's Porterhouse is a legendary Dallas icon and if you're ever in that town I highly recommend it for some great steak. Plus it was great to see Spot (DSE) again as I'd missed him at GV Expo. And actually, also in attendence were two guys from Sony; a salesman and an HD engineer who is fully up to speed on HDV and the new cameras.

I asked him point blank -- got about a dozen witnesses -- several things about the pro version, and his response to each question was "Sorry but I can't answer that." They aren't talking. It's very much under wraps. In fact, the *only* thing they could tell me for certain was that a model number has not even been assigned yet and that the designation we're using and that you've seen elsewhere, "HVR-Z1" may not be factual. Maybe it is and maybe it isn't. Officially there is no model number. Sony is staying tight-lipped and I'm sure these guys are enjoying all the speculation! The fellows we had dinner with are great folks, though. Made some new friends.

As for Spot, well he's under NDA. D'oh!!

Chris, thanks for the honest reply...
 

I was starting to suspect as much - that you guys had a tremendous dinner!

Whoa, I'm gonna take the fact that there are no facts yet for awhile as a good sign.

Thanks, Chris!

Okay, just tell us - who paid the bill?

What did the Sony guys eat?

Did anyone order dessert? Because it's starting to look like Sony might be able to have their cake and eat it too.

Ha.

Mark -- take it as a good sign.

About twelve folks attended this dinner. Some were from DV Info and some were from DMN. Then we also had Spot, two Sony reps and two Canon reps. It was a diverse group of people who all shared the same interest in affordable video production. The food, drink and conversation was most excellent!

DV Info Net and V.A.S.S.T. split the bill.

The Sony guys and everyone else had steak, of course! Nobody ordered dessert, but it was brought out to us anyway compliments of Paul's Porterhouse. And yes you could say Sony had their cake and ate it too!

A fine dinner it was and I want to say how much I enjoyed meeting everyone including the Kennelmaster himself. A special thanks to Chris and DSE for picking up the tab. That was NOT expected.

Mark, I will vouch for what Chris told you. Everything was a 'no comment' including a point blank question by Chris about different CCD's in the pro version. We'll just have to wait and see.

regards,

=gb=

Great to meet you there Greg and I'll look you up the next time I'm visiting the wife's folks in Carrollton.

I knew our Sony friends wouldn't be at liberty to discuss things, but, for the benefit of the message boards I thought I'd ask since there were plenty of members present. I figured y'all would back me up here when I reported that they couldn't say anything. Somebody might think, "well, he didn't really ask." But I did, and the answer of course was "no comment," it wouldn't have been anything else but that, but still you have to go through the motions of asking anyway. Kind of like a procedural formality I guess. Journalists go through this sort of thing all the time...