SIM VIDEO SELECTS FOR-A HVS-3800HS HANABI SWITCHER

Rock-solid reliability of existing FOR-A equipment prompts rental house to add second HANABI switcher

TORONTO, Canada, September 10, 2007 - Sim Video, a premier video production rental house headquartered in Toronto, with offices across Canada, the U.S. and now China, has purchased a second HANABI switcher from FOR-A Corporation. Sim Video selected the HVS-3800HS for use in an HD/SD flight pack. The company provides professional broadcast equipment to production companies throughout North America and chose to add the second FOR-A switcher to meet the recent demand of live productions being produced with Sim Video camera equipment.

"When we work on multi-cam productions that are shot on location as opposed to a fixed studio, we need a flight pack that ships easily from place to place. We customized our flight pack to include the FOR-A switcher," said Rob Sim, President and Founder, Sim Video. "The FOR-A HVS-1000 we currently use has proven itself extremely road-worthy, and we knew the HVS-3800 would be as well. During a live show, we need to handle numerous playback sources as well as a CG with all the titles. The HVS-3800 is well-suited to live productions since it can handle all of that and more."

The HVS-3800HS is designed for both "live-to-air" events and "line-cut" television production applications. Its compact 4RU frame size makes it particularly ideal for mobile production. The switcher uses Arcnet communications to allow long cable runs between the main unit, operational unit and auxiliary remote controls. In standard configuration the unit offers 16 inputs, 16 outputs, and 6 keyers; four of which have high-end chroma key capability. Optionally, users can configure the HVS-3800HS with up to 28 inputs and 23 outputs. It comes with four still stores, which can be loaded from the built-in Compact flash card reader and used as inputs.

The HD- and SD-compatible HVS-3800HS is the third generation of FOR-A's well-known switcher series. It supports all major formats and frame rates, including NTSC, PAL, HD 1080I 50/60/24p/ 23.98SF/25/30, and 720p 50/60 among others.

The ability to work in multiple formats and the option to work in HD or SD also proved a deciding factor for Sim: "We deal with a wide variety of production requirements. Many of our clients have made the transition to HD, but for those who have not, we're still able to meet their needs. FOR-A has distinguished itself among the competition as being compatible with several formats - ideal for those times when we need our equipment to be flexible."


FOR-A is a major manufacturer and distributor of video and audio systems for the broadcast, post production and professional video markets. For more information about FOR-A's product line, call (714) 894-3311 or visit our web site at www.for-a.com.