Panasonic To Provide 152-Inch Plasma Display for NBC's Studio Coverage of the Vancouver Winter Games

NEW YORK, Feb. 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Panasonic, a worldwide leader in high definition technology and the Official Worldwide Olympic Partner in the Audio and Visual Equipment category for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games, has been selected to provide its 152-inch Plasma Display Panel to NBC during the network's studio coverage of the Vancouver Winter Games from Vancouver, February 12-28.  The announcement was made today by Randy Raddatz, Vice President, Sourcing and Production Logistics, NBC Olympics and Andrew Nelkin, President, Panasonic Professional Display Company.

According to the agreement, Panasonic will provide NBC with a 152-inch Plasma Display – the world's largest Plasma Display – as well as technical and engineering support.  The Plasma Display will be used in NBC's Broadcast Studio providing high definition images from the competitions to enhance NBC's studio coverage of the Vancouver Olympic Winter Games.

"As a worldwide Olympic partner, Panasonic is honored to be able to provide NBC with our 152-inch Plasma Display for their coverage of the Vancouver Winter Games," said Nelkin.  "Our 152-inch Plasma is the world's largest Plasma Display Panel and is the perfect technology on which to show all of the exciting, fast-paced action and stunning imagery of the Olympic Winter Games."

"Panasonic has clearly established themselves as the leader in large scale, quality plasma display panels," said Raddatz.  "NBC is pleased to work with a worldwide Olympic partner to help enhance our Vancouver studio.  The 152-inch display is truly a world class technological achievement."

Panasonic's 152-inch Plasma Display features a revolutionary new display panel that Panasonic developed with its new super-efficient quadruple luminous efficiency. The 152-inch Plasma delivers dynamic, overwhelming image quality with an 8.84 million pixel resolution (2,160 x 4,096) -- more than four times the 1080p HD specification (1,080 x 1,920) -- also known as 2K x 4K.  The ultra large panel has a screen size equivalent to nine 50-inch Plasma Displays with an effective viewing area of 11.2 feet (or 3.425 m) in width x 5.9 feet (or 1.805 m) in height.  Featuring true-to-life color reproduction capability and quick response to moving images, the ultra-large Plasma display renders clear, crisp, spectacular images unrivalled by any other.

About NBC Olympics

NBC has broadcast 11 Olympics, the most Olympics broadcast by any network. NBC surpassed ABC's 10 Olympics with the 2008 Beijing Games, the most watched television event in U.S. history with 215 million viewers.

The 2010 Vancouver Games mark the sixth of an unprecedented seven consecutive Olympic broadcasts by NBC Sports. The impressive streak began with the 2000 Sydney Games and continues through the 2012 London Games. NBC has broadcast eight of the last 10 Olympic Games, both summer and winter; Vancouver will mark the ninth out of the last 11.

About Panasonic

Panasonic Corporation is a worldwide leader in the development and manufacture of electronic products for a wide range of consumer, business, and industrial needs. Based in Osaka, Japan, the company recorded consolidated net sales of 7.77 trillion yen (US$78.4 billion) for the year ended March 31, 2009. The company's shares are listed on the Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and New York (NYSE: PC) stock exchanges. For more information on the company and the Panasonic brand, visit the company's website at http://panasonic.net.

Panasonic is proud to support the Olympic Movement—aimed at promoting world peace through sports—as an Official Worldwide Olympic Partner in the Audio and Visual Equipment category for more than 20 years since The Olympic Partner (TOP) Program commenced for the Calgary Olympic Winter Games in 1988.  Under the slogan of "Sharing the Passion," Panasonic will contribute to the success of the Olympic Games through its technology. In 2007 Panasonic renewed the partnership with the International Olympic Committee through to the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. For more information please visit http://panasonic.net/olympic/.

SOURCE Panasonic