Sergio Brighel: "A "DV Class” has developed"

According to Sergio Brighel, technical director of Trans Audio Video, Italy, who held a lecture at the 2008 Sachtler retailer meeting, the few letters PD-150 stand for "the" change in the video landscape. Although originally not designed for professionals, this small camera brought about a "revolution". From his point of view the Sony PD-150’s entry into the market at the end of the 90's, was a breakthrough: acceptable quality at low cost meant that the film and video market suddenly opened up for thousands of new players. For this new type of cameramen, Brighel coined the term "DV Class". "Due to the advent of new camera types financial resources are no longer crucial, often the way of production will be “calibrated” to meet the available budget.”

The DV Class is defined by know-how which hasn’t been acquired traditionally. “This group gather information via the Internet, experience no longer plays such a crucial role.” A further important change to the traditional structures is that due to the digitisation of the world the exchange of information is immediate. "New technology trends from the USA are no longer delayed coming to Europe. Thus hype topics and myths about products and technologies are spread quickly and uncontrolled ", observes Sergio Brighel. He is worried that with these new possibilities, the quality of productions could suffer. "The paradigm, the better the equipment, the better the result, no longer applies. Especially with news, short movies, low-budget films and simple OB films the focus is on content rather than quality. " Brighel reckons that the film industry will also be increasingly affected by these developments, followed by the traditional broadcast and TV market.