Thursday is the first day of press conferences, and this year we have a first. Thompson Grass Valley gets the award for holding a press conference in the largest, most difficult to find, fewest-occupied seats of the conference venue (25,000 or so seats). It also gets the award for the first IBC (or NAB for that matter) where there was grass enough for everybody—but you couldn’t touch it.

All jokes aside, Thomson held their press conference in the scenic Amsterdam ArenA, home to the city’s football (or as Americans say, soccer) franchise. On a sun-filled day, Thomson officials announced several key sales and new products for this year’s IBC.

High on the company’s agenda was to demonstrate the new Thomson LDK 8300 3X HD Super SloMo Camera. There were even two soccer, excuse me, football players to help demonstrate the slow motion features, including the ability to selectively operate at 1X, 2X, and 3X speeds. The camera operates at both 1080i and 720p. One key feature is Thomson’s AnyLight flicker reduction technology, which eliminates the flicker often present when slo-motion cameras have to operate on dispirit 50/60 power systems or under with unsynchronized ambient arena lights. The camera has a high signal-to-noise ratio of >57 dB.

Related article: Studio Berlin shoots UEFA EURO 2008 coverage with new HD super slo-mo cameras