Progressive or Interlaced??? I am curious what the preference will be. Since they like the "live" feel, are they more apt to use 1080i as apposed to shooting progressive?

What are the affiliates who have already made the switch, shooting? Interlaced or progressive? What are they setting the fps at? 30i, 30p?

What stations have already made the switch FULLY to HD? I mean from field to broadcast.

What will be the camera of choice... the 2000 or the 500? ...and does the AVC Intra frame on the 2000 play into that decission?

You can get the "live" look with progressive -- shoot 720/60p. Watch any live event on ABC, ESPN, or Fox, and you'll be watching 720/60p. The Super Bowl, American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance, they're all shot and broadcast as 720/60p.

As to what each individual station is going to want, well, that's up to each station. By and large CBS and NBC affiliates are 1080i, Fox and ABC affiliates are 720p. But if you're considering any one particular station it'd be best to ask them what they'd want.

What will be the camera of choice... the 2000 or the 500? ...and does the AVC Intra frame on the 2000 play into that decission?
Probably depends on each station's budget. If they can afford the 2000, they'll go with the 2000. It has a lot of very nice, news-specific features on it that make it more suitable for news shooting than the 500. But the 500's half the price, so again, depends on their budget.

AVC-I allows the same quality in half the bitrate, so yes that'll factor in to many broadcasters' decisions.

Progressive or Interlaced??? I am curious what the preference will be. Since they like the "live" feel, are they more apt to use 1080i as apposed to shooting progressive?

What are the affiliates who have already made the switch, shooting? Interlaced or progressive? What are they setting the fps at? 30i, 30p?

What stations have already made the switch FULLY to HD? I mean from field to broadcast.

What will be the camera of choice... the 2000 or the 500? ...and does the AVC Intra frame on the 2000 play into that decission?

Most local stations and affliates have spent lots of money going digital; that is standard definition. I look for them at first to remain standard definition for their local programs, including news, and upconvert to HD. After that; they will probably switch to whatever their network is using.

As far as camera of choice goes, well it depends on the broadcast company. Some companies get huge discounts because of their association with vendors. So, for example, if a broadcast company uses Sony for their group, then they are most likely going to buy Sony cameras for all their stations. Of course I'm talking about broadcast companies that own multiple TV stations.

I asked a number of local stations in Albuquerque and Tucson about their workflow for news, and none of them were using HD, and none had any plans to switch to HD. Admittedly, I live in a low population density area, but around here SD is the only game in town.