JVC executives were a happy bunch at the company’s press luncheon today–promoting the latest steps in JVC’s PROHD strategy to bring “HD to the masses.” They touted the GYHD-200U HDV camcorder, bulked up for 60p acquisition; the GYHD-250U camcorder, with a studio conversion kit; the SA-HD50U HDV MPEG-2 encoder/decoder; and a 48-inch, 3-chip, DILA reference monitor capable of showing images at 1920×1080, called the DLA-HRM1.

But, personally, I was most struck by the company’s announcement of an initiative with DuArt Film Lab of New York. That initiative is called the Digital Den, and is essentially being designed as a resource center, based at DuArt and using JVC display technology, for independent filmmakers who are trying to design workflows and solve problems for their projects.

The reason I was struck by the announcement is the fact that DuArt is the oldest film lab in the world, and has for decades served the specific needs of indie filmmakers laboring under tight budgets. The Digital Den, officials from both JVC and DuArt insist, will continue that mission, even as it helps to make the film lab’s infrastructure relevent even to those movie-makers who making digital movies. It seems like a cool way for DuArt to stay current with the rapidly shifting filmmaking paradigm. Quite interesting.

Also, as a side note, renowned television DP Rodney Charters attended the JVC lunch. Charters, of course, shoots the runaway Fox hit, “24,” using film cameras. But, he told me, he is investigatinga wide range of digital cameras, including the company’s newest camcorders for all sorts of potential specialty work, on “24″ and elsewhere.

Rodney, however, steadfastly refused to say if Jack Bauer will survive hunting down the bad guys at the end of this season. But one thing he did let slip: there’s a submarine involved! How’s that for “bonus coverage?” You never know what you might learn in our blogs …