Also known as ½" Type L, it was developed as a component-recording professional format to be able to use consumer cassettes Betamax. Betacam records an analog component signal, meaning it is split into three separate channels: luminance, chrominance, and hue. This splitting of channels provides a crisp, true broadcast quality product with 300 lines of resolution.
In 1986 Betacam SP was developed. SP (Superior Performance) was an industry standard for most TV stations and high-end production houses up until the late 1990s. It has 340 lines of resolution.
Both were was superseded by Digital Betacam, which was launched in 1993.
In 1996 Betacam SX was created. It is a digital format targeted for engineering and newsroom use. It can be sent back to the studio at 2x speed on a standard DS0-3 data connection.