In this paper we describe the first data release of the the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy ( VISTA ) Deep Extragalactic Observations ( VIDEO ) survey .
VIDEO is a \sim~ { } 12 degree ^ { 2 } survey in the near-infrared Z , Y , J , H and K _ { s } bands , specifically designed to enable the evolution of galaxies and large structures to be traced as a function of both epoch and environment from the present day out to z=4 , and active galactic nuclei ( AGN ) and the most massive galaxies up to and into the epoch of reionization .
With its depth and area , VIDEO will be able to fully explore the period in the Universe where AGN and starburst activity were at their peak and the first galaxy clusters were beginning to virialize .
VIDEO therefore offers a unique data set with which to investigate the interplay between AGN , starbursts and environment , and the role of feedback at a time when it was potentially most crucial .

We provide data over the VIDEO-XMM3 tile , which also covers the Canada-France-Hawaii-Telescope Legacy Survey Deep-1 field ( CFHTLS-D1 ) .
The released VIDEO data reach a 5 \sigma AB-magnitude depth of Z = 25.7 , Y = 24.5 , J = 24.4 , H = 24.1 and K _ { s } = 23.8 in 2 arcsec diameter apertures ( the full depth of Y = 24.6 will be reached within the full integration time in future releases ) .
The data are compared to previous surveys over this field and we find good astrometric agreement with the Two-Micron All Sky Survey , and source counts in agreement with the recently released UltraVISTA survey data .
The addition of the VIDEO data to the CFHTLS-D1 optical data increases the accuracy of photometric redshifts and significantly reduces the fraction of catastrophic outliers over the redshift range 0 < z < 1 from 5.8 to 3.1 per cent in the absence of an i - band luminosity prior .
However , we expect the main improvement in photometric redshifts will come in the redshift range 1 < z < 4 due to the sensitivity to the Balmer and 4000Å breaks provided by the near-infrared VISTA filters .
All images and catalogues presented in this paper are publicly available through ESO ’ s “phase 3” archive and the VISTA Science Archive .