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Snell & Wilcox and Omneon Video Networks Integrate Mastering and Server Offerings to Provide Best-of-Breed Playout Solution

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LAS VEGAS (NAB2005) - April 19, 2005 -- Giving broadcasters a new mastering and playout solution that will help reduce costs and streamline workflows, Snell & Wilcox and Omneon Video Networks today announced that the Snell & Wilcox MEMPHIS broadcast mastering encoder has been successfully integrated with the Omneon Spectrum™ video server.

This best-of-breed solution provides for the highest-quality MPEG-2 encoding along with the highest level of control over media assets during ingest. Both SD- and HD-compatible to give customers the flexibility needed in today's broadcast environments, the combined solution has undergone extensive testing to ensure robust plug-and-play performance.

"The combination of our MEMPHIS encoder and Omneon's Spectrum server is a solution that maximizes the quality we can deliver to customers," said Joe Zaller, vice president of marketing and product management at Snell & Wilcox. "This makes sense for our customers, and it makes sense for Snell & Wilcox and Omneon. We look forward to further opportunities to bring our complementary product ranges together to give customers top quality and efficiency in the broadcast chain."

Geoff Stedman, vice president of marketing at Omneon, said, "The open architecture approach that we've always taken at Omneon was intended to facilitate just these kinds of collaborative efforts - efforts that give our customers even more freedom to choose. The integration of the outstanding encoding technology from Snell & Wilcox will certainly be a great benefit to the types of broadcasters that we serve."

Based on two Emmy® Award-winning technologies from Snell & Wilcox - Ph.C phase correlation motion estimation and Prefix compression pre-processing

-- the Snell & Wilcox MEMPHIS encoder accepts both SD and HD 1080/720 formats as well as uncompressed PCM, MP1L2, Dolby E, and AC-3 audio. It can encode at any MPEG-2 profile including 4:2:0 and 4:2:2, CBR/VBR, and I-Frame/Long GOP up to 175 Mbps. Using the SMPTE 302M standard for audio encoding, both compressed and non-compressed audio streams can be embedded by MEMPHIS into the MPEG-2 output and then captured, stored, and automatically routed at playout by the Omneon Spectrum to suit customer requirements. Additional MEMPHIS features include support for EIA-608 and

EIA-708 closed caption extraction as per SMPTE 334M and for the SMPTE 328M GOP timecode standard.

An exceptionally cost-effective and flexible media server designed for the professional television industry, the Omneon Spectrum provides a reliable and scalable infrastructure for broadcast playout and storage applications.

Omneon's server system is built on an open architecture that allows it to support a broad variety of third-party applications for control and transmission, media management, archiving, and collaborative production. As a result, stored media can be shared among many users and applications. The scalable, distributed architecture of the modular Omneon Spectrum server system also offers users maximum flexibility in scaling system components and capacity in small or large increments as desired. The system is available in a broad range of configurations to meet the specific needs of each installation, including simultaneous HD and SD playout.

Snell & Wilcox, the leader in its field, delivers technologies and products that enable television and satellite broadcasters, post-production facilities, filmmakers, and communications professionals to move content seamlessly between analog, digital, high definition, and file-based systems and to bridge the world's multiplicity of line/field and color standards.

The company provides switchers and keyers, standards conversion systems, networked infrastructure components, and products for noise reduction, image enhancement, and restoration. In business since 1973, Snell & Wilcox maintains its U.S. headquarters in Burbank, Calif., and European headquarters in Hampshire, U.K. Additional offices are located in New York, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Lebanon, Malaysia, and Russia. Visit: www.snellwilcox.com for more information.

Omneon Video Networks is the leading provider of cost-effective and flexible networked media servers for the broadcast and video industry. The company's unique strategy integrates a strong foundation in broadcast with the best practices of information technology, giving its customers the best of both worlds. Because Omneon Spectrum media server systems are based on an open and advanced architecture, broadcast and video professionals are able to minimize both upfront and ongoing expenses, while gaining the flexibility to capitalize on emerging opportunities. Omneon pioneered the use of open systems in broadcast and, as a result, receives wide support from the application developer community. Visit Omneon on the Web at www.omneon.com.

Snell & Wilcox, Engineering with Vision, Alchemist, Ph.C, Kudos, Magic Dave, IQ Modular, RollCall, RollTrack, Mosalina, Niagra, and Kahuna are all trademarks of the Snell & Wilcox Group.