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Snell & Wilcox Mach1 Trade-In Program Offers Affordable, High-Quality Motion-Compensated Conversion

Mach1 Delivers Unparalleled Quality and Flexibility Compared With Similarly Priced Standards Conversion Solutions

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Now broadcasters can trade in any analog or digital standards converter and receive a generous trade-in allowance on a new Kudos Plus Mach1 M.Sc, the bestselling motion-compensated converter from Snell & Wilcox.

Priced in the same range as a four-field converter, the Mach1 M.Sc delivers far superior motion-compensated conversion quality and ― with integrated aspect ratio conversion and both analog and digital I/Os ― facilitates a smooth, controlled, and cost-effective transition to digital broadcasting. Under the trade-in program, Snell & Wilcox will offer a credit greater than the second-hand value of the customer’s old converter toward the purchase of a new Mach1.

“The Mach 1 has been a consistent Snell & Wilcox bestseller because it provides very high image quality in a compact package at a uniquely low price point,” said Joe Zaller, the company’s vice president of marketing and product management. “The generous allowances built into our Mach1 trade-in program make it easier and more affordable for broadcasters to update their existing facilities with a superior standards converter that has a proven record in broadcast plants, cable and satellite transmission facilities, and OB vans across the globe.”

Broadcast companies that have recently added Mach1 systems to their facilities include Globecast and Eutel in France, DirecTV and EchoStar in the United States, and Gearhouse in the United Kingdom, as well as sportscasters LA Turf and ESPN, newscasters ABC and Reuters, and music broadcaster MTV.

While older converters are likely to have only analog interfaces, the 1-RU Mach1 handles either analog or digital signals and can convert video to and from PAL, NTSC, and SECAM, as well as 10-bit SDI signals, while also handling AES audio. In addition to built-in aspect ratio conversion, a key capability for DTV broadcasting, the system also boasts an all-10-bit data path.

Snell & Wilcox M.Sc motion vectors enable motion-compensated conversion for excellent image quality, which is in turn enhanced through noise reduction featuring recursive and median filtering. The Mach1’s clean motion portrayal of frame-rate conversion produces video that is not just good to look at, but is also compression-friendly, helping to minimize unnecessary motion data in MPEG-2 bitstreams.

More information about how to make a cost-effective upgrade to the Mach1 from an old standards converter is available at www.snellwilcox.com.

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.

Americas Press Contact: Laura Schoeggl, Wall Street Communications, Phone: +1 253 404 0020. Email: laura@wallstreetcom.tv.

EMEA Press Contact: Karen David, Wall Street Communications Europe, Phone: +44 (0) 1865 310422. Email: karen@wallstreetcom.tv.

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