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KNME-TV Uses Snell & Wilcox MEMPHIS to Re-encode HD Content for Delivery Alongside New Datacasting Service

Re-encoding of HD Content at Lower Bit Rate Without Image Degradation Enables Use of Extra Bandwidth for Digital TV Datacasting Services

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BURBANK, Calif. - August 22, 2006 - Snell & Wilcox today announced that Albuquerque, N.M.-based KNME-TV is the first PBS station to use the company's MEMPHIS HD encoder to enable 24-hour HD broadcasting alongside a new datacasting service. The Snell & Wilcox MEMPHIS system allows KNME-TV to re-encode the 18-MB/s HD feed from PBS to a 15.5-MB/s signal without compromising image quality, and this bit-rate reduction in turn frees up the bandwidth necessary for delivery of both HD broadcasts and IP datacasting services over a 19.39-MB/s ATSC bit stream.

"We evaluated a lot of MPEG-2 encoders and found nothing that came close to the quality of the MEMPHIS," said Jim Gale, director of engineering at KNME. "It allows us to achieve the added bit-rate reduction we needed to deliver not only HD broadcasts, but also datacasting services, which are a source of revenue for our station. We have found that the pre-processing capability of the MEMPHIS is so good that the resulting image is actually better than the incoming feed, with less noise and improved colorimetry, and we really can't see any degradation going from 18 MB/s to 15.5 MB/s."

KNME-TV, the first Albuquerque station to take HD signals to air, has installed the MEMPHIS system in its TV studios at the University of New Mexico. The station transmits HD signals to a 120-mile radius around Albuquerque, as well as to southern Colorado and Taos, New Mexico. With the ability to re-encode HD signals at a high quality level and lower bit rate, KNME-TV will be able to deliver in its digital TV signal DVD-quality movies to members of a subscription service, interactive TV program guides, software updates and other types of information services and multimedia content. The Snell & Wilcox MEMPHIS also is valuable for ingest, DVD authoring, satellite uplink, and long-haul transmission on fiber to other studios.

MEMPHIS is an SD and HD MPEG-2 encoder that combines two Emmy® Award-winning technologies from Snell & Wilcox - PREFIX compression preprocessing and Ph.C, the industry's most powerful and accurate motion estimation technology - to deliver superior results at a given bit rate when compared to any competing system available today. MEMPHIS integrates seamlessly into existing environments, accepting inputs in both SD and HD 1080/720 formats, uncompressed PCM, MP1L2, Dolby E, and AC-3 audio, and encoding material at any MPEG-2 profile.

"KNME-TV has been a leader in adopting technologies that improve the breadth and quality of its broadcast services," said Jonathan Goldstein, president, Americas at Snell & Wilcox. "The station's audience represents a sophisticated mix, comprised of technologically aware viewers from the university and high-tech industry, so the success of HD broadcasts in that community really does depend on the quality of the images KNME-TV provides. With its unique combination of processing technologies, the MEMPHIS provides this quality, with bandwidth to spare."

More information about the MEMPHIS and other Snell & Wilcox products is available at www.snellwilcox.com.

KNME-TV, on air since May 1, 1958, is a service of The University of New Mexico and Albuquerque Public Schools, broadcasting classroom lectures from a makeshift studio in a converted sorority house. In the 40 years since its first broadcasts, KNME has expanded its service, but its mission is still the same: to provide the citizens of central and northern New Mexico with quality television and educational opportunities.

KNME has been a nationally recognized educational service for 40 years, producing programs that have been broadcast nationwide, such as TV KINDERGARTEN, SURVIVING COLUMBUS and ¡COLORES! The station has earned a reputation for excellence in program production and has been honored with the Emmy and the George Foster Peabody Awards. More information is available at www.knmetv.org.

Snell & Wilcox designs and builds the world's most advanced systems for video playout, mastering, repurposing, infrastructure, and live production switching. Providing solutions that deliver immediate value while enabling a controlled and cost-effective transition to HD and file-based systems, the company serves a worldwide base of customers in the broadcast, post-production, cable, satellite, and IPTV markets. 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.

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Snell & Wilcox, Putting Pictures to Work, MEMPHIS, PREFIX and Ph.C are all trademarks of the Snell & Wilcox Group. All other trademarks mentioned herein are acknowledged as the property of their respective owners.