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Roderick Snell Earns Prestigious SMPTE Progress Medal Award

Snell & Wilcox Co-founder Recognized for Significant Contributions to Broadcast Industry

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HAMPSHIRE, U.K. -- Oct. 17, 2006 -- Roderick Snell, founder and research director at Snell & Wilcox, has been selected as the 2006 SMPTE Progress Medal Award recipient. Snell was recognized by the Society of Motion Picture Television Engineers for his more than 40 years in the broadcast industry as an inventor, pioneer, teacher, author, engineer, international consultant, and manufacturer.

The SMPTE Progress Medal Award honors an individual who has made outstanding technical contributions to the progress of engineering phases of the motion picture and/or television industries. The award recognizes an invention or research and development that has resulted in a significant advance in the development of motion picture or television technology. Furthermore, it honors an individual whose technical contributions have been significant over a period of years.

Roderick Snell co-founded Snell & Wilcox in 1973 as a consultancy and began, in the early 1980s, developing cost-effective television standards-conversion for the emerging world broadcast market. Since founding the company, he has seen it grow to become a leading specialist in the art of processing the moving image. The company and its exceptional team of internationally recruited engineers has won multiple Emmy® awards for advanced processing technologies and, with its newest product offerings, continues to earn the industry's highest praise at international exhibitions.

Snell is a visiting professor at the Business School of the University of Kingston, Surrey; a fellow of the Royal Television Society; a governor of the Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers (SMPTE); and a participant in a number of U.K. and European industry initiatives. The latter includes membership on the executive team of the IEE's Multimedia Communications Group and the EU's Information Society Technologies Advisory Group.

In 2001 Snell was presented with the esteemed John Tucker International Award for Excellence at the International Broadcasting Convention (IBC), and in 2002 he delivered the Royal Television Society's prestigious Shoenberg Lecture at BAFTA in commemoration of Sir Isaac Shoenberg, the "father of high definition television."

In addition to founding Snell & Wilcox, one of the world's leading providers of image-processing technologies and solutions, this recipient also has co-founded Snelflight, a company that designs and manufactures the tiny "Hoverfly" indoor model helicopter whose unique technology mimics that of larger outdoor models.

Snell will receive the SMPTE Progress Medal Award from SMPTE President Edward P. Hobson at the society's Honors and Awards Ceremony and Reception during the Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition in Hollywood, Calif., from Oct. 18-21.

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.

Press Contact: Susan Warren, Wall Street Communications, Phone: +1 631 261 1013. E-mail: susan@wallstreetcom.tv.

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