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Snell & Wilcox Introduces iCR Version 3.0 at the 2008 NAB Show

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Major Upgrade to Multi-Award Winning Content Repurposing Platform Dramatically Improves Flexibility and Operational Ease; Adds Comprehensive Video Conversion Tools; Offers Integrated Review and Quality Control Tools; and Enhanced Codec Support

iCR V3.0 Highlights:

• Comprehensive format conversion for HD and SD video formats include resolution, aspect ratio, scan, and color space conversion with automated audio retiming.

• Alchemist IP motion compensated SD standards conversion brings dramatically improved quality and speed to file-based software conversion.

• Advanced MPEG-4 authoring tools, including professional conversion and encoding, delivers exceedingly high quality deliverables in smaller file sizes.

• Major enhancements to realtime review and QC tools, including expanded codec and file support, enhanced QC reports, XML-based integration to asset management systems, and frame accurate review at full resolution on a professional display.

• New plug-in API enables users to integrate iCR into any workflow environment easily.

• Enhanced SOAP/Web services interface offers simple integration to environments that are controlled by automation and asset management systems.

HAMPSHIRE, U.K. -- Feb. 19, 2008 -- Snell & Wilcox today announced iCR V3.0, a major upgrade to its multi-award winning integrated content repurposing platform. Version 3.0 adds dozens of new features to the iCR platform and enables users to industrialize and streamline their file-based video repurposing operations reliably while achieving higher quality and lower bit rates.

iCR V3.0 features new universal conversion tools that enable users to create multiple variants of HD and SD programs easily while remaining in the file-based domain. Through a simple wizard that makes operations intuitive while reducing operational errors and complexity, users can perform, in a single step, complex conversions that include resolution, aspect ratio, and color space conversion, as well as advanced deinterlacing, film pulldown removal, and automated audio retiming.

Standards conversion in iCR V3.0 is handled by software-based Alchemist IP, which now delivers a level of quality that rivals Snell & Wilcox's world renowned hardware systems. Significant performance improvements also increase operational efficiency and allow practical operation in a pure file-based environment.

Advanced MPEG-4 authoring capabilities include encoding to ASP, H.263 and H.264 (AVC), AAC, AMR, and Dolby D audio, as well as file wrapping for a diverse range of outputs including ATSC, DVB and CableLabs Transport Streams, ISO MP4, 3GP, and QuickTime®. This allows iCR to create professional quality deliverables for a very broad range of content delivery platforms including mobile TV, broadband TV (Web), VOD, IPTV, and portable media players.

With as much as 40 percent of a typical customer’s ingested content needing to be re-encoded due to issues that could have been detected and fixed easily at the mastering stage, the system’s realtime QC functionality has proven to be a key productivity enabler. Quality control functions now include onscreen display of output levels and alarm states, as well as a large number of fully automated functions. The user can now generate, review, and annotate quality control reports, and export XML-based reports to asset management systems.

Finally, iCR 3.0 offers enhanced enterprise-level integration with a new plug-in API that allows easy expansion of the system’s capabilities and accommodating of any specific workflow requirements. Additionally, through strong scripting support and a SOAP/Web Service interface, iCR offers an unrivalled solution to enterprise-level integration for mastering, repurposing, and quality control.

iCR 3.0 enables its users to create high-quality, error-free digital masters of their content and repurpose them for distribution on multiple revenue-generating platforms. It offers support for a wide range of codecs including MPEG-2/IMX, MPEG-4, DV, DVCPRO, QuickTime, and uncompressed video -- offering streamlined repurposing support for a wide range of devices, including HDTV displays, VOD, IPTV and broadcast playout servers, Web, mobile phones, and portable media players.

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, postproduction, cable, satellite, mobile TV, 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. Further information is available at www.snellwilcox.com.

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

Snell & Wilcox, Putting Pictures to Work, iCR, and Alchemist IP are trademarks of the Snell & Wilcox Group. All other trademarks mentioned herein are acknowledged as property of their respective owners.