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Snell & Wilcox Launches Synapse Metadata Engine at NAB 2003

da Vinci Systems announced as first OEM to incorporate new metadata management technology

Las Vegas, Nevada, NAB 2003, Booth C2860 -- Snell & Wilcox enters the world of software OEM technology with its launch of the Synapse Metadata Server for systems manufacturers at this year's NAB convention, where it will be on display for the first time by both Snell & Wilcox and da Vinci Systems (Booth C2518). Synapse is a hardware-agnostic, cross-platform solution allowing for easy adoption of emerging metadata standards such as AAF (Advanced Authoring Format). The versatility and openness of the technology easily allows manufacturers to avoid the threat of becoming a "metadata brick wall" by managing valuable embedded program metadata at any point in the workflow.

With the rapidly growing need for metadata management in post-production and broadcast applications, Synapse has been designed around the AAF object model to offer one of the highest levels of metadata compliance in the industry. To implement Synapse support, a simple software interface is added to any existing application, virtually eliminating the workload of implementing and keeping up-to-date with a multitude of rapidly evolving metadata standards. da Vinci Systems, the first OEM to incorporate Synapse technology, will display its Server IO 2K digital intermediate conforming solution with Synapse at its booth.

Stephane Blondin, Snell & Wilcox Authoring Product Manager, said: "Our collaboration with da Vinci offers an exceptional opportunity to demonstrate the powerful metadata exchange and conforming capabilities of Synapse. This partnership is an ideal first step to show Snell & Wilcox's commitment to becoming a leader in Metadata Management. We've been instrumental to the development of MXF and we're now expanding our offering with AAF and EDL interchange capabilities."

In addition to AAF, Synapse supports CMX, Sony and GVG EDLs and offers built-in 24/25/30 fps traceback allowing users to easily import standard PAL/NTSC AAF or EDL offline lists into 24p projects. Synapse also supports other popular metadata formats such as FLEx and DPX with many others in the works including MXF (Material Exchange Format for broadcast metadata applications), serving as a central repository of metadata for a variety of broadcast and production/post-production applications.

David Cunningham, Press Relations Manager, Snell & Wilcox, Southleigh Park, Southleigh Park House, Havant, Hampshire, UK PO9 2PE, UK
Tel: +44 23 9248 9144
Email: david.cunningham@snellwilcox.com



Snell & Wilcox is an electronics design, manufacture and engineering group with an international reputation for the development of advanced image communications technologies for the world's broadcast television, video, satellite, cable, film and image communications industries. The company is dedicated to preserving the true content of the moving video image. Snell & Wilcox Ltd. is based in Hampshire, England with offices all over the world.