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Liberty Corporation Selects Range of Snell & Wilcox Solutions For Infrastructure of Company-Wide DTV Rollout

Analog to digital conversion, signal upconversion and networked control and monitoring provided for all 15 of company's broadcast television stations

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SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA, April 24, 2003 -- Snell & Wilcox announced that Liberty Corporation has purchased a range of Snell & Wilcox IQ Modular intelligent infrastructure products and HD5200 upconverters for its 15 television stations in the United States. The equipment, currently operating at 11 of the 15 stations, comprises a major portion of the broadcaster's DTV rollout project. The remaining stations will switch on their digital infrastructures over the next several months.

The IQ Modular systems are housed in 3RU Enclosure rack frames and are installed in single- rack DTV solutions designed for each station. Audio and video synchronization is maintained during the video decode and upconversion process by automated tracking delays. After a signal passes through the IQ Modular system, it is sent to the HD5200 for upconversion and then passes to the HD master control switcher. The IQ Modular enclosures and HD5200s are networked with Snell & Wilcox's RollCall Infrastructure Management system and managed from computer stations for device control and monitoring of the signal flow.

Eric Bergman, Chief Engineer at Liberty Corporation station WTOL-TV in Toledo, Ohio, was in charge of the DTV rack design. According to Bergman, the Snell & Wilcox equipment was thoroughly tested against a large number of competitive products and won the contract due to its high performance, conversion quality and upgradeability.

"The paramount reason for choosing the IQ Modular systems was the high quality of the analog to digital video conversion," said Bergman. "However, the packing density of the enclosures was also important. With slots for up to 16 modules, we have plenty of room to add more cards as our DTV systems expand. On top of that, Snell & Wilcox offers such a wide range of functionality in this series that it reduces the number of vendors needed to support the design of the system. If there is a problem at one of our stations, they have a module to fix it. The long-term value of these systems is incredible."

Bergman added that the HD5200 far surpassed the company's requirements for upconversion equipment. "One integral feature of the HD5200 is its accommodation of vertical interval data that is carried in standard and high definition video. This means that source video with data living in line 21 is transposed onto the HD output. Other systems tested did not afford this luxury and required a separate unit to transpose this data. The HD5200 takes care of audio delay steering, video and ancillary data in one platform," he said.

The Snell & Wilcox IQ Modular solutions, RollCall Network Control & Management systems, and HD5200 upconverters are currently installed or in the process of being added in the following Liberty Corporation television stations: eight NBC affiliates (WAVE-TV, Louisville, KY; WIS-TV, Columbia, SC; WLBT-TV, Jackson, MS; WFIE-TV, Evansville, IN; WSFA-TV, Montgomery, AL; KCBD-TV, Lubbock, TX; WALB-TV, Albany, GA and KPLC-TV, Lake Charles, LA); five ABC affiliates (KLTV-TV, Tyler, TX; KTRE-TV, the satellite affiliate of KLTV in Lufkin, TX; WLOX-TV, Biloxi, MS; WWAY-TV, Wilmington, NC and KAIT-TV, Jonesboro, AR); and two CBS affiliates (WTOL-TV, Toledo, OH and KGBT-TV, Harlingen, TX).

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.

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