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Snell & Wilcox's New High Definition Compression Pre-Processor Frees Up Bandwidth While Improving Picture Quality

Prefix-HD CPP1000 Sets New Performance Standard

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Hampshire, England, April 5, 2004 -- Building on an installed based of more than 1,000 standard definition compression pre-processors, Snell & Wilcox announced today the introduction of the CPP1000 Prefix-HD, a new multi-standard high-definition compression pre-processor that provides the dual benefits of improved picture quality for viewers and lower bandwidth usage for cable, satellite, and terrestrial TV broadcasters.

The bandwidth savings that Prefix-HD delivers provides real benefits to users in the form of increased revenues and short pay-back time. For example, when using Prefix-HD with film-originated content, operators can achieve a bit rate saving of 3Mbit/s with a modest degree of pre-processing and 5Mbit/s with a more aggressive setting. The bit rate savings provided by Prefix-HD enables broadcasters and pay-TV operators to add extra HDTV channels to their line-up without having to add bandwidth. It is also a valuable production tool for content owners who are mastering programs for HD video-on-demand (VOD) delivery.

"Distribution of HDTV content puts broadcasters and pay television operators in a quandary. Viewers have high expectations of quality, yet delivering this quality puts a strain on available transmission bandwidth because as the required quality level goes up, the aggregate bandwidth per channel goes down," said Andy Major, product manager for Snell & Wilcox compression pre-processing products. "Prefix-HD addresses this dilemma by conditioning HDTV signals prior to compression. Prefix-HD produces significantly better picture quality than can be achieved with no pre-processing at all, while freeing up valuable bandwidth for cost reductions or additional channels and services."

Prefix-HD reduces noise-related artifacts in HDTV video in the pre-compression stage, so broadcasters can avoid encoding artifacts such as excessive film grain and video noise. The resulting pictures are clean and stable, result is better bandwidth efficiency and increased picture quality.

How compression pre-processing frees up bandwidth
Because of the random nature of both noise and motion in video images, compression encoders cannot distinguish between them. Therefore, annoying picture artifacts such as excessive film grain and noise are encoded along with the essential picture elements. Without pre-processing to reduce these noise-related artifacts, encoded video is "bloated", requiring increased bandwidth to be of an acceptable quality level. This inefficient use of bandwidth resources results in the need for greater channel capacity at a higher cost.

It also results in lower quality pictures because noise and other signal artifacts can frequently result in visible blockiness and a speckle effect often called mosquito noise. These imperfections can be the source of viewer complaints, especially on premium HD subscription channels where video quality is expected to achieve the highest standard. Prefix-HD is the only product available that can eliminate these problems effectively and economically.

Thanks to sophisticated noise and grain management, and powerful Snell & Wilcox techniques to remove unwanted signal artifacts, the bit-rate needed to compress the output of the Prefix-HD is reduced. This means that valuable bandwidth can be freed up by the broadcaster for cost reduction or additional channels and services. For the viewers, this means greater choice of high quality HDTV programming.

The algorithms used in the Prefix-HD represent the culmination of nearly two decades of Snell & Wilcox experience in high-definition signal processing and build on the company's multi-award winning Prefix CPP100 standard definition compression pre-processor, which has an installed base of more than 1,000 units.

Prefix-HD CPP1000 Technical Specifications
Housed in a compact 2RU enclosure, the Prefix-HD offers linear filtering, color gamut legalizer 4:4:4 internal processing, and supports AES, AC3 and Dolby E™ audio. It also offers advanced metadata handling and insertion, including flagging cuts and 3:2 cadences in order to further maximize encoder efficiency. Like all Snell & Wilcox infrastructure products, it offers fully networked set-up, control and monitoring capability through RollCall. Included dual redundant power supplies make Prefix-HD ultra-reliable for mission critical transmission environments.

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SNELL & WILCOX is a world-leading 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 Inc. has offices throughout the United States and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California. Snell & Wilcox Ltd. is based in Hampshire, England with offices all over the world. Visit www.snellwilcox.com for more information.

Americas Press Contact: Robin Hoffman, Pipeline Communications, 277 Valley Way, Montclair, New Jersey. Phone: 973-746-6970, Fax: 973-746-6701 or Email: robinh@pipecomm.com.

International Press Contact: Karen David, Wall Street Communications Europe, River House, 54 Bardwell Road, Oxford OX2 6ST. Tel 01865 512662 or Email: karen@wallstreetcom.tv.