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Snell & Wilcox Announces MediaX - PCI-based "Engine" for a New Generation of Low-Cost, Open Standards Broadcast Products

MediaX Allows Broadcasters to Lower Costs by Using Standard 'Off-the-Shelf' PC Hardware

Leverages Snell & Wilcox Core Technologies to the IT Domain --

Hampshire, England, April 7, 2004 -- Snell & Wilcox announced the introduction today of MediaX, a dual-channel PCI card designed to be the "engine" for a host of new broadcast applications running on generic PC hardware.

MediaX can serve as the heart of a wide range of new software applications. Snell & Wilcox used MediaX as the platform for its new Comet open standards ingest system and plans to develop additional applications for it. Third party OEM vendors are currently developing applications for the platform including ingest and playout servers, character generators, logo inserters and non-linear editors.

"MediaX is designed to bring Snell & Wilcox's core algorithms and signal processing expertise to the IT domain," said Simon Derry, chief executive of Snell & Wilcox. "Because MediaX complies with the new MXF file standard, it fits into our vision of helping our broadcast customers lower their costs and revolutionize their workflow by harnessing the power of generic computer technology rather than costly proprietary systems.

"By making this platform available to third-parties via OEM channels we will speed the proliferation of open-standards hardware available to broadcasters who wish to choose best of breed solutions from multiple interoperable vendors."

Advanced features of the MediaX card include:

• Dual simultaneous encoding and/or decoding of most-widely used formats of MPEG2, including D-10
• Up to 8 channels of 24 bit, 48 kHz audio
• High speed, multiple graphic frame buffers for CG/Logo support
• Real-time MXF encoding, decoding and legacy file format-ready SDK
• SDI, SDTI-CP and ASI/DVB digital I/O
• Instantaneous CODEC response for outstanding responsiveness
• Multiple board support in a single chassis
• Field programmable architecture

Beyond being a PC card "engine," Derry said MediaX represents a corporate progression of Snell & Wilcox into a new phase as a supplier of both hardware and software to broadcasters.

"In the coming months, our customers will see new products developed around the MediaX card," said Derry. "At NAB, we will demonstrate the card with new software that transforms a PC into a low-cost ingest station for the front end of an asset management system and playout servers. We'll also show MediaX paired with a new version of Mosalina, our quality control software.

"As we develop new software applications to support it, MediaX will be able to serve as the engine of an acquisition/playout server, an MPEG-2 encoder, a transcoder, an image processor or any of dozens of specific functions. The uses of MediaX are endless. All that changes is the software that we or third party companies write for it."

Soon, Derry noted, "in addition to Snell & Wilcox components that you mount in a rack, you'll find packaged software products under our brand that you will simply insert into the CD slot of your PC. That's a huge shift for us, but one that supports the needs of our customers and the creative output of our engineers."

At NAB 2004 (Booth #C6421), MediaX will also be demonstrated working with Snell & Wilcox's development tools and sample applications. Solutions will also be shown by existing OEM partners for the card. These include demonstrations with Vector3's Vectorbox and IBM's General Parallel File System (GPFS).

The MediaX card is available for immediate delivery

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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.

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