Avid Selects Zoran JPEG Technology To Bring Video Into The Apple iMAC; iMAC Users Can Now Watch and Capture High Quality Video Using Avid's New USB-Based Video Capture Product

Business Wire, Jan 5, 1999

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 5, 1999--Zoran Corp. (Nasdaq NM:ZRAN), a leading provider of integrated circuits (ICs) and software for digital video and audio compression applications, today announced that Avid Technology (Nasdaq:AVID) and ESKAPE Labs have selected Zoran's highly integrated ZR36060 Motion-JPEG (M-JPEG) codec IC for use in Avid's new Apple (Nasdaq:AAPL) iMac USB video capture peripheral.

ESKAPE worked with Avid to develop this product which is integrated into Avid's new video editing and publishing solution for the iMAC, the Avid Cinema(TM).

The Zoran ZR36060's real-time compression capability enables the iMac to capture high quality 30 frames per second (fps) video through its USB port. This opens up new applications for the iMac, including editing and publishing video for web content, video presentations, video email and video conferencing.

"Avid had a vision of making the power and ease of use of Avid Cinema video editing and publishing software available to the large and growing installed base of Apple iMac users", said Mark Basler, director of Avid's Office and Consumer Division.

"The iMac's sealed case presented a unique design challenge -- how to capture high quality 30fps video through the iMac's USB port. The key enabler to the solution is Zoran's M-JPEG compression technology which compresses the video on-the-fly before it is sent over the USB to the iMac. This is the same Zoran M-JPEG technology that Avid uses in its professional systems and is what enables the high quality video capture on the iMac."

"Without Zoran's M-JPEG compression technology and integrated bit rate control, high quality 30fps video capture for the iMac via the USB wouldn't be possible," said Christopher Knight, executive vice president of sales and marketing for ESKAPE Labs.

"The completeness of Zoran's Video Inlet USB video capture reference design and Zoran's responsive applications support enabled ESKAPE Labs to focus the majority of our engineering resources on developing the drivers and software for the iMac. As a result the product was brought from initial concept to final product within weeks. We look forward to working closely with Zoran on future compression-enabled unique solutions."

"Zoran's goal is to bring affordable, easy-to-use quality video to every desktop," said Dr. Shmuel Farkash, vice president of video products at Zoran. "The combination of Zoran's compression technology, Avid Technology's applications software and ESKAPE Lab's systems expertise will achieve this goal for the Apple iMac. Zoran is looking forward to the development of other unique and innovative iMac peripherals enabled by Zoran compression technology."

In addition to the Avid Technology's USB video capture peripheral, Zoran's M-JPEG compression solutions enable many other leading, award winning, consumer products, including: The Matrox Marvel, the Iomega (NYSE:IOM) Buz, and the Pinnacle (Nasdaq:PCLE) miroDC10plus.

About Avid Technology

Avid Technology, Inc. is an international, industry-leading provider of digital audio and video tools for information and entertainment applications. The company's products are used by a variety of customers worldwide including film, television and interactive content producers, TV news broadcasters, corporate communicators and consumers. For more information, visit Avid's Web site at http://www.avid.com.

About ESKAPE Labs

ESKAPE Labs, Inc., a new start up company, is focused on developing multimedia and visual computing hardware peripherals for the Macintosh market. The company's approach is to deploy these solutions in traditional formats as well as in new technology form factors such as Cardbus, Universal Serial Bus (USB) and IEEE 1394 (also know as FireWire and i.LINK).

Founded by former IXMICRO executives, ESKAPE Labs plans to market these unique peripheral products for the iMac, Powerbook and installed base of Macintosh desktop computers through both OEM relationships and retail channels. With over thirty years of combined Macintosh product development, marketing and sales experience, the company will leverage its considerable Macintosh expertise to bring Mac compatibility to a growing wealth of "Wintel centric" intellectual property.

About Zoran

Zoran Corp. develops and markets software, integrated circuits (ICs) and IC Intellectual Property (IP) cores for digital audio and video applications enabled by compression. Zoran also provides complete reference designs based on Zoran's technology. Zoran's product lines and IP include JPEG codecs, MPEG and DVD decoders, digital audio processors and real-time DVD software for PC's.

All these standard-based products benefit from Zoran's Standard Plus(TM) technology. Zoran's software is bundled by PC and graphics-card manufacturers for software and software assisted DVD playback on PCs. The company's ICs are used in numerous digital audio and video products. Leading applications incorporating Zoran's products and IP include professional and consumer video editing systems, filmless digital cameras, stand alone DVD players, SuperVCD players and PC-based systems, digital speakers and audio systems.