IBC 2000: Grass Valley Group Introduces World's First Cost-Effective News Solution, Unveils Unprecedented Media Storage Capabilities for Profile XP

Business Wire,  July 18, 2000  

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Business/High Tech Editors

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 18, 2000

The Grass Valley Group, a privately held digital media leader, will unveil a set of powerful, software-based enhancements that stretch across its award-winning product lines at the International Broadcasting Convention in Amsterdam (IBC, RAI Centre, 8-12 September, Stand No 1.110).

Addressing a broad set of content creators' needs, the company will introduce the world's first comprehensive, cost-effective solution for hard news production and unveil plans for routing control and facility monitoring systems that gain more control over facility video and IT networks. Additionally, it will announce solutions based on its Emmy(R) award-winning Profile XP Media Platform that provide unprecedented media storage capabilities through Profile XP /SAN (Storage Area Network) integration and that also streamline digital content creation, branding and distribution work flows.

"We're delivering the highest possible technical performance and value to our customers -- our solutions are scalable so preserve the investments broadcasters and others are making in their facilities as they transition to digital, the Internet, and exciting new high-definition applications such as broadcast cinema," said Tim Thorsteinson, president of the Grass Valley Group. "Whether you're focused on creating and e-purposing high-caliber content as broadly as possible or on beating the competition to get your news to air or on the Web first, Grass Valley Group will help you win."

More information about the company's IBC presence can be found at www.grassvalleygroup.com/IBC

The Grass Valley Group works with preeminent content producers worldwide, ranging from BBC, BskyB, TV4, SVT (Swedish Television), NOB (Nederlands Omroepproduktie Bedrijf NV) in Europe and Emirates Media/Abu Dhabi TV in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, to China Central, MCB Korea and KBS Korea, Star TV (India), Tokyo Broadcasting, and the Australian Broadcast Corporation in the Pacific, and ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, and CNN in the United States. The company will play a pivotal role in regionalized coverage of the new millennium's largest sporting event, the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia.

At IBC 2000, the Grass Valley Group will demonstrate the enhanced capabilities of its ContentShare software platform, Profile XP Media Platform, Vibrint digital hard news production solution, WebAble technology, Kalypso Video Production Center, 7500 Series Routers, and 8900 and 2000 modular solutions.

Grass Valley expects to showcase the following at their IBC exhibit. Highlights of the expected Grass Valley Group and IBC announcements include:

-- Introduction of the PAL version of the Vibrint Digital News

Production Workgroup, now featuring interoperability with the

Profile XP Media Platform, product line that will not only

speed the ability to access and manipulate media in fast-paced

hard news environments, but will make it possible to apply

those same efficiencies to getting hard news material onto the

Web, and to apply those capabilities in newsrooms worldwide;

-- The expanded role of the Profile XP Media Platform, which

supports both the high-quality video standards required for

broadcast television and low-resolution video required for the

Internet, as an enabler of broadcasters' and other

professional content creators transition to digital, the

Internet, and building new innovative businesses around high

definition.

-- An MPEG Transport Stream (MTS) option to the Profile XP will

extract more efficiency out of broadcast facilities and

available spectrum via a means of moving data along with audio

and video through the distribution chain by eliminating

unnecessary codec generations in the distribution of MPEG

-- A shared storage option will enable multiple Profile XPs to

simultaneously access common data stored on a centralized disk

array. The SAN (storage area network) based system allows

other devices, such as editors, to also share this same data.

-- Through continued partnering with Microsoft, the Grass Valley

Group will use the Profile XP to show how Interactive

Television can be a reality for broadcasters today -- without

requiring enormous time spent upgrading facilities nor the

associated costs;

-- As part of their ongoing commitment to state-of-the-art

routing solutions, Grass Valley will also present their

strategy for advanced signal and facility management within

television operations that will give them powerful LAN- and

WAN-based control. This strategy features a migration path

that will allow current users to extend the functionality of

present Series 7000 control systems to significantly expand

the role that these control system play in their facilities.

This will allow broadcasters to add more powerful,

network-based control to these systems.

-- The company will demonstrate additions to its 8900 Series of

standard definition modular products and its 2000 Wideband