Avid Ships Avid Unity MediaNet 2.0 - Adds Major New Features; Failsafe Features and Shared Workgroups for Uncompressed Clients Solidify Avid Unity as an Industry Standard for Media Networks

Business Wire, July 18, 2001

Business/Technology Editors

TEWKSBURY, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 18, 2001

Avid Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVID) today announced the shipment of the Avid Unity(TM) MediaNet 2.0 system - the second major release of the facility-class media network. The product's newest features allow MediaNet to be both scalable and flexible, fitting into any digital media facility. An industry first, MediaNet 2.0 offers the ability to share dual stream uncompressed media between systems. In addition, MediaNet 2.0 offers improved system redundancy by creating a failsafe environment with the AutoFailover feature.

"At Avid, we respond to our clients' needs and work to develop new product features to provide the best shared storage solution in the digital content creation industry," said Tim Claman, director of product management in Networking & Storage. "The significant enhancements to Avid Unity MediaNet with the 2.0 release make it the obvious shared storage solution choice for content creation professionals, and offer the return on investment they are looking for."

The new features in the release of Avid Unity MediaNet 2.0 build on current capabilities that make the system the top performer for digital content environments, including high fault tolerance, simple administration, superior flexibility, unmatched sharing, and guaranteed high bandwidth throughput. For example, a highly anticipated feature within mission-critical environments is the AutoFailover feature, which provides reliability for file operations through a "hot" spare File Manager .

Adding to the MediaNet 2.0 feature set is the ability to share dual stream uncompressed media between systems. This highly sophisticated engineering effort delivers sufficient bandwidth for two dual stream uncompressed systems to read and write to the same MediaNet workspace, at the same time. The ability to simultaneously share high bandwidth media in this manner is unparalleled and signifies a remarkable advancement for the Avid Unity MediaNet system.

Avid Unity MediaNet is also more open to the entire facility than ever before as a result of the Avid Unity PortServer feature, which allows Ethernet-connected clients to access the MediaNet system. PortServer is a critical addition to the feature set because it allows almost any network-aware system to become a part of the Avid Unity workgroup, and translates into substantial cost savings for non-real time systems, such as graphics and effects systems.

Other noteworthy features include support for Windows 2000 clients, up to 7.3 TB of storage, the ability to seamlessly remove drives from a system without losing existing media, and the regaining of the Administration drive for media storage purposes.

"We believe these features are significant advancements for our customers in the digital content creation field," said Claman. "By expanding the Avid Unity environment, Avid continues to lead the industry, offering the best solutions that Make, Manage and Move Media(TM)"

Pricing and Availability

Avid Unity MediaNet 2.0 is available through Avid's worldwide Avid Unity certified reseller channel. Pricing is dependent on system configuration.

About Avid Technology, Inc.

Avid Technology, Inc. delivers the solutions that Make, Manage and Move Media. As a recognized digital standard for professionals who Make the world's media -- from video, audio and film to animation, special effects and streaming media -- Avid's products are used to make more television and news shows, commercials, music videos and CDs, corporate/industrial productions and major motion pictures combined than any other nonlinear editing manufacturer in the world. Now, building on its Oscar(R), Grammy(R) and Emmy(R) award-winning heritage in creating content, Avid is extending its reach by redefining how digital media is shared, stored and distributed. To Manage today's increasingly rich collection of dynamic media, Avid provides powerful servers, networks and media tools to help customers search files, share media and collaborate on new productions, both locally and globally. Avid's solutions also empower users to easily Move media, whether on air, over cable or satellite or through the Internet. Like no other media company today, Avid's end-to-end solutions span the continuum of media creation, management and distribution. The company's corporate headquarters are located in Tewksbury, MA. More information about the company is available at www.avid.com.

(c) 2001 Avid Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Product specifications and availability are subject to change without notice. All prices are USMSRP for U.S. and Canada only and are subject to change without notice. Contact your local Avid office or reseller for prices outside the U.S. Avid is a registered trademarks and Avid Unity and Make, Manage and Move Media are trademarks of Avid Technology, Inc. Oscar is a trademark and service mark of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Emmy is a registered trademark of ATAS/NATAS. Grammy is a registered trademark of the Recording Academy of Arts and Sciences. All other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.