Avid Unity LANshare EX Turnkey Storage Solution Now Available; $40,000 Starting Price Is a Breakthrough for High-capacity Shared Storage Systems

Business Wire, July 31, 2002

Business/Technology Editors

TEWKSBURY, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 31, 2002

Avid Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVID) today announced immediate availability of the industry's most cost-effective shared-storage system, Avid Unity(TM) LANshare EX v3.0, a turnkey solution with almost two terabytes of capacity in an all-in-one rack-mountable chassis. At $40,000 USMSRP, the price of LANshare EX v3.0 is far below the cost of any storage system with similar capacity, yet its unique combination of Fibre Channel and Ethernet interconnections delivers capacity and performance far greater than systems costing two to three times as much.

National Geographic Today - an award-winning daily news journal on the National Geographic Channel that `connects people to the pulse of the planet' through its focus on science, exploration, natural history, adventure, and culture - is using LANshare EX to share media among three Symphony(TM) finishing systems connected by Fibre Channel. "The lower price point for LANshare EX is perfect for an operation like ours that wants the flexibility Avid Unity brings, but where budget realities are always a consideration," said Ben Kretchmar, director of technical operations at National Geographic Channel. "Now, we have a compact solution that allows us to easily work with both offline resolutions and the higher-end finishing work done on our Symphony systems."

"LANshare EX meets a wide range of customer needs in a single, extremely affordable chassis, simultaneously providing connections suitable for offline resolutions and higher-bandwidth connections for finishing resolutions," said Tim Claman, director of Avid Workgroups & Storage. "This solution, along with the others in the Avid Unity family, builds on our 13 plus years experience with rich media and the unique demands of storage in this market. Avid's storage solutions are purpose-built to deliver maximum ROI for every dollar a customer spends, and, with a range of options for small to large enterprises, our storage family can easily and cost-effectively scale as our customers' storage needs grow."

Summary of Features/Benefits

-- Supports a mix of Ethernet and Fibre Channel attached clients for maximum flexibility

-- Supports up to 20 single stream DV25 clients and up to four high resolution clients

-- Expandable, up to 2.9 terabytes

-- Requires minimal hardware - only a LANserver EX (all-in-one storage and server unit), Ethernet switch, and Fibre Channel cards (optional component)

-- Portable, compact design makes LANshare ideal for rentals or remote use

-- Open platform support makes it easier to connect LANshare EX to other tools

-- Uses the ultra-reliable Avid Unity MediaNetwork software for powerful file sharing and system administration

-- True file-level sharing for all clients

-- Full administration and monitoring capabilities

Cost, Availability & More Information

Avid Unity LANshare EX starts at $40,000 USMSRP and is available now through Avid and its worldwide resellers. For additional feature information and product specifications, visit www.avid.com.

About National Geographic Today

National Geographic Today is an award-winning daily news journal that `connects people to the pulse of the planet' through its focus on science, exploration, natural history, adventure, and culture. National Geographic Today is the signature show of the National Geographic Channel (NGC), a dedicated cable network created in January 2001 as a partnership between National Geographic and the Fox Network. NGC debuted to an audience in more than 10 million homes and has quickly grown to reach more than 34 million homes in only 18 months, making it the fastest-growing network this year. Building on the National Geographic Society's 114 year old mission of encouraging geographic understanding, the channel provides a single destination that offers viewers access to world-class explorers, scientists, and filmmakers.

About Avid Technology, Inc.

Avid Technology, Inc. delivers the solutions that Make, Manage and Move Media(TM). 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. Building on its award-winning heritage, which includes several Emmy(R) awards as well as an Oscar(R) statuette representing the 1998 Scientific and Technical Award for the concept, design and engineering of the Avid Film Composer system for motion picture editing, 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 Avid is available at www.avid.com.