AJA Video Helps Bring the 2004 - 2005 Championship Football Game to American TV Viewers.

GRASS VALLEY, Calif. -- AJA's KONA 2 Technology Used by FOX Sports For Live Editing During Final Football Game of 2004 - 2005 Post-Season

AJA today announced that once again its KONA 2 technology and powerful new QuickTime(TM) drivers were part of the largest US sporting event -- Super Bowl XXXIX in Jacksonville, Florida on February 6. This makes the third major sport using AJA's KONA 2 leading edge technology for editing on the G5 with Final Cut Pro HD. (KONA 2 has also been used for the Major League Baseball playoffs and Celtics Basketball games.)

FOX had two Apple G5 systems complete with Final Cut Pro HD and AJA's KONA 2 in production trucks on-site in Jacksonville, Florida. As soon as the Super Bowl teams were determined by the outcome of the AFC and NFC Conference Championship games, FOX crews went to work shooting interviews, editing footage, and creating promos. All week long, in preparation for the Super Bowl, the two Final Cut Pro HD systems were used to edit highlight packages. The material for the pre-game show was edited with Final Cut Pro HD and ingested from various tape sources using KONA 2. The open and tease were pre-recorded, sent to an EVS Digital Disk Recorder (DDR) for instant replay, freeing the editor to work on actual game coverage. During the Super Bowl, the two systems were used live during the game to create their bumpers, wrap-arounds and highlight packages. They captured the 720p HD-SDI video and AES audio directly from the two SDI production trucks through a router straight into the Panasonic 720p DVCPRO HD codec in their Final Cut Pro system, and sent it out through the KONA 2 card back to the router. From there, it was recorded for instant replay or went directly to the switcher and then directly to the air. This unique application in live television was used for the first time during the World Series last fall when the Apple-AJA system was implemented.

"We are pleased that FOX, once again, decided to go with our KONA 2 card and a G5 for their critical, live production, as well as for editing pre-game material," said John Abt, president of AJA Video Systems. "Each AJA product is designed and built to the highest standards that can stand up to the demands placed on them during critical, live broadcasts in extreme field conditions."

"After the success with the Apple G5 and AJA's KONA 2 for the World Series, we found this solution very appealing," said Jeff Court, VP Remote Operations, FOX Sports. "No network has exclusively gone to HD, but we're close. This is the beginning of the transition from video-based to computer-based content. You can imagine how serious people are about reliability and how careful we are about introducing new resources. The video card is key and the AJA card is targeted at what we need."

About AJA Video Systems, Inc.

Since 1993, AJA Video has been a leading manufacturer of SDI and HD-SDI video interface and conversion solutions, bringing high-quality, cost-effective digital video products to the professional broadcast and post production markets. AJA offers Io (the "ultimate" capture box), SDI and HD-SDI QuickTime PCI capture cards, miniature stand-alone converters, and a complete line of rack mount interface and conversion cards and frames. With headquarters located in Grass Valley, California, AJA Video designs and manufactures all of its products in the USA, with an extensive sales channel of dealers and systems integrators around the world. For further information, please see our website at www.aja.com.