Astral Media Serves Nationwide Pay-TV Audiences From Digital Video Platform.

Business/Technology/Television Editors

TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 27, 2001

Top Broadcast Technologies from SeaChange, Avalon, StorageTek and

Harris Streamline Astral's Multiplex Operations

Canadian media giant Astral Media has transformed its multiplex pay-television business with an integrated digital video platform comprising systems from SeaChange International, Inc. (NASDAQ: SEAC), Avalon, StorageTek and Harris Automation Systems.

Astral Media's MOVIEPIX and The Movie Network take advantage of a fully-automated multichannel video storage and delivery architecture. Astral Media provides a variety of television entertainment as the country's largest operator of English and French specialty, pay, and pay-per-view television services on its own and through 20 television network licenses. Previously reliant on video tape machines to originate its service and archive its content, Astral now delivers feature-length films, promotions and other material for its pay-TV networks with the reliability and cost-effectiveness of fault-resilient MPEG-2 streams and an automated data-centric workflow from archive to on-air.

The collaboration of SeaChange, Avalon, StorageTek and Louth, managed by Toronto-based Broadcast Systems and Equipment, Inc. (BSE), has produced a faster-than-real-time video pathway that makes available up to 800 movies for on-air playback without a prohibitive digital encoding process. The platform takes full advantage of long-term movie distribution contracts with film studios and holds the entire on-air library online, allowing automated loading of all content to easily respond to all program schedules and changes.

"Astral has developed a highly-automated digital foundation for its multiplex business. By moving away from the mechanics and maintenance hassles of tape-based delivery, the quality and efficiency of our day-to-day operations has improved significantly," said Chris Bell, V.P. Technology, Astral Media. "The power of our video delivery architecture results from the high bandwidth output from the digital archive, gigabit Ethernet and MPEG-2 video, which have proven superior in broadcast applications. The ease of use and the service force behind the platform have also minimized the impact of our significant paradigm shift and have given us immediate benefits."

Fully-Automated Mutliplex Operations

Together, SeaChange, Avalon, StorageTek and Harris, with BSE's guidance, have created a fully automated, high-speed environment for multichannel management of its multiplex television service, from play-to-air to long-term storage and scheduling.

Each day, The Movie Network's operations staff loads a SeaChange Broadcast MediaCluster 1230 video server system with more than 60 hours of MPEG-2 video for scheduled playback on six channels the following day. SeaChange's IP-based Network Storage Architecture unifies the on-air cluster with a StorageTek 9710 digital tape archive, the long-term repository for up to 800 MPEG-encoded movies. The 80Mb/s transfer speed of this architecture enables the staff to build six 24-hour channel schedules within 12 hours.

Avalon's Archive Manager software sits between the cluster and archive, enabling staff to preview files and control point-to-point file transfer and encoding. The archive manager's `look ahead' function, combined with SeaChange's Network Storage Architecture, gives staff the capability to stream video off archive tapes and through the MediaCluster for concurrent MPEG-2 encoding and play-to-air. Harris' broadcast automation software is the control interface for the Broadcast MediaCluster's on-air channels.

About the companies

Astral Media

Astral Media is a leading Canadian media company active in specialty, pay and pay-per-view television, radio, outdoor advertising and e-business.

Astral Media is the country's largest operator of English and French specialty, pay, and pay-per-view television services, involved currently, on its own or with partners, in 20 network licenses. In radio, the company owns the eight-station, French-language Radio Energie FM network and three AM stations, and is a 50 per cent owner of Radiomedia, which operates two of Quebec's foremost AM stations and its leading radio news and sports networks. Astral Media Outdoor is one of Canada's fastest growing and most innovative outdoor advertising companies, with some 3400 faces in Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia. In e-business, Astral has a presence on the Internet through 15 web sites, and has a majority interest in Artech Digital Entertainments, a leading developer of games and software.

The shares of Astral Media Inc. trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the ticker symbols: ACM.A/ACM.B.

Broadcast Systems & Equipment Inc.

In business for over 50 years and with offices in Montreal, Toronto, Edmonton , Cranbrook and Vancouver BSE Inc. is one of Canada's leading suppliers of hardware and software systems to the broadcast television and radio industries. BSE was formed to supply, build and engineer turnkey facilities for broadcast, post-production and related industries.

SeaChange International, Inc.

SeaChange International, Inc. is the world leader in digital video systems. The Company creates powerful server and software systems that manage, store and distribute professional quality digital video. SeaChange's innovative products are based on a scalable, distributed software architecture and standard technology components to continually deliver exponential improvements in digital video cost-performance. As a result, SeaChange enables broadband, broadcast, satellite and new media companies to streamline operations and reduce costs, allowing for expanded services, new applications and increased revenues. SeaChange is headquartered in Maynard, Massachusetts and has product development, support and sales offices throughout the world. Visit www.seachangeinternational.com.

MediaCluster is a registered trademark of SeaChange International, Inc. All other trademarks are properties of their respective companies.