Avid Announces 27% Price Reduction on Avid Xpress; Sets New Standard in Price Performance.

TEWKSBURY, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 11, 1999--

-- Industry Leader Accelerates Expansion of Video Market By Bringing Affordable, Professional Real-Time Video Editing To Business,

Education and Government Users --

Oscar(R) winner Avid(R) Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:AVID) announced today that it will offer price reductions of up to twenty-seven percent on its industry-leading Avid Xpress(TM) family of digital video products for both the Macintosh and Windows NT platforms, setting a new industry standard in price-performance. Designed for video and multimedia professionals, the Avid Xpress system offers real-time features, built-in functionality and outstanding audio and image quality, enabling users to quickly create broadcast-quality digital media content. Effective June 15, 1999, the reduced pricing for Avid Xpress systems will start as low as $9,999 USMSRP, making professional, real-time video editing affordable to more video and multimedia content creators.

"Avid Xpress has fast become the price-performance leader in independent video and broadcast promo post-production and is increasingly popular in mainstream markets like business, government and education," said Patrick Dumas, vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. "This growth in sales volume now allows us to offer this aggressive pricing, enabling even more users in these segments the opportunity to purchase the most productive digital video system in its class."

Avid Xpress is part of Avid's award-winning family of video editing products and offers both compatibility with and an easy and affordable upgrade path to the company's flagship Media Composer(R) system. Avid Xpress features the industry-leading Avid editing interface, the professional choice of over 50,000 trained editors worldwide. Avid Xpress is the first to bring to this price range key professional features like complete audio finishing, unlimited layering, and full project and media management. It is the only video solution to offer Avid's powerful One-Step technology, enabling users to accomplish highly-sophisticated tasks in the fewest possible steps, often with a single mouse click. The system includes both software and integrated video subsystem hardware developed and tested by Avid for maximum quality and reliability, and is available in a range of configurations for every need and budget -- from robust base video editing to the ultimate in speed, performance and power.

Avid Xpress Advantages Include:

--Real-Time Processing for Increased Productivity - Enables users to be far more productive, as they spend less time waiting and more time creating. Allows rapid fine-tuning to produce the best results.

--Richest, Most Advanced Sound - Eight-track, real-time, online audio mixing with 3-band EQ, real-time rubberband gain adjustments, and external audio device control make it faster and easier to produce the richest, most advanced sound.

--Third-Party Integration for Ease of Use - Support for Avid Visual Extension (AVX)(TM) plug-ins, allowing even more capabilities to be added.

--Built-In Compositing for Streamlined Production - Offers up to four video tracks for real-time, non-destructive layering and nesting, allowing the development of richly textured results without the need for expensive and time-consuming third-party applications.

--Multiple Configurations for a Variety of Needs - Packaged in four convenient bundles. Base provides the core feature set; Plus adds more tracks with compositing; Deluxe boosts performance with real-time and broadcast-quality images; Elite enhances productivity with real-time 3D effects.

Pricing and Availability

Avid Xpress is currently available on both the Macintosh and Windows NT platforms through Avid's worldwide reseller network. The reduced pricing is effective June 15. Turnkey Avid Xpress solutions including additional monitors, disks, speakers, and recording equipment are assembled to meet specific customer requirements by Avid Xpress resellers from Avid-manufactured hardware/software kits or pre-configured systems. The following bundle configurations and prices are available in the U.S. market only.

Avid Xpress for the Macintosh G3 is offered as integrated software and hardware kits (G3 CPU available separately). USMSRP for new kit prices are as follows: Base bundle has been reduced by 6% to $9,999; Plus bundle has been reduced by 22% to $12,999; Deluxe bundle has been reduced by 19% to $19,999; Elite bundle has been reduced by 26% to $29,999.

Avid Xpress for Windows NT is offered as pre-configured systems including software, IBM IntelliStation M Pro workstation, and video subsystem hardware. New USMSRP prices for pre-configured systems are as follows: the Plus bundle has been reduced by 27% to $15,999; Deluxe bundle has been reduced by 21% to $22,999; and Elite bundle has been reduced by 25% to $32,999.

Avid Technology, Inc. is an international, industry-leading provider of digital audio and video tools for information and entertainment applications. The company's products are used by a variety of customers worldwide including film, television and interactive content producers, TV news broadcasters, corporate communicators and consumers. For more information, visit Avid's Web site at www.avid.com.

(c) 1999 Avid Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Product specifications subject to change without notice. Avid and Media Composer are registered trademarks, and Avid Xpress and AVX are trademarks of Avid Technology, Inc., or its subsidiaries or divisions. All other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners. All prices are based on Avid's USMSRP. Actual prices may vary.