Avid Breaks Ground with Powerful New Family of Digital Nonlinear Accelerators.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

NAB2003

Booth #SL300

LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 6, 2003

New purpose-built Avid DNA hardware fuels next-generation editing

solutions; instantly increases media processing power of today's

leading personal computers

Avid Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVID) today unveiled the new Avid DNA(TM) family - a powerful series of purpose-built hardware specifically designed for media processing. These Digital Nonlinear Accelerators, which include Nitris(TM), Adrenaline(TM), and Avid Mojo(TM), set new benchmarks for performance, quality, and creative flexibility by instantly increasing the media processing power found in today's leading personal computers by the equivalent of anywhere from two to more than 30 of today's latest Pentium 4 processors. When paired with Avid's next-generation nonlinear editing solutions, the Avid DNA family enables professionals to achieve true real-time functionality and exceptional image and sound quality when capturing, editing, finishing, and outputting DV, SD, and HD video formats.

"Avid DNA is a major breakthrough in media processing and high-quality input and output capabilities. Unlike anything else on the market, this family of specially-engineered hardware delivers unprecedented versatility, compatibility, quality and price/performance," said David Krall, president and CEO of Avid. "Representing three years of pioneering development, these new accelerators instantly complement host-based processing, so content creation professionals can achieve performance simply not possible with just a host computer. From DV to HD, the Avid DNA family delivers real-time capabilities, virtually eliminating the need for rendering. And, the entire line is programmable and scalable - so as CPU power grows, users will have peace of mind knowing their investment is protected into the future."

The Avid DNA family works with new Avid(R) next-generation software to create a powerful line of nonlinear content creation solutions offering true real-time functionality, advanced input and output capabilities, and tight interoperability with the Avid Unity(TM) family of shared-storage and media asset management solutions. In addition, the entire family of Avid DNA solutions is fully programmable, allowing future upgrades for codecs, effects and other functions to take place electronically - via the Web or CD.

Nitris: The Ultimate Digital Nonlinear Accelerator

When paired with next-generation Avid|DS software, Nitris offers processing unlike any other nonlinear system in the industry, providing the media processing power of more than 30 of today's latest Pentium 4 processors. Designed to facilitate creative editing, conforming and finishing of all types of projects at multiple compressed and uncompressed 10-bit high-definition and standard-definition formats, Avid Nitris ensures hardware-guaranteed real-time performance for multi-stream effects such as real-time dissolves, SMPTE wipes, DVEs, Symphony(TM)-style color correction, keys and downstream graphics. Furthermore, Nitris supports the broadest range of high-quality formats and professional I/O connections of any single nonlinear system.

Key Features of Nitris

-- 8- and 10-bit SPMTE 292M HD-SDI for high-definition video I/O

and SMPTE 259M SDI for standard-definition video I/O

-- Support for uncompressed HD formats, including 1080i at 30,

29.97, 25 Hz; 1080PsF at 30, 29.97, 25, 24, 23.976 Hz; and

720p at 60, 59.94 Hz

-- Support for uncompressed PAL and NTSC ITU-R-601 formats; DV25,

DV50 and MPEG IMX standard-definition formats; and Avid legacy

standard definition formats (Meridien(TM) JFIF, ABVB AVRs)

-- New master-quality compressed HD codec supports both 145 MBit

(8-bit 4:2:2) and 220 Mbit (8/10-bit 4:2:2)

-- HD, NTSC and PAL support on the same system without

partitioning separate drives

-- Up to eight channels of 24-bit, 96kHz digital audio input and

output; eight-channel XLR balanced audio I/O; eight-channel

AES/EBU digital audio I/O; ADAT Digital audio I/O; and S/PDIF 

Digital audio I/O

Adrenaline: The Facility-Class Nonlinear Accelerator

Adrenaline is the heart of the next-generation Media Composer(R) and NewsCutter(R) systems. Built on a patent-pending, real-time architecture that streams uncompressed standard-definition video over a standard FireWire(R) connection, Adrenaline allows content creation professionals to transform their PC and Mac desktop computers -- and even qualified laptops -- into high-powered Avid editing workstations simply by installing the included editing software and plugging in a FireWire cable. In addition, Adrenaline supports a broad range of resolutions, including DV25, DV50, IMX, Meridien JFIF, ABVB AVRs and uncompressed 601.

With a built-in HD expansion slot and future 10-bit video and 96 kHz audio support, Adrenaline is designed to scale with the processing speed and capacity of the host CPU to offer the media processing power of more than 10 of today's latest Pentium 4 processors.

Key Features of Adrenaline

-- Analog standard definition video I/O; YPrPb, S-Video, and

Composite I/O; eight- and 10-bit SMPTE 259M SDI for

standard-definition video I/O; and eight audio channels (I/O

and Monitoring) plus AES/EBU, ADAT and S/PDIF digital audio

I/O

-- Optional SPMTE 292M HD-SDI for high-definition video I/O

-- Progressive offline resolutions 14:1, 28:1, 35:1

-- Support for DV25, DV50, MPEG IMX, Avid legacy

standard-definition formats (Meridien JFIF, ABVB AVRs), and

uncompressed PAL and NTSC ITU-R-601 formats

-- AAF and OMF(R) support

Avid Mojo: The Portable Digital Nonlinear Accelerator

Avid Mojo is the first portable real-time media processing solution for notebook computers, capable of delivering true real-time effects and simultaneous DV and analog output with Avid Xpress(R) Pro and Avid NewsCutter XP systems. Compact enough to take on location, Avid Mojo connects to any qualified PC or Mac system via a single FireWire cable and scales to support uncompressed SD video.

Key Features of Avid Mojo

-- Real-time DV and analog audio and video output to tape with

real-time 2D and 3D DVE; real-time video monitoring; real-time

analog-to-DV & DV-to-analog conversion; and real-time

uncompressed graphics and titles via analog output port

-- S-video and composite input and output

-- 20-bit analog audio input and output

-- Genlock synchronization to black burst on both analog and

digital ports

-- Support for compressed 15:1s offline, DV25 and uncompressed SD

resolutions

Availability and Pricing

Avid DS Nitris and Avid DS Nitris Editor systems are expected to be available in Q3 2003. Pricing is expected to be $145,000 USMSRP for Avid DS Nitris and $78,995 USMSRP for Avid DS Nitris Editor. Avid Media Composer Adrenaline and NewsCutter Adrenaline FX systems are expected to be available in Q2 2003, and pricing is expected to start at $24,995 USMSRP. Avid Mojo accelerators, which can be added to Avid Xpress Pro and NewsCutter XP software, are expected to be available in Q3 2003, and pricing is expected to start at $1,695 USMSRP. All systems will be available through Avid's worldwide reseller channel.

For more information, visit the Avid Website at: http://www.avid.com.

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(R) 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 the company is available at www.avid.com.

(C) 2003 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 reseller for pricing information outside the U.S. and Canada. Adrenaline, Avid, Avid DNA, Avid Mojo, Avid Unity, Avid Xpress, Film Composer, Media Composer, Meridien, NewsCutter, Nitris, OMF, Symphony and Make, Manage and Move Media are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Avid Technology, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. FireWire is a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Oscar is a trademark and service mark of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Emmy is a registered trademark of ATAS/NATAS. All other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

Note: In the product name Avid|DS, there is a pipe symbol between Avid and DS. This symbol may not appear in some database systems.