Intergraph announces StudioZ RAX -- over 90 minutes of real-time, uncompressed, D1/SDI-quality video on Pentium Pro/Windows NT platform.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 16, 1996--Intergraph Computer Systems (ICS) today announced the StudioZ RAX Video Authoring and Ensembling Workstation, a powerful, rack-mounted media production system based on the Pentium Pro/Windows NT platform.

Offering over 90 minutes of uncompressed, D1/SDI-quality video in real-time, StudioZ RAX exceeds SGI-class performance and eliminates the need for expensive Digital Disk Recorders (DDRs), resulting in price/performance superior to any RISC/UNIX system on the market today. Available with dual or quad Pentium Pro 200MHz processors, a maximum of 144GB of RAID storage, and a comprehensive suite of video production tools, StudioZ RAX is the first in the industry to deliver on the promise of an industry-standard, high-end platform capable of handling all phases of media production. The announcement solidifies Intergraph's leading position as a provider of media production technologies on the Intel/Windows NT platform, while highlighting the emergence of Windows NT as the preeminent platform for high-end video production tools.

A key benefit of StudioZ RAX's industry-standard architecture is the fact that software developers can have generic access to data and can write applications for StudioZ RAX in the Windows NT environment, which offers the most powerful software development tools in the industry. Intergraph's commitment to industry standards such as OpenDML and Active Movie likewise allow developers to take maximum advantage of StudioZ RAX's capabilities through well defined industry interfaces. The ability of StudioZ RAX to stream massive amounts of data through an industry-standard CPU, memory and bus architecture means that all of this data is available to the programmer without the need for special software interfaces or programming calls. What this means for content creators is more powerful applications and creative features not available on proprietary systems. "It's not simply a matter of getting more for less," says Steve Katz, a director of Curious Pictures, a full-service production company in New York City, "the StudioZ RAX includes a lot of innovations that you don't find in traditional high-end workstations."

StudioZ RAX incorporates powerful 3D graphics technologies first introduced in Intergraph's acclaimed TDZ 3D Graphics Workstations, which include Intergraph's GLZ 3D OpenGL graphics accelerators. The StudioZ CGI/Video Authoring Workstation, which has been enhanced to enable uncompressed D1/SDI-quality video in real time, was the first to apply this advanced technology to video production. StudioZ RAX takes the concept a giant leap further, offering the same powerful features -- authoring, capture, animation, assembly, nonlinear editing and more -- with the additional capability of generating uncompressed D1/SDI-quality output in huge volumes, enabling StudioZ RAX to handle larger-scale productions and extensive editing.

This combination of raw performance and innovative features in the StudioZ RAX has the potential to transform the industry, revolutionizing media production methodologies while simplifying many aspects of it. "This much capability on an open platform is a first in the industry, and it's something a lot of people have been waiting for," says Jeff Edson, Vice President, Intergraph Computer Systems, Digital Media. "Animators need real-time compositing, post editors need online-quality nonlinear editing, film editors need resolution-independence...StudioZ RAX fulfills all those needs and more." He continues, "We're offering content creators the ability to do storyboarding, capture, animation, compositing, editing, ensembling and final output on one system, with D1/SDI broadcast quality. Others are promising to do that, but Intergraph is the only vendor to say: `Here it is -- plug it in.' "

Uncompressed D1/SDI Video from RAID

The unprecedented ability of StudioZ RAX to stream uncompressed D1/SDI-quality video from RAID removes the limitations that have plagued PC-based, "studio-in-a-box" solutions. While such solutions offer useful features at an affordable price, to date they have lacked the hardware muscle to offer uncompressed, high-quality video output. StudioZ RAX solves this problem with ultrahigh throughput and immense RAID storage capacity. "Uncompressed data from disk enables huge amounts of high-quality data for editing, and potentially multiple streams of video in real time," explains Intergraph's Edson. "It means content creators can view their work in real time and editors can layer multiple composites with no degradation in quality."

Complete Solution for New Production Facilities

Because of its comprehensive capabilities and robust hardware, entire production facilities can be built around a single StudioZ RAX, an important development in an industry that has seen a rapid proliferation of new production facilities and post houses. According to Steve Katz, "It's a box which is several personalities. You can composite on it, you can edit, you can do animation...it really streamlines workflow."

StudioZ RAX's extensive RAID capacity also eliminates the need for purchasing expensive DDRs (Digital Disk Recorders) for outputting animation. "It gives you the ability to immediately review your work in its final form," says Paul Beigle-Bryant of Foundation Imaging ("Babylon 5," "Hypernauts"), "the ability to gather all of the components of your production and then deliver it as an online solution."

One result of having everything in a single workstation is that content creators can have more input at every stage of production. "It really tears down a lot of the fences," says Katz. "An artist can pretty much work through the entire content creation cycle at one station...get it out, show it to the client, show it to the director...and that's a tremendous benefit to the whole process."

Integrates Easily into Online Suites

StudioZ RAX's standard 19" rackmount configuration and comprehensive connectivity offered by Windows NT allows it to integrate seamlessly into existing online facilities. Intergraph's own Digital Media Studio, a full-featured online suite, has been a valuable proving ground for how StudioZ RAX fits into this type of environment. Bill Farnsworth, Executive Product Manager at Intergraph Computer Systems, Digital Media, recounts, "We produced a 3-minute video for a conference recently. It turned out there were a couple of things we wanted to change, but the online suite was booked. So, I just went in the other room and cut it on the StudioZ. We ended up using that version, since the quality was as good or better than we could have gotten from the online suite." He adds, "With StudioZ RAX, you're looking at more than 90 minutes of uncompressed, D1/SDI-quality output, so more and more of what we do in the suite can be done on StudioZ RAX."

Many in the industry feel that StudioZ RAX has the potential to replace the online suite entirely. Farnsworth agrees that the potential is there: "StudioZ RAX provides the hardware to make it possible. Combine that with the extraordinary pool of talent out there developing software for the Windows NT platform. Who knows what can result from that kind of chemistry? But for now, there's still a place for online suites, and there's a place for StudioZ RAX in those suites."

Industry Standard Hardware Architecture

The ability of StudioZ RAX to offer top-end performance on industry-standard architecture is a notable engineering achievement. "The key point," says Jim Turner, Director of Hardware Engineering at Intergraph Computer Systems, Digital Media, "is that we were able to achieve this level of performance without software shortcuts or proprietary bus architectures. It's all standard subsystems, standard components, standard operating system, standard file system, standard AVI file formats... That's the advantage of designing the entire system -- you can optimize each component to work more efficiently with the others."

Edson summarizes it this way: "Minimum degradation along all the pathways -- maximum bandwidth from what's left over." He adds, "Sure, you can build a proprietary bus that `out-specs' PCI, but then you have to write drivers for everything and you lose flexibility, stability, and generic software access to data." Steve Katz agrees: "All the necessary hardware that normally requires a lot of tweaking is built into StudioZ RAX by one company...so it works in a very stable fashion."

StudioZ RAX offers a maximum configuration of 144GB of high-speed RAID storage and 2GB of memory. With dual or quad Pentium Pro processors running at 200 MHz, StudioZ RAX outpaces RISC-based systems in rendering and other CPU-intensive tasks. "It's tremendous," exclaims KATZ, "Everything we've run on it is much faster than any other workstation I have in-house." Paul Beigle-Bryant, another enthusiast of StudioZ RAX's Intel processing power, cites safety in numbers: "As far as I'm concerned, 30 million users can't be wrong."

Windows NT Platform

StudioZ RAX's high-end performance optimizes Windows NT features such as multitasking and multithreading, enabling creative professionals to conduct complex tasks simultaneously, such as rendering, composing a storyboard and sending E-mail. For developers of Windows NT software, StudioZ RAX provides a powerful hardware platform to leverage their applications, opening the door to future software innovations.

The Windows NT platform also has the advantage of giving content creators access to thousands of applications on the market. For self-contained production houses, this means that in addition to creative applications, other facets of the business such as billing, contact management, and scheduling can be handled from a single networked system. Windows NT's extensive set of networking protocols allows StudioZ RAX to connect with RISC/UNIX workstations, Macintosh-based systems, and the Internet.

Pricing and Availability

The StudioZ RAX Video Authoring and Ensembling Workstation will be publicly demonstrated at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) industry trade show, booth No. M4521, April 15-18 in Las Vegas. Delivery is set for August 1996. All StudioZ RAX systems come bundled with StudioZ Console for video capture, playback and assembly of animation frames into video; Adobe Premiere LE for Windows for video editing; Adobe Photoshop 3.0 LE for Windows and MacroMedia xResSE for image editing; and PC-NFS Windows NT/UNIX interoperability software. Base configuration offers dual 200 MHz Pentium Pro processors (upgr. to quad), GLZ1T graphics accelerator with 12MB VRAM and 8MB texture memory, 128 MB DRAM system memory (exp. to 2GB), 32 GB dual internal RAID exp. to 144GB (24 min. uncompressed, exp. to 90 min.), parallel PCI busses, and Serial Digital I/O with additional support for S-Video and analog composite output. U.S. list price: $79,000.

Intergraph Background Information

Intergraph Computer Systems develops, manufactures, sells and supports computer systems for the creative and technical desktop -- the combination of compatible applications and personal productivity tools in a single desktop computer. Hardware products include Pentium Pro/Windows NT-based graphics workstations and servers. The Digital Media Division focuses on high-performance and affordable workstations for the broadcast and entertainment markets. A member of the Fortune 1000, Intergraph is the world's largest company dedicated to supplying interactive computer graphics systems. -0-

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CONTACT: Intergraph Computer Systems, Huntsville

Aggie Frizzell, 205/730-6139