Telemundo New York Replaces Tape with Vibrint NewsEdit; WNJU-TV Joins WHDH-TV, WMUR-TV and Others in Choosing Easy-To-Use Nonlinear Editing System For Tapeless Cuts-Only Editing.

BEDFORD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 19, 1999--

Vibrint Technologies, Inc., a developer of innovative, standards-based, digital news production solutions, announced today that WNJU, Telemundo New York, has chosen Vibrint NewsEdit to replace all of its cuts-only tape editing bays. WNJU, which is part of the Telemundo Network Group LLC, the premiere Spanish-language television network owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment and Liberty Media, services the entire New York/New Jersey area. The station currently produces two nightly newscasts using four cuts-only edit bays and one A/B-roll edit bay. In implementing NewsEdit, which marries the performance of nonlinear editing with the cost efficiency of tape-based systems, the station plans to add two additional edit bays.

According to chief engineer Bill Mierisch, WNJU has been shopping for a nonlinear editing system for the past year. The station looked at systems from other leading manufacturers but chose NewsEdit because it offers the best solution for transitioning cuts-only tape suites to nonlinear systems.

"I was most impressed with NewsEdit's straightforward user interface and how quickly our editors picked up the system," said Mierisch. "Our editors cut a package that went to air during the Vibrint on-site demo and we hadn't even purchased the system yet."

Equally important to Mierisch is NewsEdit's standards-based platform. "The fact that NewsEdit runs on Windows NT means that it is open and offers a lot of flexibility. With news running all Sony Betacam SX, we also look forward to implementing the SDTI interface with Vibrint as soon as it becomes available. That will mean we can keep acquisition in it's native format, edit direct from tape-to-disk, and not have to worry about generation loss." said Mierisch. WNJU recently purchased the Associated Press' ENPS newsroom computer system and Mierisch plans to integrate the two systems in the near future.

Vice president of news, Ricardo Alvarez, agrees that ease of use was the most important factor in choosing a nonlinear editing system. "We chose NewsEdit over other systems because everyone felt that, by far, it is the easiest to use. NewsEdit is very similar to the way we edit with tape today and our editors are confident that they can begin using the system with minimal training." WNJU's confidence level is so high, in fact, that Mierisch plans to install all six edit bays over a single weekend, making the station completely nonlinear by Monday morning.

Alvarez also believes that NewsEdit will help make his news organization more productive. "My biggest challenge is maintaining adequate coverage of the large New York market with a small number of crews," continued Alvarez. "By making the editing function easier and faster, I will be able to keep my photog/editors in the field longer and therefore obtain better coverage."

In recent months, NewsEdit has been chosen by stations across the US predominantly for its ease of use. At WMUR-TV in Manchester, New Hampshire, WHDH-TV in Boston, Massachusetts and at stations from Kansas City to Los Angeles, editors with minimal or no nonlinear experience were able to cut and air packages within hours of completing system installation. This is significant in an industry that long ago adopted nonlinear technology for feature pieces, but prior to NewsEdit, has found no reasonable alternative to tape for hard news editing.

According to Vibrint, this trend is not coincidental. "NewsEdit was designed from the ground up to meet the time constraints of hard news," said Roland Boucher Vibrint's vice president of marketing. "Our simple interface allows even non-technical personnel, including journalists and producers, to perform quick edits in pressure situations. In addition, we preserved some of the common functionality of tape-to-tape editing including insert edits, voice overs, L-shaped cuts, and 3-point edits, in order to make it easier for editors with no nonlinear experience to become proficient very quickly. Only Vibrint's NewsEdit provides the functionality of a record VCR, letting you see the edit as it happens, so you don't have to waste time going back to play the edit after you've made it."

NewsEdit runs on the Vibrint VideoServer(TM), an MPEG2 server that relies on the Microsoft(R) Windows NT(R) file and operating systems and standard networking and storage, making it the first truly open news editing system. In addition to ENPS, NewsEdit supports compatibility with the Avstar Newsroom Computing System, and the Pinnacle MediaStream and Grass Valley Group Profile video playback servers.

The Telemundo Network Group's coverage extends to 63 markets and over 7 million households. While WNJU is the first Telemundo station to make the commitment to tapeless editing, the group's director of engineering, Doug Lung, indicated that NewsEdit is also being considered for other Telemundo stations.

About Vibrint Technologies Inc.

Founded in 1995, Vibrint Technologies is a pioneering developer of innovative solutions for digital news production. Vibrint provides broadcasters with price/performance leading solutions that ease the transition from analog-mechanical systems to more efficient computer-based systems. Vibrint offers a complete digital news production solution featuring applications for interactive feed capture, news editing, and news and commercial playback. Vibrint also offers MPEG encoding and time delay applications. All Vibrint applications run on the Vibrint MPEG 4:2:2 VideoServer which relies on the Microsoft(R) Windows NT(R) file and operating system and standard networking and storage. With the Vibrint platform in place, broadcasters can easily grow from single system applications to more collaborative digital news production workgroups. Vibrint is a member of the Pro-MPEG Forum.