Avid Workgroups 4.0 Expands Collaborative Media Production with Productivity ToolsLAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 18, 2004--Avid Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVID) today announced Avid Workgroups 4.0 - a family of workflow-enhancing Productivity Tools and services that leverage the Avid Unity^™ solutions to facilitate media storage, management, and sharing in collaborative environments of any size. Workgroups 4.0 includes new versions of Avid Unity MediaManager, Avid Unity TransferManager, Avid^® Distributed Media Services (DMS), and Avid Nearchive^™. Specific enhancements to Workgroups 4.0 further enable long-distance collaboration, end-to-end control over content, and seamless handoff of tasks - giving users far more power to create and manage media assets.

"There are tremendous benefits that come from using the Productivity Tools in Workgroups 4.0 in a collaborative environment," said David Schleifer, director of Broadcast and Workgroups for Avid. "Users can tap a wide array of powerful network-based services that dramatically streamline the media creation, management, and distribution process. All of the applications in Workgroups 4.0 integrate seamlessly with Avid end-to-end broadcast and postproduction environments, allowing for easy installation, smoother overall operation, and faster, more efficient production."

New Workgroups 4.0 benefits include:

• Avid Unity MediaManager, a powerful, integrated production asset management tool for the Avid Unity environment that enables facility-wide logging, searching, sorting, cataloging, management, and retrieval of media. New MediaManager features include:



• Avid Prolog: a full-screen player that offers logging capabilities, custom metadata capture, frame-accurate locators, and real-time annotation during ingest.



• Unified Search: a single browser interface for finding media across multiple shared-storage networks, Nearchive media stores, and archive systems.



• Catalog Folders: simpler methods for organizing material and navigating around media.



• Avid Unity TransferManager, a powerful solution that lets editors concentrate on creative tasks while moving media files behind the scenes within a facility or across an inter-continental WAN. New TransferManager features include:
• Archive and ingest integration with third-party providers.



• Expanded third-party video server support via APIs.



• Faster LAN transfers of up to 40 megabits per second within some configurations.
• Avid Nearchive, a near-line storage application that integrates media management and transfer management with a fast, affordable networked storage solution. New Nearchive features include:
• Unified Search support when used with Avid Unity MediaManager (see above).



• Catalog Folders to organize catalogs, making it easier to find media and navigate through archived materials.
• Avid DMS, a service that manages and brokers processor-intensive media tasks in the background to distributed servers and enables uninterrupted creative work on the desktop. New DMS features include:
  • ProEncode enhancements to improve a seamless post-to-Web workflow.
  
  
  
  • Low-resolution integration for smoother production workflow between Avid Unity and Avid Media Browse^™ systems.
  
  
  
  • Browseable proxy creation for low-resolution and archive workflows.

Pricing & Availability

Pricing for the individual components of Workgroups 4.0 is as follows:

• Avid DMS begins at $4,995 USMSRP, which includes DMS and ProEncode^™ software, system dongle, DV dongle, and Avid Unity client software and license.



• Avid Unity MediaManager begins at $15,995 USMSRP for the MediaManager Server software and CPU; the Select Option is $10,000 USMSRP, which includes the Avid ProLog application.



• Avid Unity TransferManager with CPU is $14,200 USMSRP.



• Avid Nearchive begins at $44,950 USMSRP for a base system, and $39,950 USMSRP for storage expansion units.

All of the Productivity Tools in Workgroups 4.0 are expected to be available in Q2 2004.

For information on Workgroups 4.0, please visit: www.avid.com/products/productivitytools.

About Avid Technology, Inc.

Avid Technology, Inc. is the world leader in digital nonlinear media creation, management, and distribution solutions, enabling film, video, audio, animation, games, and broadcast professionals to work more efficiently, productively, and creatively. For more information about the company's Oscar^®, Grammy^®, and Emmy^® award-winning products and services, please visit: www.avid.com.

^© 2004 Avid Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Product features, specifications, system requirements, and availability are subject to change without notice. All prices are USMSRP for the U.S. and Canada only and are subject to change without notice. Contact your local Avid office or reseller for prices outside the U.S. and Canada. Avid, Digidesign, Pro Tools, Film Composer, ProEncode, Nearchive and Avid Unity are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Avid Technology, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Avid received an Oscar statuette representing the 1998 Scientific and Technical Award for the concept, design, and engineering of the Avid Film Composer system for motion picture editing. Digidesign, Avid's audio division, received an Oscar statuette representing the 2003 Scientific and Technical Award for the design, development, and implementation of its Pro Tools^® digital audio workstation. Media Browse is a trademark of iNews, LLC. Oscar is a trademark and service mark of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Emmy is a registered trademark of ATAS/NATAS. Grammy is a trademark of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, Inc. All other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

CONTACT: Avid Technology, Inc.
Amy Paladino, 978-640-3051
amy_paladino@avid.com
or
Weber Shandwick
Laura Shea, 617-520-7015
lshea@webershandwick.com

SOURCE: Avid Technology, Inc.