Avid Expands NewsCutter Video Formats and Media Exchange Capabilities; Company Also Demonstrates Collaborative HD News ProductionLAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 18, 2004--Avid Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVID) today introduced the latest versions of its industry-leading news editing systems, NewsCutter^® Adrenaline^™ FX 5.5 and NewsCutter XP 5.5. Both products offer enhanced editing and input/output (I/O) capabilities, full support for the Material Exchange Format (MXF), and the addition of IMX30 and IMX40 resolutions. Avid is also demonstrating Avid DNxHD^™ - a revolutionary, non-proprietary, 10-bit encoding technology expected to be available in NewsCutter Adrenaline FX systems in late 2004. Avid DNxHD high-efficiency encoding enables collaborative HD news production via Avid Unity^™ for News systems with the same storage bandwidth and capacity requirements as an SD workflow.

"Over the past year, we have been expanding the format compatibility of our NewsCutter product line to better meet the growing content demands that broadcast editors face daily," said David Schleifer, director of Broadcast and Workgroups for Avid. "The newest versions provide ideal ingest and playout integration with Avid's new AirSpeed^™ server, and increased compatibility with third-party newsroom systems. Equally important, the systems were designed to address the growing demand for HD support, and with Avid DNxHD, broadcasters now have a cost-effective way to begin using high-definition formats within their existing Avid Unity for News environments."

The NewsCutter Adrenaline FX 5.5 system delivers the power of an entire news production suite in a single application and enables users to record and edit in multiple formats simultaneously, as well as edit resolutions that range from 15:1 to 1:1 in the same timeline. NewsCutter Adrenaline FX 5.5 also supports Panasonic's P2 card and Sony XDCAM devices.

In addition to full support for broadcast-quality DV and IMX resolutions, the NewsCutter XP 5.5 system now includes the Avid Marquee^™ 3D titling tool, adding even greater capability to this powerful portable editing system designed for field or collaborative newsroom use. Among the other new features are enhancements to the NRCS Tool for tighter interoperation with the Avid iNEWS^™ and AP ENPS newsroom computer systems. NewsCutter XP 5.5 software can be further enhanced by adding the Avid Mojo^™ accelerator (part of the Avid DNA^™ family) with a FireWire connection, providing composite and S-video I/O capabilities, and other true real-time functions.

Specific enhancements to both the Avid NewsCutter Adrenaline FX 5.5 and NewsCutter XP 5.5 systems include:

• Extensive Format Support - Support for DV25, DV50, and MPEG IMX at 30, 40, and 50 megabits per second.



• AirSpeed Integration - Ingest and playback integration with the new AirSpeed server.



• Embedded Audio - Added support for audio embedded in media that can be exported as OMF^® or AAF files.



• MXF Editing - Simplified process for exchanging media between different vendors, applications, and servers.

Pricing & Availability

Pricing for the NewsCutter FX Adrenaline 5.5 system starts at $29,995 USMSRP. The NewsCutter XP 5.5 software with a CPU is priced at $12,995 USMSRP, and the NewsCutter XP software only (no CPU) is priced at $6,995 USMSRP. Pricing for Avid Mojo hardware, which is sold separately, is $1,695 USMSRP. The new versions are expected to be available in Q2 2004.

For a complete list of features found in the NewsCutter Adrenaline FX 5.5 and NewsCutter XP 5.5 systems, please visit: www.avid.com/newscutter.

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 news 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, Film Composer, Avid DNxHD, NewsCutter, Adrenaline, Avid Mojo, Avid DNA, OMF, AirSpeed, Marquee, ProTools and Avid Unity are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Avid Technology, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. iNEWS is a trademark of iNews, LLC. 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. 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, 978-640-3325,
amy_paladino@avid.com
or
Weber Shandwick
Laura Shea, 617-520-7015,
lshea@webershandwick.com

SOURCE: Avid Technology, Inc.