50th Avid DS Nitris System Delivered in Europe; Strong Demand Shows Wide Appeal of New HD SystemPINEWOOD STUDIOS, United Kingdom--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 10, 2004--Avid Technology Europe Ltd., a subsidiary of Avid Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVID), today announced that it has delivered 50 Avid^® DS Nitris^™ systems in Europe since the product started shipping in October 2003. Companies including broadcasters, television postproduction facilities and feature film effects houses have purchased Avid DS Nitris systems for use on a wide variety of projects including HD film work, television promos, long-form dramas and DVD production. The sales demonstrate the versatility of the Avid DS Nitris system, which combines deep creative editing and finishing software with the most powerful HD and SD media processing hardware available.

TV4, Sweden's largest commercial broadcaster, has purchased two Avid DS Nitris systems for its broadcast Trailer and Promo department. "We already have six Avid systems, so the Avid DS Nitris system fits seamlessly into our workflow, and our editors are already familiar with the Avid interface," said Mikael Olsson, Head of Technical Projects at TV4. "Another important feature to us as a broadcaster is that it can handle many different formats - anything from compressed SD to HD - all of which can co-exist within the timeline, and play back in real-time."

Pink House Post Production, based in Bristol, UK, works on a wide variety of high-quality programmes, many of which are created for global distribution. "We have been looking for a system that delivers the quality and speed of a 10-bit linear finishing suite for the kind of long-form work that we do, and also provides the flexibility and power required for complex compositing in the commercial, animation and FX work that Pink House undertakes," said Anita Nandwani, Managing Director, Pink House Post Production. "These factors, combined with the Symphony^™ style colour correction tool and the overall Avid offline/online workflow, made Avid DS Nitris the obvious choice for us."

Munich-based ARRI Film & TV Services GmbH is among the leading German postproduction houses, providing high-level expertise in film-based digital postproduction as well as developing and manufacturing high-end equipment for Digital Intermediate workflows. "Much of our work is feature film-based, and we needed a system which could handle both SD and an increasing amount of HD material. With Avid DS Nitris, not only do we have a system that has the performance to handle the bandwidth of HD, we also have the high-quality effects tools we need for feature film production," said Christian Grafwallner, Technical Project Coordinator Digital Lab, ARRI Film & TV Services GmbH.

Miguel Ferros, European HD Product Marketing Manager for Avid, said, "We are delighted with the rapid up-take of Avid DS Nitris in Europe. To ship 50 systems in less than four months, to such a diverse mix of customers is a testament to the depth and versatility of Avid DS Nitris. From film work and complex visual effects to mainstream editing, this is a product with the tools and performance to appeal to all types of programme makers."

About Avid DS Nitris

The Avid DS Nitris system is an all-in-one postproduction solution that offers nonlinear video and audio editing, including Symphony style colour correction, as well as advanced compositing, paint, character generation, special effects, image treatment, and project media management. The Avid DS Nitris system leverages the power of Avid DNA^™ - the industry's only hybrid architecture designed to maximize the capabilities of both host-based software processing and hardware-based acceleration - and is capable of delivering real-time effects for up to two streams of 10-bit high-definition media and eight streams of 10-bit uncompressed standard-definition media. The system also supports a wider range of high-quality formats, from compressed SD to 2K, than any other nonlinear editing system on the market - and offers the industry's broadest range of professional input/output (I/O) connections.

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. Avid, Film Composer, Nitris, Avid DNA and Symphony 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. 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 Europe Ltd.
Wendy Mattock, +44 (0)1753 658428
wendy_mattock@avid.com

SOURCE: Avid Technology, Inc.