TEWKSBURY, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 15, 2003--Avid Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVID) today announced the worldwide availability of Avid^® DS Nitris^™ and Avid DS Nitris Editor - the only finishing systems on the market to deliver real-time effects and color correction with two streams of uncompressed 10-bit HD media and eight streams of 10-bit uncompressed SD media. Starting at only $78,995 USMSRP, the Avid DS Nitris family supports a wide range of high-quality formats, from compressed SD to 2K, and delivers a deep set of video and audio editing capabilities - including Symphony^™-style color correction.

"When I sat down at the Nitris system, the first thing I did was digitize uncompressed 10-bit HD media, throw on some color correction, hit play, and bam! It all played back in real time. It absolutely blew my mind," said Gus Comegys, lead editor at Digitalize, a Los Angeles-based online facility and Avid DS Nitris beta tester. "Avid|DS HD is rapidly becoming the de facto standard for HD finishing. With Avid DS Nitris on the market, I can't imagine why anyone would consider using another nonlinear product for completing HD projects."

Alan Hoff, director of Editors Product Management for Avid, commented, "Avid DS Nitris is revolutionary because it brings all the real-time performance of an SD finishing system to HD - with zero compromises. The system offers the industry's most extensive creative toolset, including advanced editing, compositing, vector paint, titling, 3D effects, and Symphony-style color correction features. It's capable of handling just about any task you throw at it." Hoff continued, "Professionals in the rapidly growing HD finishing markets for primetime television and commercial postproduction no longer have to waste time rendering - even when working with the highest-quality media. With Avid DS Nitris, they can complete projects faster and have more time to take on creative challenges by tapping into the system's deep functionality."

The Avid DS Nitris and Avid DS Nitris Editor systems are the most powerful members of the Avid DNA^™ family, the industry's only hybrid architecture designed to leverage the capabilities of both host-based software processing and hardware-based acceleration, delivering unparalleled performance that scales with the power of host CPUs. The Nitris hardware is software programmable for future codecs, real-time effects, and other functions - via the Web or CD.

The Avid DS Nitris family supports the industry's broadest set of input/output (I/O) capabilities, including SDI and HD-SDI digital video and eight channels of digital audio at 24-bit 96 kHz. The systems work with both AAF and OMF^® media, which enable them to seamlessly conform any project from a Symphony, Media Composer^® Adrenaline^™, Media Composer, or Avid Xpress^® system. Avid DS Nitris and Avid DS Nitris Editor systems can also share media with other Avid, Softimage^®, and Digidesign^® systems in a collaborative workflow with the Avid Unity^™ MediaNetwork system.

For more information about the features and functionality included in the Avid DS Nitris family, visit www.avid.com.

Pricing and Availability

Avid DS Nitris and Avid DS Nitris Editor are now available through Avid's worldwide reseller channel. Pricing is $78,995 USMSRP for the Avid DS Nitris Editor system and $145,000 USMSRP for the Avid DS Nitris system. For existing Avid|DS HD customers, hardware upgrades to the Avid DS Nitris system are $35,000 USMSRP.

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.

^© 2003 Avid Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Product specifications and availability are subject to change without notice. All prices are USMSRP for U.S. and Canada only. Contact your local Avid reseller for pricing information outside the U.S. and Canada. Avid, Avid DNA, Adrenaline, Avid Xpress, Film Composer, Media Composer, Softimage, Digidesign, Avid Unity, OMF, Symphony, and Nitris 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 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.

NOTE TO EDITORS: In the name Avid|DS noted in this news release, there is a pipe symbol between Avid and DS. This symbol may not appear properly in some systems.

CONTACT: Avid Technology, Inc.
Alice Eubank, 978-640-3325
alice_eubank@avid.com
or
Weber Shandwick
Eleanor McMahon, 617-520-7100
emcmahon@webershandwick.com

SOURCE: Avid Technology, Inc.