Market Momentum Grows for Grass Valley Group's Profile XP Media Platform, Kalypso Video Production Centre

—Company reports millions in sales for both products; steady profitability for 12 months ended June 30, 2000—

Amsterdam, IBC, 7 September, 2000 — Grass Valley Group today reported steady profitability for its first 12 months as a privately held company. The digital media leader, which offers high-quality video solutions for the broadcast industry as it transitions to digital and the Internet and also to the emerging interactive television, Internet, Digital Cinema and extreme retailing markets, announced a run rate of nearly $200 million (U.S.) for the 12 months ended June 30, 2000, and that the company was solidly profitable for that same period.

In related news, the Grass Valley Group today announced that both its Profile^® XP Media Platform™ and Kalypso™ Video Production Centre are gaining widespread market acceptance, with millions of dollars and hundreds of units ordered by broadcast, professional video and emerging media (streaming video over the Internet, digital commercial delivery, extreme retailing) customers worldwide over the past nine months. Orders for the high-definition version of the Profile XP Media platform attest to both its flexibility (only the swap-out of a couple of boards are required to migrate from standard definition to high definition) and quality of video across multiple media.

The Grass Valley Group's next-generation products are part of the company's Media Without Bounds™ technology and solutions initiative to optimise video and other content creator's digital distribution strategies.

Customers for the Grass Valley products range from broadcast/Internet video leaders such as the BBC, Euromedia, EuroHits, HTV-Wales, Viasat, and Emirates Media/Abu Dhabi TV in Europe and the Middle East; Turner Broadcasting, AOL/Time-Warner (Warner Brothers Television), Boston-based WGBH, the leading content creator for the United States' Public Broadcasting Stations, ABC affiliate KABC in Los Angeles, Calif., NEP Supershooters and Moutain Mobile (both US mobile truck companies), Cosmos Broadcasting, and Galaxy Latin America LLC (GLA), the exclusive provider of DIRECTV, in the Americas; and, the Australian Broadcast Corporation, Start TV and New Dehli TV (both India), CCTV (China Central TV), and the E-Channel in Korea.

New media adopters include Lucent Technologies, Media DVX (for digital commercial delivery), mobile truck companies such as NEP SuperShooters and the Entertainment Broadcast Corporation (extreme retailing) for its high-definition, luxury theatres.

"The most important thing we can do for our Digicasting™ customers is to continue our aggressive rate of research and development investment, including the acquisition of complementary technologies and joint technology partnership, to accelerate the delivery of innovative, flexible, affordable products for high-quality video," said Tim Thorsteinson, president of the Grass Valley Group. Currently, the company is spending nearly 18% of revenue on research and development for new products.

Broadcast, Internet, extreme retailing industries choose Profile XP Media Platform

"The capital cost advantage of the digital server - a category of product which the Grass Valley Group created - exceeds VTRs 2:1. Plus, servers require little maintenance. It's pretty easy to do the maths," said Thorsteinson.

"With customers ranging from leaders in broadcast to innovators in streaming video for the Internet, unique digital video delivery services, and extreme retailing, the Profile XP truly is becoming the ubiquitous video device for high-quality video. We are extremely proud of the calibre of our customers, and look forward to providing them with the best in quality video technology and support.

With more broadcast content stored on it than any other server, the Profile XP is the industry's most open solution, supporting both the high-quality standards required for broadcast television and low-resolution required for the Internet, as well as MPEG, DVCPRO, HD and MPEG Transport Streams (MTS).

While traditional video servers typically offer only playback and storage capabilities, the Profile XP Media Platform, with its Microsoft^® Windows NT^® architecture and standard networking and storage technologies, reliability, and high-quality video, is extensible to new applications inside and outside a broadcast facility including hard news production, Interactive TV, Digital Cinema, and the Internet.

"In the not too distant future, that means when you're watching high-quality video on television, your computer, in the mall, or at the movie theater, you will be watching the Grass Valley Profile," said Thorsteinson.

The Profile XP Media Platform offers a host of powerful software solutions, including the ContentShare software platform for media access and management no matter where the assets are located or what application they use; NetCentral, an SNMP-remote monitoring and diagnostic tool uses a single monitor within a facility to seek out any potential problems, regardless of their location, and alerts staff to the problem on their cell phone or pager; and, WebAble, a technology for streamlining and simplifying the process used by broadcasters to get their high-value content onto the Web. As well, the Profile XP supports more than 100 applications, and works with the Grass Valley Group's Vibrint line of hard news production solutions.

Kalypso Video Production Centre leapfrogs traditional switchers

As the hub of a teleproduction environment, the Kalypso Video Production Centre family combines industry-leading switching and powerful mix/effects (M/E) capabilities with an open, networked architecture that offers a precedent-setting degree of operational integration. With 80 inputs (video or key), it offers fingertip control of a number of previously off-board functions to streamline workflow, from greater M/E capabilities to a programmable clean-feed system, all from a familiar Grass Valley control panel interface.

With a vast menu of on-board capabilities, the Grass Valley Group's Kalypso Video Production Centre now provides broadcast and video professionals with more production power than ever. These advanced features range from internal still store with animation playback and internal digital video effects, to advanced integrated device control.

"Since the introduction of the Kalypso, we've rolled out three significant releases of advanced hardware and software enhancements, answering the demand for more production value, more control, and offering the means to lower costs in applications such as multilingual and multi-client productions. Coupled with a huge 80x46 internal routing system, Kalypso is the most robust tool for live productions available on the market today," he said.

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Notes to Editors

The Grass Valley Group knows more about high-quality video than anybody else—especially as video goes digital. Interactive television. Digital cinema. Data-enhanced broadcasting. Internet. It's a world of Digicasting™—of Media Without Bounds™. Whether online or on the air, the Emmy^® award-winning Grass Valley Group, a privately held digital media leader, has the hardware, software, and new media technologies necessary to get content wherever it needs to go. For the latest Grass Valley Group product information, visit /.

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