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KOMO Migrates to HD Newscasts with Thomson Grass Valley News Production Systems
Paris and Nevada City, Calif., August 6, 2008 — KOMO, the ABC affiliate in Seattle, Wash., will begin producing its daily local newscasts in high-definition (HD) with HD news production equipment and systems from Thomson (Euronext Paris: 18453; NYSE: TMS), the worldwide leader in video solutions. The comprehensive Thomson Grass Valley™ HD production system will allow the station to produce news both in the studio on a shared storage network and in the field on portable laptop systems.
The station's news division will deploy an HD Thomson Grass Valley K2™ media server system with 12-channels in and 12-channels out on a large storage area network (SAN) system, 16 seats of Thomson Grass Valley Aurora™ Craft HD editing systems, and several laptop edit systems running Aurora Edit software. Content will be ingested into the new HD system on the K2 servers allowing the station's news editors to begin working on news stories immediately, even before a clip has finished being loaded onto the servers.
"Using Aurora and the K2 servers, we can get stories to air faster than ever before, which is key in a local news market," said John Barrett, Director of Engineering at KOMO. "Realizing the magnitude of the project, we could not make this transition to HD news production without the help of Thomson. We look forward to a long and healthy relationship while we provide our viewers with a great-looking on-air product."
The order includes an Aurora Ingest system for managing and logging incoming materials from feeds, VTRs, and file transfers, an Aurora Browse system for media management, and the Aurora Edit LD low resolution editing platform with EDLs conformed in full resolution and played-back on the K2 playout system running Aurora Playout software.
The station's editors, working on Aurora Craft systems, will be networked on an 18TB K2 SAN to store over 800 hours of 50 Mb/s high definition resolution video, while the low resolution system will maintain approximately 4,000 hours of 1Mb/s material on a 3TB NAS.
"With Aurora editing and playout, and storage on K2, KOMO has the best news infrastructure available to bring news to its viewers quickly while maintaining the highest quality," said Jeff Rosica, Senior Vice President of Thomson's Broadcast & Professional Solutions within the Systems division.
KOMO has also contracted with Thomson for a full range of design engineering and consultancy support and project management services over several years. The installation of the HD news production infrastructure is scheduled for completion in October 2008.
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Certain statements in this press release, including any discussion of management expectations for future periods, constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the "safe harbor" of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and beliefs and are subject to a number of factors and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the future results expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements due to changes in global economic and business conditions, consumer electronics markets, and regulatory factors. More detailed information on the potential factors that could affect the financial results of Thomson is contained in Thomson's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
About Thomson: the worldwide leader in video solutions
Thomson (Euronext Paris: 18453; NYSE: TMS) is the world leading provider of solutions for the creation, management, delivery and access of video, for the Communication, Media & Entertainment (CME) industries. Our clients are studios, broadcasters, network operators (telcos, broadband, satellite and cable operators) and an increasing range of professional users of videos.
We deliver superior value to our customers through a unique combination of industry leading technologies, systems and services, enabling us to offer differentiated and innovative end-to-end solutions based on a broad portfolio of Intellectual Property. At the cross-roads of the CME industries, leveraging our core competencies in video but also audio, data and voice, we enable our customers to take advantage of the growth opportunities brought on by the digital convergence revolution. For more information: www.thomson.net.
For information about Grass Valley products from
Thomson please visit www.thomsongrassvalley.com.
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