Thomson Grass Valley Announces Compact XtenDD HD Vision Mixer, Order Momentum for XtenDD Family
(International Broadcasting Convention 2002 – Booth 8.151) Amsterdam, 12 September 2002 – Thomson Grass Valley expanded its XtenDD™ line of digital vision mixers today with the introduction of a compact XtenDD HD system. The new 2 mix/effects (M/E) system requires only 7 RU of space, making it a perfect fit for OB vans and space-limited studio control rooms.
Highlighting the popularity of its digital vision mixers, Thomson Grass Valley also announced today several key orders for standard-definition XtenDD systems that will be installed in OB vans for a variety of live remote productions. The orders include those from VRT, a national broadcaster in Brussels, Belgium, which has taken delivery of an XtenDD-3 vision mixer; ENG-Videohouse, a production and post facility based in Vilvoorde, Belgium has purchased an XtenDD-3 vision mixer; and Outside Broadcast, a production facility located in Rotselaar, Belgium, which has placed an order for a 4 M/E XtenDD-4 vision mixer.
The Emmy® award-winning Thomson Grass Valley vision mixers are the industry pacesetters for reliability, quality, and intuitive user-interfaces. In addition to the XtenDD and XtenDD HD products, the Thomson Grass Valley vision mixer offering includes the Kalypso™ Video Production Center and Zodiak™ Digital Vision Mixer systems.
"In our second quarter alone, we shipped more than 100 vision mixers worldwide, a clear indication of our technological and market strengths," said Marc Valentin, vice president for the Thomson Grass Valley business. "Adding a compact XtenDD HD system can only enhance the momentum for our products as more facilities move to high-definition broadcasting."
Same Quality, New Compact Option
The compact 2-M/E XtenDD HD vision mixer lets virtually anyone produce multi-camera events in the pristine image quality that 1080-line HD productions afford. Populating only 7 equipment racks, it is designed to fit within OB vans as well as studio control rooms with limited space.
Like other XtenDD digital vision mixers, the new 2 M/E XtenDD HD system features a multi-layer switching capability, low-power consumption, high-performance chroma key capabilities, and macro key memory. It also includes an advanced graphical user interface (GUI) and local area network (LAN) technology for direct control of all vision mixer features from a remote location.
The 2 M/E XtenDD HD also offers three full-featured keyers (two can be upgraded with Dynachrome chroma key capability), 2 downstream keyers in the program-preset bank, up to 90 inputs and 36 outputs, and up to 10 auxiliary busses. Four channels of internal RAM Recorder storage—providing 32 seconds of internal clip memory—are already included with existing XtenDD SD switchers and are scheduled to be available in HD later this year.
Pricing for the new 2 M/E XtenDD HD vision mixer starts at 193,000 Euros. The system is available immediately.
About Thomson
With sales of 10.5 billion Euros (U.S. $ 9.3 billion) in 2001 and 73,000 employees in more than 30 countries, Thomson (Euronext: 18453) (NYSE: TMS), provides a wide range of video (and enabling) technologies, systems, finished products and services to consumers and professionals in the entertainment and media industries. To advance and enable the digital media transition, Thomson has five principal activities: Digital Media Solutions, Displays and Components, Consumer Products, Patents and Licensing and New Media Services. The company distributes its products and services under the THOMSON, RCA and TECHNICOLOR brand names. For more information: www.thomson-multimedia.com.
A business within Thomson Digital Media Solutions, Thomson Grass Valley delivers open, integrated digital products that work together along the entire digital video chain to support a variety of workflows, from content capture and acquisition through production, post production, and transmission. With a proven track record in broadcast, including 17 Emmy® and multiple industry awards, it offers an award-winning, robust product portfolio that touches more high-quality content than any other; product and systems expertise that has yielded hundreds of patents and a number of industry standards; and worldwide software engineering expertise and customer support teams that are second to none.
For information about Thomson Grass Valley products please visit www.thomsongrassvalley.com.
Grass Valley Group, 400 Providence Mine Road, Nevada City, CA 95959. Tel: 888-526-8554 ; Fax: 503-627-5224.