Thomson Grass Valley Announces Multi-Million Euro Order for HD, SD Profile Open SAN Architecture Systems from NEC

(International Broadcasting Convention 2002 – Booth 8.151) Amsterdam, 12 September 2002 – Further extending the technology and market leadership of its Emmy® Award-winning line of Profile® video platforms, Thomson Grass Valley made a series of announcements today, including that of a multi-million euro order for multiple Profile Open SAN Architecture systems from NEC as well as updates regarding the standardization on the Profile system by other major media leaders.

Thomson Grass Valley also detailed formal Profile support for the MXF streaming file format and updates to its NetCentral™ SNMP-based remote monitoring technology, and described demonstrations of the open Profile XP Media Platform and the Incite advanced editing application going on throughout the week at IBC2002.

"Since we first created the category of video servers more than eight years ago, Thomson Grass Valley has set the industry standard for server support with the Profile family," said Marc Valentin, vice president of Thomson Grass Valley. "With an R&D investment in our server and digital news production lines exceeding 20 percent of annual revenue, we are committed to continuing this tradition for the long term."

With more content stored on it than any other, the Profile line is the industry's most flexible platform, able to support MPEG and DVCPRO compression formats and standard- and high- definition (SD and HD) signals. Available in SD and HD versions—and distributed or centralized architectures—Profile systems can fit any facility design. Core members of the Profile XP Media Platform include the PVS 1000 SD for on-air applications, the PVS 1100 for production applications, the PVS 2000 for HD on-air and production applications, and the Profile Network Archive for scalable, affordable storage.

NEC Places Multi-Million Euro Order for Open SAN Architecture
Japanese electronics leader NEC (NASDAQ: NIPNY) has won a multi-million euro order from major broadcast stations in Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya for the Profile Open SAN Architecture system. NEC and Thomson Grass Valley formed a partnership last year to sell Profile systems in Japan. NEC expects to place more Open SAN Architecture system orders in the next six months from other major broadcast stations.

The Profile SAN systems feature a design that enables easy, flexible operation for program or ad playout—a key feature as the Japanese broadcast industry prepares for digital terrestrial broadcasting in HDTV in 2003. In a typical configuration, the multiple Profile SAN systems will feature 20 fully mirrored SD and HD channels. "With seamless control from NEC automation software via the Profile applications programming interface, Japanese customers will be able to take full advantage of the versatile functionality of the Profile servers," said Valentin.

"NEC has a very strong background in integrating master control or program playout with their own automation control software," said Valentin. "These orders are combined efforts of NEC's reliable system integration and high performance of the Profile Open SAN Architecture systems."

NEC will deliver its systems at the end of 2002 and final installation at the customer site will be completed in spring 2003.

SMPTE 360M/MXF Interoperability, Integration of Incite Advanced Editor
Thomson Grass Valley is a strong supporter of both AAF and MXF, and plans to support both formats as standards emerge. These new formats complement the well-established SMPTE 360M, or GXF, standard, which today provides interoperability between a wide range of devices and which Thomson Grass Valley worked with others in the industry to develop.

"Key to the integration of new standards is recognizing the widespread adoption of existing standards and providing a migration strategy for those customers," said Valentin. "Such is the case for thousands of users worldwide with content archived in the SMPTE 360M or MXF formats. The greatest flexibility for users is provided when products are able to support file exchange in either the SMPTE 360M or MXF formats."

This week, Thomson Grass Valley is demonstrating Profile platform support of the MXF streaming file format. This technology demonstration shows a software module capable of unwrapping SMPTE 360M content, perhaps stored in a data archive, and rewrapping it as MXF to make the archived content accessible on platforms only able to support MXF. When integrated in products, this technology will provide seamless interchange of streams in either the SMPTE 360M or MXF format, depending on the capabilities of the destination server or device.

Thomson Grass Valley will also demonstrate integration of the Incite advanced editing software on the PVS 1100 Profile XP Media Platform. A powerful and scalable solution for SAN-enabled editing in post-production environments, the integration of the Incite application and the Profile platform underscores the openness of the Profile architecture.

Media Leaders Standardize on Profile Open SAN Architecture Systems

Thomson Grass Valley today also underscored the success of its server and shared-storage systems. The business has shipped more than 50 Profile Open SAN systems to major customers, including:

• Canadian-based broadcaster Corus
• C-SPAN (U.S.A.)
• HBO-Los Angeles (U.S.A.)
• KDB (Leading Korean broadcaster)
• NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration, U.S.A.)
• NBC (Major U.S. Network with major installations in Los Angeles, Miami, New York)
• NBC (Affliliate in San Diego, Calif.)
• Network 10 (Australia)
• A number of U.S. stations (UNC, Ohio; WISH, Indianapolis; WKCF, Orlando, Fla; WWLP, Springfield, Md.)

Thomson Grass Valley also showcased today the latest version of its NetCentral application for SNMP-based remote monitoring. NetCentral software offers continuous monitoring and user-programmable alerts in the event of equipment problems or device status changes. And the latest version of this highly configurable application lets users link any electronic document—from engineering drawings and floor plans to rack elevations and workflow diagrams—with device alerts, letting them check the state of a facility at a glance and instantly assess the impact of any system status changes.

About the Profile XP Media Platform
Leveraging the power of the Emmy award-winning Profile server—the world's most popular platform with more broadcast content stored on it than any other—the Profile XP Media Platform is the industry's most flexible, supporting the high-quality standards required for broadcast television in applications ranging from program transmission to production.

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.