For More Information:
Wendy Hills Pathlight Technology, Inc (607) 266-4000 x353
Robert Russo Design Media (415) 641-4848

Jerome LeNoble CFE (33) 1-694-12727
M.C. Patel Discreet Logic (44) 1635 580444
Tom Patrick McAuliffe FAST Multimedia, Inc. (415) 295-3500
Jamie Carr in:sync corporation (301) 320-0220
Janet Matey Matrox Video Products Group (514) 969-6037
Patrick Rafter Media 100 (508) 460-1600 x877
Helen Shortal Scitex Digital Video (415) 599-3093
Laurin Herr Truevision (408) 496-4085

Bill Pinkerton IBM (408) 256-9331
Mike Mihalik La Cie (503) 520-5574
Judy Palfi Locom Corporation (408) 654-7979
Bruce Beck Mercury Computer Systems (508) 256-1300
Juergen Heidegger Siemens Nixdorf (49) 896-36-42535
Roger Nixon Xyratex (603) 642-7808

Mike Skibra Digital Marketing International (908) 521-1370
Nick Gross EIS (415) 969-5212

PLEASE HOLD FOR NAB RELEASE - BOOTH I5253

VIDEO INDUSTRY SUPPORTS IMAGENET II FOR WORKGROUP COMPUTING SOLUTIONS
Pathlight Technology Products Provide Shared Access to Data Today Using SSA

(Las Vegas - April 7, 1997) As the worlds of computer and video continue to merge, the issues of workgroup computing have become more important. This is especially true in the area of non-linear editing, which often forms the hub of a video production or broadcast enterprise. True collaboration reduces the amount of time and money needed to create outstanding content.

At this year's NAB, an impressive group of hardware and software companies have come together with Pathlight Technology to endorse ImageNET II as a desirable AND DELIVERABLE solution for collaborative production. This group includes many major suppliers of non-linear editing systems as well as a number of storage subsystem suppliers.

"ImageNET II, which is based on SSA technology, is particularly well suited to the video production industry," says Alex Lieb, vice president of sales and marketing for Pathlight Technology. "We are very proud to have our products and this technology recognized as the key to providing workgroup computing solutions today."

ImageNET II uses SSA to create a "tuned environment" for video professionals. The speed of the computer, the bus, the peripherals and the network are all compatible - there are no bottlenecks and the architecture supports multiple concurrent streams of high resolution video and audio. Within this environment, production professionals can share data using a bandwidth of up to 80 MegaBytes per second (MBps), which is enough for multiple streams of uncompressed D1 video. In fact, the total available bandwidth increases by adding more workstations and storage devices. In the near future, SSA's speed will increase to 160 MBps with a clear and easy migration path - Pathlight and its partners are committed to backward compatibility.

As the high bandwidth demands of the video industry push the development of computer technology, other architectures claim to offer high-speed networking and/or storage solutions for workgroup computing. Sometimes it's difficult to tell whether a technology is truly available or is simply being previewed for sale at some later date. Because of this, more and more purchasers of broadcast video goods and services are challenging manufacturers to prove their products work with the equipment that is already installed.

"This is the type of challenge we enjoy," comments Said Rahmani-Khezri, vice president of research and development for Pathlight. "ImageNET II, based on SSA technology, provides a reliable, high performance workgroup solution today. And, since we support the SCSI protocol on SSA, we are 100% compatible with existing video solutions."

In a world of possibilities, Pathlight Technology and SSA provide a concrete solution for video workgroups. ImageNET II in a video production environment increases performance and connectivity without requiring any changes to existing applications. ImageNET II is expandable and reconfigurable to satisfy the growth and changes of the video industry, now and in the future.

The many benefits of ImageNET II have been attracting a large number of strategic players in the video world. All of them have their own specific reasons for supporting this solution based on SSA.

Design Media
Design Media recently installed an ImageNET II system to be used with their Media 100 non-linear editing stations. According to Robert Russo, Post Production Supervisor for the company, "ImageNET II allows our Media 100s to operate over a state of the art networking system, sharing the same media files when needed. With it, we can simultaneously digitize and edit projects. Another major advantage is that productions are no longer 'locked' in a single edit room."

CFE
"We are extremely pleased to be working with Pathlight as a partner," states Jerome LeNoble, President of CFE. "This is a relationship that we have enjoyed for one year. We believe that SSA is the best technology today for implementing workgroup solutions using true uncompressed video. The CFE Gallea, which does not use any compression, requires a reliable, extremely fast and efficient storage architecture. Pathlight understands these requirements and works closely with us to bring the best video to the marketplace."

Discreet Logic
"Discreet Logic is very satisfied with the way SSA works in our demanding environment," explains M.C. Patel, Director of Hardware. "Pathlight's SSA products are a part of Pebbles, which is the video I/O and storage solution we use in our Flint RT system. Since December, we have been delivering this solution to video customers in both the broadcast and post-production areas. They are all very happy with the performance of SSA and the smooth manner in which all of the pieces fit together. The system speeds the creative process, thereby providing an opportunity for our customers to increase their revenues."

FAST Multimedia, Inc.
"We have chosen to support the Pathlight ImageNET II SSA system with blue., our new Windows NT based, all-format digital editing system launched at NAB 1997," states Matthias Zahn, Founder and Chief Technology Architect of Fast Multimedia. "The revolutionary architecture of blue. combines MPEG-2, DV and uncompressed 10-bit digital video for digital end-to-end production. Blue. also supports SDI, QSDI and 10-bit analog component interfaces. The advantages of working with native digital video in a networked environment can only be realized with extremely fast, reliable and sharable storage subsystems like SSA."

in:sync
"ImageNET II makes Speed Razor even faster," comments Jamie Carr, President of in:sync corporation. "You just plug it in and it goes, allowing audio and video editors to share their work and collaborate on creating a better result."

Matrox
"Matrox is happy to announce that we are now supporting the Pathlight SSA controller in DigiSuite, our Windows NT, open architecture, digital media platform," says Alain Legault, vice president, product development for Matrox Video Products Group. "The combination of the Pathlight PCI bus mastering feature and the Matrox DigiSuite zero wait-state, memory-mapped architecture, allows users to enjoy optimal bandwidth performance from SSA technology."

Media 100
"Increasingly Media 100 clients like universities, ad agencies, corporations, broadcasters, government and military facilities need the ability to link video, graphics, and animation workstations together to share digital assets across platforms," states John Molinari, CEO of Media 100 Inc. "SSA is simple, scalable, reliable, and available now, which translates into immediate productivity gains."

Scitex Digital Video
"SSA is a superior solution for the requirements of video and audio data transfer," says Scitex Digital Video President and CEO Randy Hood. "Pathlight's work with SSA and high-speed media transfer represent an important breakthrough for the entire video industry. We've worked closely with Pathlight to develop a superior implementation of SSA, and the architecture of Scitex Digital Video's Sphere platform is designed from the ground up to take full advantage of high-speed networking solutions like SSA. Sphere workstations can simultaneously handle media transfer and creative tasks, without exiting the editing application or tying up the entire system. This delivers exceptional connectivity and creative freedom to our customers."

Truevision
"Truevision has been driving the state of the art of desktop video with its award winning, high performance TARGA cards," explains Laurin Herr, Vice President for Strategic Development. "Our TARGA 2000 SDX with Serial Digital Interface (SDI) now features JPEG compression at up to 15 MegaBytes/second which requires a very high performance disk system. Using the TARGA 2000 SDX with ImageNET II not only provides the performance we need, but also supports shared media from multiple desktops. This is something our customers are looking for." Herr also points out that ImageNET II is compatible with "all the TARGAs, whether Mac or Windows NT," allowing existing customers to install ImageNET II with their current products.

IBM
"IBM originally developed SSA for the fast-emerging world of network computing, where high-performance, reliability and scalability are absolute requirements," states Bill Pinkerton, director of marketing for IBM Open Systems Storage products. Recently IBM announced that SSA 160 technology will be available next year. With this announcement, continues Pinkerton, "We're extending our storage leadership in serial technology and reinforcing our commitment to develop advanced serial solutions.

La Cie
Mike Mihalik, Vice President of Product Development for La Cie Limited, says "We've integrated SSA storage products with Macintosh computers to provide fast, cost effective and reliable video storage subsystems. Our SPEED2 Video Storage Solution allow users of Power Macintosh computers to edit video in an open system environment."

Locom Corporation
"The performance of digital computing and video equipment has been limited by access to storage," explains Tom Palfi, President, Locom Corporation. "SSA is a major step in reducing this bottleneck. ImageNET II is optimized to take advantage of SSA's salient features, resulting in unsurpassed performance."

Mercury Computer Systems
"In developing ImageNET II, Pathlight Technology has integrated Mercury's SuiteFusion™ software into a comprehensive workgroup environment based on SSA technology," says Bruce Beck, vice president, Digital Video Products Group, Mercury Computer Systems. "SSA provides a scalable, robust, high-performance networking and storage architecture demanded by the video industry. This technology platform enables workgroup video editing to become a long awaited reality."

Siemens Nixdorf Information Systems
According to Juergen Heidegger, Director OEM Marketing and Sales for Siemens Nixdorf Information Systems, "SSA's ability to have multiple conversations on a loop provides superior implementations for the video industry. ImageNET II also provides inherent reliability and availability due to SSA's full duplex, bi-directional links and dual ports."

Xyratex
"As the industry moves to digital video, storage becomes increasingly important," says Piotr Nahajski, Vice President of Storage Systems, Xyratex. "With the Media 100 community adopting SSA as a desirable, alternative advanced storage system, we are now in a place to extend that to the Windows NT environment. Additionally, the availability today of the new control software products, which allow 16 seats in a loop, makes SSA an even more compelling and complete solution for the video production industry."

DMI
"Digital Marketing International is glad to be working with Pathlight to bring SSA solutions to its reseller base," comments Mike Skibra, Vice President/General Manager of DMI. "In addition to Pathlight, DMI distributes the CFE Gallea and Siemens Nixdorf SSA arrays, thus providing uncompromised video solutions for professionals. The solutions we are able to provide are unparalleled in the industry. There isn't a comparable system to Pathlight, CFE and SNI."

EIS
"Since we are a value added reseller," states Nick Gross, Director of Digital Video at EIS, Inc., "our main concern is giving our customers the best service and support. This means providing tools and systems that genuinely enhance productivity, creativity and quality, all at a reasonable price and with a high degree of reliability. As a media storage system, SSA with Pathlight controllers meets every one of these criteria. With it, we can design systems for media creation and distribution that provide an unprecedented degree of flexibility in terms of workflow, backup and multitasking video for distribution."

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Pathlight Technology, Inc. is the leading provider of high performance workgroup solutions and a leading manufacturer of SSA products. The company is headquartered in Ithaca, New York. For more information, visit Pathlight on-line at www.pathlight.com or contact sales at (607) 266-4000

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