Thomson, Pinnacle Awarded Technical Emmys

Broadcast & Network Solutions of Thomson multimedia is proud toannounce that they have been awarded a Scientific and TechnologicalEmmy® Award for "pioneering developments in shared video-datastorage systems technology for use in television video servers." Thetechnology was first made commercially available in the Media Poolserver delivered to Home and Garden TV (Scripps-Howard) in 1994 and isthe technology used by most SAN system manufacturers.

Pinnacle Systems(NASDAQ: PCLE) also announces that the NationalAcademy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) has awarded it an"Emmy" for technical achievement. The award is given to PinnacleSystems for pioneering developments in shared video-data storagesystems technology for use in television video servers. PinnacleSystems has been recognized in the past as a leader in the convergenceof video, computer and networking technologies, and receiving this Emmyis further evidence of our continued pioneering efforts.

As holders of the majority of storage area network (SAN) patents invideo and broadcast technology, Thomson multimedia's serversincorporate the latest in SAN technology. Thomson multimedia's researchand development teams continue to build on the SAN technologies firstdelivered in Media Pool, with our new Nextore server.

"Being recognized by the National Academy of Television Arts andSciences for the industry leadership demonstrated in SAN technology isvery rewarding," said Marc Valentin, Vice President of Thomsonmultimedia Broadcast & Network Solutions. "After years of researchand development, and implementation by other manufacturers, ourtechnology is now the clear leader in SAN architecture."

Mark Sanders, CEO of Pinnacle Systems, said: "Receiving this Emmy isa tremendous honor. Our storage technology is being adopted by leadingcustomers including AOL Time Warner, Networked News Service, (acollaborative news organization formed by ABC News One, CBS Newspathand Fox News Edge) as well as the Canadian Broadcasting Company, toname a few. Winning the most prestigious award in our industryunderlines Pinnacle Systems' commitment to staying in the forefront ofvideo technology."

More than 270 THOMSON servers, the first commercially available SANproducts, are in use throughout the world serving approximately 2,500channels every day.

SAN technology offers simplified data storage management,scalability, flexibility, availability, and improved data access,movement, and backup. As the broadcast industry moves toward a digitalfacility infrastructure and multiple channel single facilitybroadcasting, one of the key enabling technologies are those found inSANs. SAN technology allows a broadcaster to manage their content dataand telecasts on a large scale with hours of program content andcommercials available online from SAN servers such as Thomsonmultimedia's Media Pool and Nextore severs.

"We are indebted to Home and Garden TV/Scripps-Howard for being thefirst customer of Media Pool and helping to usher in the age of SANtechnology," said Mike Wolschon. Director of Segment Marketing for theNorth American subsidiary of Thomson multimedia Broadcast & NetworkSolutions. "In addition, our first beta customers, ABC and PBS,provided invaluable feedback to help SAN technology become the de factostandard in broadcast for large area content storage.