Avid Ships Symphony Uncompressed Television Finishing System

TEWKSBURY, - Avid Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVID) announced that it is now shipping Avid Symphony™, its new Windows NTŪ-based high-end uncompressed nonlinear system for television post-production. With its uncompressed images and the creative flexibility afforded by a streamlined digital process, Symphony is optimized to replace the thousands of linear tape-based suites traditionally used to finish prime-time television projects.

The product has been in Beta testing since July. Steve Audette, Beta tester from WGBH-TV in Boston and editor of the nationally-airing documentary series, FRONTLINE, said, "Our experience with Symphony has been unbelievably good. The software is solid. Image quality is remarkable and there is virtually no learning curve. I'm really impressed with the product."

Avid Symphony features multiple uncompressed real-time streams and an advanced feature set providing the highest levels of quality, control and performance. It offers Total Conform, the fastest, most complete conform of projects created on Avid's Media ComposerŪ system, and supports a highly collaborative environment through strong links to Avid's family of dedicated audio and effects products and to third-party applications. Symphony's user interface contains specific optimizations for higher-end finishing, while retaining the familiar Avid interface, minimizing -- if not eliminating -- the learning curve for the largest trained talent pool in the industry.

Avid's Paul Henderson, vice president of product marketing, noted, "The delivery of Avid Symphony represents not only an incredible development and testing effort on Avid's part but also an important step for our industry. Symphony will revolutionize the finishing process for high-end television programming."

Avid Technology, Inc. is an international, industry-leading provider of digital audio and video tools for information and entertainment applications. The company's products are used by a variety of customers worldwide including film, television and interactive content producers, TV news broadcasters, corporate communicators and consumers. For more information, visit Avid's Web site at www.avid.com.