Pinnacle Systems Introduces FXDeko, a Revolutionary CG Platform for Producing Dynamic Titles, Graphics, and Electrifying 3D Effects

FXDeko Lets Users Create Characters and Logos That Shatter, Rotate in 3D Space, or Page Turn into Position, All in Real-Time!

Taking a giant step forward in professional Character Generation solutions, Pinnacle Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: PCLE), an industry leader in Windows NT based CGs for broadcast, announced their most advanced CG to date, FXDeko. 100% BroadNeTTM compliant, FXDeko provides an astonishing compliment of audience grabbing, render-free effects, looks, and character animations in 3D space for real-time, live and on-air broadcasts.

The FXDeko's state-of-the-art design features 10-bit, 4:4:4:4 operation for the highest level of effects performance, key output and video quality. FXDeko is resolution independent, and can support a wide variety of video formats including Digital TV formats, NTSC, PAL, 16x9, and 4x3. It's Open GL support, with a library of stunning 3D effects, allows Pinnacle to supply users with the latest Open GL acceleration technology designed for the television industry -- achieving new levels of creative interactivity.

"We've been successfully using Pinnacle gear for years, having integrated the Company's DVEXtremes, Dekos, and Lightnings into our daily business," said Leroy Shafer, executive producer RODEOHUSTON. "The Power of FXDeko brings us the ability to add an entire New World of attention grabbing looks to our broadcast productions. To air performance and creativity has never been this easy," Shafer added.

FXDeko is available as a complete hardware/software solution. For complete facility integration, any image created on FXDeko is easily transferred to Pinnacle Systems' LightningTM or DVEXtremeTM with simple "point, click, and take."

With its core technology evolving from the Company's groundbreaking TypeDeko, long respected for its ease of use and pain free learning curve, FXDeko adds stunning character based effects, and carries forward Pinnacle Systems' tradition of providing uncompromising technology at highly competitive prices.

Sports shows, elections, and other live events will benefit from FXDeko's full database support, which allows text-based information to be updated on the fly from any ODBC compliant database. Using FXDeko's innovative and intuitive interface, in conjunction with its template feature, FXDeko users are able to save time and money by creating a consistent set of looks. Once a template is created, it can be used in perpetuity -- add late breaking information as it happens directly, via database, or even through a news automation system.

Like all Deko products, FXDeko supports any TrueType(R) font, which will allow FXDeko to work in virtually any language including Roman, Arabic, Hebrew, Cyrillic, Chinese, Japanese and Korean. In addition to unparalleled international compatibility, core Deko features include dissolves, cuts, reveals, wipes, pushes, rolls, and multi-line crawls. Users can combine these effects in any order, applying perspective to one, or many objects, to create amazing effects such as extruded characters, neon glows, and textured faces. Shards, water ripples, quad splits, and falling tiles add even more stunning features.

"It's a revolutionary technology that effectively gives the user real- time digital video effects per character on the screen, enabling looks that would have been impractical to complete on traditional CG systems. As recently as three years ago, users needed an SGI Onyx class solution or better to rival the level of sophisticated 3D effects found in FXDeko," said Bob Wilson, vice president and general manager of Pinnacle Systems' broadcast products group.

"FXDeko represents a new generation of graphics tools -- tools which interact in real-time with the user, allowing creativity to play a greater role in newsroom automation and other hi-pressure production scenarios. When it comes to capturing an audiences attention, FXDeko is in a league of its own, and is one of the only CGs able to automatically apply graphics effects to rows, lines, words, characters, and logos," Wilson added.

The Power of BroadNeT
BroadNeT empowers all of Pinnacle Systems' broadcast products to quickly and easily move graphics and text across both standard video and computer networks. This integrated broadcast products solution enables networking of third-party platforms such as PCs, MACs and even Quantel Paintboxes, without additional interfaces. Images and data can be quickly imported from the Internet into BroadNeT-empowered applications and converted to broadcast-ready formats on the fly. BroadNeT's interconnectivity creates a new collaborative workflow, allowing effects and graphics to be created for real-time playback to air.

Additional Information Available Online
Company Information: http://www.pinnaclesys.com/CompanyInfo.html
Press information: http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PressRoom.html
OEM home page http://www.pinnaclesys.com/OEMProducts.html
Broadcast homepage: http://www.pinnaclesys.com/broadcast/

About Pinnacle Systems, Inc.
Pinnacle Systems' broadcast, desktop, and consumer products provide video professionals and consumers the cutting-edge tools needed to create dazzling video programs faster and more affordably than ever before. Pinnacle Systems may be reached at +1 (650) 526-1600 or on the World Wide Web at www.pinnaclesys.com.

All trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners and are used for identification or reference purposes only, with no intent to infringe on copyrights.

CONTACT: Pinnacle Systems PR Media Contact: Blake Roberts,+1 650/237-1851 pr@pinnaclesys.com or Sales: +1 888/484-3366 investor relations: ir@pinnaclesys.com