Leading Post Production Facilities Save Customers Time and Money Finishing High Profile Projects on Avid DS Nitris Systems

Law and Order, Black Gold and Deadliest Catch among productions using Avid DS Nitris systems on multi-format, multi-resolution projects

TEWKSBURY, Mass., July 2008 — Avid Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: AVID) today announced that a majority of today’s popular film, television and commercial projects such as 2008 Cannes award-winning Three Monkeys, Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch, NBC’s Law and Order, truTV’s Black Gold and ESPN’s E:60, are finished on Avid® DS Nitris® systems. With an integrated toolset for advanced compositing, visual effects, conform and finishing, Avid DS Nitris systems enable facility-level customers to work more productively and finish projects against tight deadlines, without having to tie up several edit bays. Facilities and production companies currently using Avid DS Nitris as a part of their overall workflow include: FotoKem, Bluefoot Entertainment, Ironik Design and Post, Kappa Studios, Inc., MAX Post, Serious Robots and The Post Group.

Recent projects that have been finished on Avid DS Nitris systems include:

* Animal Planet’s Raw Nature
* DirecTV’s Hometown Heroes
* Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch, Future Car Series (parts 1-4), Iditarod and Verminators
* ESPN’s E:60, The Masters Tournament (features and teasers) and British Open (teasers)
* European Drama Network’s The Mandrake Root
* FOX’s Prison Break
* FOX Reality’s Rob & Amber: Against the Odds
* History Channel’s Ax Men and Ice Road Truckers
* Lower Learning
* National Geographic’s America’s Port and LA Hardhats
* NBC’s America’s Toughest Jobs, Las Vegas, Law and Order, Law and Order Criminal Intent and Law and Order Special Victims Unit
* North One Television’s Fifth Gear and The Gadget Show
* Searchers 2.0 (Concorde-New Horizons)
* Sony’s NFL on CBS pre/post game with Jim Nantz and Peyton Manning (teasers)
* SpikeTV’s 1000 Ways to Die
* TBN’s Christmas at Cadillac Jack’s
* The Cell 2
* The Tournament of Roses Parade
* The Wordz Project (Pinlight)
* Three Monkeys
* Travelocity commercial spots
* truTV’s Black Gold

Quotes:

“The Avid DS Nitris system is a workhorse for us. Within this one system, we can assemble and do color correction, titling and VFX work for our reality TV projects. Since the shows are edited on Avid Media Composer, we have a straight conform to the DS Nitris system. We often use the same graphics and titles on multiple shows, and I can pull the elements I need from the DS without having to import them separately into every show, which saves me hours of additional work. We also use DNxHD 220 for our online work and it’s an incredible cost savings for us. We don’t have to make heavy investments in additional storage, and I can have a whole season online in the system and still have room to start the next series. With the volume of footage we’re constantly handling here, that’s a huge benefit.”

– Marc Fisher (Black Gold, Ax Men, Deadliest Catch, Raw Nature, Las Vegas),
DS Nitris artist at MAX Post

“Avid DS Nitris gives us the ability to cater to a client’s many developing needs. When a workstation can be so flexible and so powerful, it becomes the centerpiece for our company’s working model. With DS Nitris, we can offline a project of any flavor, then online that very project in the same box or receive a project that was offlined in another suite and take the online to the DS. For promo work, there’s nothing better on the market. Networks are governed by the clock, and when you have a limited amount of time to cut, color grade, mix audio, title and graphic a piece, Avid DS Nitris is your savior. Avid DS makes sense for us in every way imaginable and keeps our clients ahead of schedule and coming back for more.”

– Sean Stall (E:60, British Open, The Masters),
owner, Ironik Design and Post

“DS Nitris plays a critical role here at Kappa, occupying a niche that no other solution can fill with the same ease and reliability. The integration of editing and compositing tools in one solution allows us to tackle jobs that would otherwise have to be split in two, if not three, different bays. Procedures that we did on a recent RED-project, like frame rate conversions and fixing certain shots by removing extraneous objects and replacing content on computer monitors, would be difficult if not outright impossible to do in solutions like Final Cut Pro.”

– Igor Ridanovic (Hometown Heroes, The Searchers 2.0, The Wordz Project),
colorist/designer/editor at Kappa Studios, Inc.

“Our customers have figured out that they can generally get more done in a DS Nitris bay, in less time, for less money per hour, than on any of our other systems here. That’s what’s really great about the DS – it allows us to create incredible client loyalty by consistently making our customers look good to their clients. Simply put, the DS system is incredibly powerful, extremely versatile and enables us to deliver what our customers need at the highest quality.”

– Derek Herr (Prison Break, Las Vegas),
Senior finishing editor/compositor
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