INDUSTRY

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, IBC 2002 -- SGI with its open-system and standards-based approach to the broadcast, production and broadband industries is delivering true ROI-return on investment, return on integration and return on IT-to customers worldwide. By turning customers' workflow -- the process by which broadcasters, post-production facilities and interactive television providers prepare content for delivery -- into effective dataflow, SGI is able to deliver better return on investment. At the International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) in Amsterdam, September 13-17, SGI, celebrating its 20th year, will be demonstrating this ROI approach. "As a computing company, what sets SGI apart from our competitors is that we also understand the world of video. We're able to develop interoperability between the worlds of data and video that is of great benefit to our customers," said Chris Golson, senior director of Media Industries, SGI. "At IBC, we're demonstrating our open systems approach to broadcasting-showcasing our integration with Avid, Pinnacle Systems, Sony, Ardendo, vizrt and SGT -- interoperating on the show floor. We're presenting to broadcasters in a very clear fashion how all of these companies can come together with SGI infrastructure solutions and really add significant value and a better return on investment. SGI's strength in broadcasting is that we can impact workflow, making the processes faster and easier. We can manage a broadcaster's assets more efficiently with our Origin family of high-speed servers and particularly the SGI Media Server for broadcast system, because we understand how to manage their media assets in a data-centric way that creates speed and productivity. That's what we mean by return on IT." SGI offers choice through interoperability with leading nonlinear editors and other popular workflow applications while maintaining image quality, performance, reliability and scalability with the IRIX(R) OS, the CXFS(TM) shared filesystem, and award-winning visual workstations, media and fileservers, storage networking products, and solutions. This applies across the broadcast, production and broadband industries. ROI for Broadcast For broadcasters, managing assets through efficient digital workflow is key to return on investment. SGI's expertise in IT allows broadcasters to use the most powerful general computing platforms -- the same SGI(R) Origin(R) servers, storage and network infrastructure -- for news, sports, commercials and other critical applications, turning workflow into effective dataflow. This means tremendous cost savings and much simpler integration for customers. In terms of return on integration, SGI offers smooth and transparent interoperability of hardware and software with many leading providers at all phases of the digital workflow -- from ingest to editing and program preparation to archiving, storage and play-to-air -- dramatically improving broadcasters' time to air. New to IBC, the SGI Media Server(TM) for broadcast system on the SGI(R) Origin(R) 300 platform is a completely integrated open-system solution for serving video, audio and data. The high throughput of the server facilitates simultaneous ingest, data-network-based file transfers to and from the server, and simultaneous playout to air of multiple video channels. In its IBC Stand 7.431, SGI is demonstrating the interoperability of SGI Media Server for broadcast with other systems through a model news workflow theater presentation and hands-on demonstrations. This model news workflow consists of interoperability with best-of-breed applications. Supported applications include: -- Ingest/metadata: SGT, Dalet/ANN, Virage, Ardendo* -- SAN/editing/production: SGI SAN Server(TM) 1000*, CXFS shared filesystem, vizrt*, and Avid, Pinnacle Systems* and Panasonic nonlinear editors -- Playout/automation solutions/news automation: SGT*, Omnibus, Harris Automation Solutions, vizrt*, Aveco, ANN, ENPS, i-NEWS, Octopus* -- Archive: SGI(R) DMF (Data Migration Facility), StorageTek, Sony, ADIC, Avalon; SGI Media Server for broadcast with Avalon archiving software is being demonstrated in the IBM Stand 2.120/2.121 * Demonstrated in the SGI stand at IBC. SGI Media Server provides greater versatility through its open-system architecture, choice of network interfaces and support of industry-standard broadcast formats such as MPEG-2 4:2:2, DVCPRO25 and DVCPRO50 and file formats MXF and GXF. At IBC, SGI is announcing and demonstrating SGI Media Server for broadcast support for Sony MPEG IMX(TM) that will be available by the end of 2002. The Sony e-VTR is based on the Sony MPEG IMX format and, when integrated with SGI Media Server, enables broadcasters to bring their Betacam systems' content into their digital workflow via a Gigabit Ethernet connection. More than 5,200 IMX VTR systems have been sold worldwide. SGI is also demonstrating interoperability between SGI Media Server for broadcast and Sony e-VTR at the Pro-MPEG Forum Stand 3.101. SGI's most recently announced success in broadcast is Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR), which awarded the second phase of its digital newsroom project to SGI (SGI architected the pilot phase) for the delivery of digital systems for management of its television news and sports broadcasts. The project, valued at U.S.$6.5 million, has an estimated completion date of December 2003. DR's purchase includes eight SGI Media Server for broadcast systems, numerous servers and storage systems, and system design and integration services. [Editor's note: For more information, see the news release dated August 20, 2002, titled "Danish Broadcasting Corporation Selects SGI for Phase 2 of All-Digital Workflow for News and Sports."] ROI for Production For production customers, SGI delivers ROI by turning workflow into dataflow in the areas of HD and film editing and compositing, film mastering and restoration, and data management for the entire production process. Interoperability is achieved through SGI SAN architecture and the CXFS shared SAN filesystem software, as well as high-speed transfer interfaces such as SGI GSN (gigabyte system network) and HSDL (high-speed data link). Demonstrations will take place in the SGI stand and in the stands of its production application. "This year at IBC we are seriously addressing the hard problems facing the film studios and post-production facilities as they move further toward developing digital cinema mastering architectures," said Louise Ledeen, director of production for Media Industries, SGI. "SGI is addressing the bottlenecks in the film-mastering process with innovative storage and networking solutions. IBC attendees will see a demonstration that will show 35 mm motion picture film transferred to data at almost real-time speeds. This near-real-time film-to-data transfer will be shown using SGI hardware and GSN technology at the Thomson stand 8.151. There will also be an announcement of HSDL software support with SGI DMediaPro DM2 and DM3 options by da Vinci Systems at IBC." SGI(R) InfiniteReality4(TM) graphics for the SGI(R) Onyx(R) family of visualization systems, which SGI introduced to wide acclaim at SIGGRAPH in San Antonio earlier this year, is debuting at IBC in the Discreet Stand 7.321 with Discreet(R) inferno(R) and fire(R) and at the vizrt Stand 2.219. Each InfiniteReality4 graphics pipe can display more than 8 million pixels of visual information. With 1GB of texture memory, InfiniteReality4 graphics deliver unparalleled compositing capability. InfiniteReality4 graphics will also deliver the highest level of photo-realistic virtual sets. The newly introduced DMediaPro(TM) DM5 graphics-to-video output option brings a new level of interactivity for workstation-based editing and compositing applications. Providing real-time RGB-to-YUV colorspace conversion previews, the powerful combination of Silicon Graphics(R) Octane2(TM) visual workstations and DMediaPro DM5 enables digital-content-creation artists a new level of productivity and performance. Discreet is demonstrating these enhanced features with flame(R) and smoke(R) in its stand, and Interactive Effects Piranha HD(TM) is being showcased in the SGI stand. Making its premiere appearance at IBC, the award-winning Silicon Graphics Fuel(TM) visual workstation provides creative users with unparalleled price/performance on the desktop. The new DMediaPro(TM) DM6 option provides standard-definition video I/O for Silicon Graphics Fuel and Silicon Graphics Octane2 visual workstations. Silicon Graphics Fuel is being demonstrated with the Interactive Effects Cinema film restoration application in the SGI stand, and the electronic Farm is debuting Mule on the Silicon Graphics Fuel workstation with DMediaPro DM6 in Stand 7.720. SGI SAN Server 1000 is being demonstrated in the LSI Logic stand, 9.331 with Mathematical Technologies MTI Intellideck(R) film-mastering suite of software running on a Silicon Graphics Octane2 workstation. SGI SAN Server 1000 with CXFS supports a number of operating system clients, including IRIX, Solaris(TM), and Windows NT(R) and Windows(R) 2000, for heterogeneous shared files within and between facilities. SGI's most recently announced success in production is EFILM LLC, a cutting-edge digital film laboratory in Hollywood that is a subsidiary of Panavision and wholly owned by Panavision and Deluxe Laboratories. EFILM's parent companies plan to expand its operations both domestically and internationally. EFILM recently purchased three SGI(R) Onyx(R) 3400 visualization systems, 30TB of SGI(R) Total Performance 9400 storage, and the high-speed connectivity to link its three color-timing suites with three simultaneous streams capable of real-time 2K resolution and 24-frames-per-second data scanning. EFILM is using SGI systems to create digital intermediates, which include high-resolution scanning, color correction, laser film recording and video mastering. [Editor's note: For more information, see the news release dated August 14, 2002, titled "EFILM Delivers Picture-Perfect Movies with SGI Visualization Systems."] ROI for Broadband For interactive television providers, SGI delivers ROI by offering more streams, more services and more support. SGI delivers return on integration by offering the most choice of video engines and interactive video-on-demand (VOD) applications integrated with the SGI VOD server. And by offering more services and leveraging the support structure of a global IT company -- some 500 service personnel worldwide -- SGI delivers return on IT. SGI's strategy in broadband is to focus on VOD opportunities worldwide. SGI is currently the leader in IP-based VOD, the network chosen by telcos worldwide. "Our value proposition for VOD is quite simply stated as 'more streams, more servers and more support.' In other words, SGI VOD solutions provide more streams per dollar, more VOD TV service choices due to the two open video engines optimized for the platform, and more global support than the smaller proprietary VOD competitors," said Jason Danielson, director of broadband for Media Industries, SGI. "A year ago, the cost of a VOD stream was between $500 and $600; it currently costs between $200 and $250 per stream. And we believe, based on our research, that SGI will be able to reduce our cost per stream more rapidly than the competition over the next few years." SGI is demonstrating Kasenna(TM) MediaBase and Thirdspace(TM) OVS(TM) video engines at IBC, with both running interactive VOD applications on top. In the IBC Stand 1.351 Minerva Networks is demonstrating its ITV solution on the SGI VOD server that is based on the powerful, compact SGI Origin 300 server, which increases stream efficiency per dollar by 2x and delivers 5x the number of streams in one rack over the SGI(R) Origin(R) 200 platform. Other ITV services utilizing the SGI VOD server include iMagicTV and Orca Interactive. Both companies are currently implementing large commercial ITV deployments for major national telcos. SGI's most recently announced success in broadband is SmarTV, Sweden's first broadband VOD network, which will deliver initially to 1,500 households outside Stockholm, in Sollentuna, using SGI VOD technology. Before the end of the year, parent company Infraconcepts will roll out SmarTV to the whole community of 22,000 households, and a nationwide deployment is scheduled during 2003. [Editor's note: For more information, see the news release dated August 26, 2002, titled "Solution From SGI and Thirdspace Enables Sweden's First Broadband Video-on-Demand Network: The Largest in Europe."] SGI Global Alliances In addition to the various companies mentioned above, SGI has numerous key ISV partners and SGI Solution Providers at IBC demonstrating SGI products as part of solutions targeting the broadcast, production and broadband VOD markets. The SGI Global Alliances organization is on hand to discuss the benefits of the SGI Global Developer Program with new SGI developers, as well as work with partners and SGI customers to assist in channel development and matchmaking efforts.