MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- To reach millions of viewers across India, Sahara India Media Communications Ltd. will launch one national and six regional 24-hour news channels later this year. A 10-year-old print media company, Sahara India moved into commercial broadcasting two years ago, with its launch of the Hindi language Sahara TV entertainment channel. For its major foray into the TV news business, one of Sahara India's primary goals is to differentiate itself from India's other 24-hour news channels by using eye-popping graphics and true virtual set technology for news, weather and sports. After testing several competing systems, Sahara India chose six Silicon Graphics(R) (NYSE: SGI) Onyx2(R) high-performance visualization systems with SGI(R) InfiniteReality3(TM) graphics engines and Graphics-to-Video-Output and SGI(R) XT-DIVO digital video options to run viz | content pilot template graphics and viz | virtual studio(TM) software from vizrt. The launch of the news channels, to be broadcast in Hindi and English, is currently planned for sometime in October 2002. Citing the high performance and quality of the Silicon Graphics Onyx2 and vizrt solution, a Sahara India spokesperson said, "We chose Silicon Graphics Onyx2 because it is an extremely stable and reliable system with excellent I/O capabilities for video. Adding InfiniteReality3 graphics provides good 3D performance, excellent pixel-depth performance, full scene anti-aliasing, and 3D and video texture capabilities. And only vizrt has an end-to-end software solution, which addresses template graphics all the way to asset management." The six Silicon Graphics Onyx2 systems have been installed at Sahara India's central studio in Noida, a suburb of New Delhi. Five of these systems will cater to six news channels, broadcasting to parts of western India and all the major northern Indian states, and one system will be used for the virtual set application. The virtual set will also be used for both news-based and non-news-based programming. "Sahara India was looking for an on-air graphics solution with high-speed time to air and excellent image quality. SGI and our long-time software partner vizrt worked very hard together to meet those requirements," said Bill La Rosa, senior vice president, Intercontinental (Asia Pacific and Latin America), SGI. "Sahara's return on investment, like all broadcasters, must yield operational efficiencies and competitive advantage. It must make their content creation process and their personnel assets more productive, effective, usable and creative. Sahara recognized that because SGI is driven by graphics leadership and innovation, the Onyx2 with InfiniteReality graphics and vizrt software was simply the best combination to deliver more realistic and sophisticated virtual sets for the competitive world of news and sports." "The high-performance, reliable Silicon Graphics Onyx2 systems are well suited for Sahara's virtual studio applications, which will operate 24 hours a day," said Peter Ole Jakobsen, CTO and vice president, Global Accounts, vizrt. "The combined Onyx2 and vizrt solution will put Sahara heads above the competition, enabling them to deliver visually exciting broadcast graphics, the likes of which their viewers have never seen before."