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Grass Valley Mustang Digital Video Processing Chip From Thomson Launches at NAB 2007
Mustang-Powered MPEG-4 AVC Compression Platform First to Realize Full Potential of the Format, Delivering HD in as little as 4Mb/s
Las Vegas (National Association of Broadcasters Convention — Booths N902/SL2020) April 14, 2007 — Grass Valley™, a business within Thomson (Euronext Paris: 18453; NYSE: TMS) will launch Mustang, an integrated chip capable of delivering high definition MPEG-4 signals using as little as half the bandwidth of existing encoders. Grass Valley MPEG-4 AVC compression efficiency using Mustang will be demonstrated at the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas, with premium quality HD at as little as 4Mb/s. Deliveries of Mustang-powered ViBE encoders will start in the second half of 2007.
"MPEG-4 offers tremendous compression efficiencies over MPEG-2, but demands much more sophisticated processing to achieve it," said Christophe Delahousse, Senior Vice President of Video Network Solutions for the Grass Valley business within Thomson. "While our competitors have chosen to use consumer-grade, off-the-shelf DSP chips it was clear to us that the only way to get the best out of MPEG-4 was with a dedicated chip design. We are delighted with Mustang's performance in its first applications, and we believe it will transform the economics of delivering HD to the mass market."
Mustang, the result of a three year development program, is a single-chip solution incorporating two embedded ARM RISC processors, six dynamically-programmable DSPs, and dedicated hardware for processor-intensive tasks like motion estimation and entropy encoding. Using Mustang allows the Grass Valley ViBE encoder to use all of the power of the MPEG-4 format, resulting in a performance boost of 30% over encoders based on off-the-shelf processing. This means premium quality HD can now be delivered in as little as 4Mb/s, offering bandwidth savings for satellite and terrestrial broadcasters which are commercially extremely valuable, and opening up the IPTV market to HD even at today's broadband bitrates.
The design of the Mustang chip makes it suitable for a wide range of digital video applications, but the first product to use it will be the MPEG-4 HD encoder for the popular Grass Valley ViBE modular platform. ViBE is a widely used compression system for broadcasters and network operators. Users who have already implemented MPEG-4 HD services using an earlier generation ViBE encoder will be able to upgrade to Mustang performance through a simple board swap.
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Certain statements in this press release, including any discussion of management expectations for future periods, constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the "safe harbor" of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and beliefs and are subject to a number of factors and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the future results expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements due to changes in global economic and business conditions, consumer electronics markets, and regulatory factors. More detailed information on the potential factors that could affect the financial results of Thomson is contained in Thomson's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
About Thomson — World leader in digital
video technologies
Thomson (Euronext Paris: 18453; NYSE: TMS) provides
technology, systems and services to help its Media & Entertainment
clients — content creators, content distributors and users of its
technology — realize their business goals and optimize their
performance in a rapidly changing technology environment. The Group
intends to become the preferred partner to the Media & Entertainment
Industries through its Technicolor, Grass Valley, RCA and Thomson brands.
For more information: www.thomson.net.
Thomson's Systems division
develops video and film technologies, products and services sold to all
major Hollywood studios, all major television, satellite, and cable
broadcasters under the Grass Valley brand-name
for the delivery of analog and digital entertainment. The division also
includes Thomson's Broadband Access Products Business, which develops
technologies and products for broadband and telecommunication networks to
deliver digital entertainment and data to consumers and businesses.
For information about Grass Valley products from
Thomson please visit www.thomsongrassvalley.com.
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