Thomson Unveils Services and Products Spanning Digital Film Making, Di

Thomson Unveils Services and Products Spanning Digital Film Making, Digital Cinema and Internet Protocol TV for Digital In-Home Entertainment at NAB 2005

    Multimedia Writers/Business Editors/Technology Writers
    NAB2005
    SU-7823

    PARIS & LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 14, 2005--Leveraging its ability to touch more points of today's media and entertainment digital workflows than any other company, Thomson (NYSE:TMS)(Euronext Paris:18453) today made a series of announcements related to its ongoing market-expansion efforts. These efforts include new Grass Valley(TM) brand products for digital film making, a digital-cinema server initiative and services to support digital cinema distribution and IPTV (Internet Protocol TV) products to support digital in-home entertainment.
    Thomson's drive to develop a full set of digital workflow products and services is in line with the Group's Two-Year Plan to expand its offering to broadcast and network operators. "From Hollywood sound stages, network newsrooms, and mobile production to major satellite, terrestrial and cable distribution, no company touches more of the digital workflow than Thomson," said Marc Valentin, president of the Grass Valley business, part of Thomson's Systems & Equipment division. "The announcements we're making today in support of our customers' workflow requirements through our Grass Valley and Technicolor businesses should enable us to secure greater market share and growth going forward."

    Digital Filmmaking: Grass Valley Digital Cinematography Post-Production Lines Expand

    The Grass Valley Viper FilmStream(TM) Digital Cinematography Camera remains the only choice for uncompromised digital capture with the quality that top-flight Hollywood directors demand. NAB 2005 sees the first demonstrations of a vital companion product for this camera, the Venom(TM) FlashPak solid-state recorder. The Venom recorder mounts directly to the Viper camera, is powered by it, and offers a full-resolution recording capacity of 10 minutes, which compares favorably with the capture time of a 35mm film magazine.
    Grass Valley is also introducing at NAB 2005 the Spirit 2K DataCine(R) which enables movie makers to scan their films to create a single digital file for multiple post-production processes. The Spirit 2K DataCine leverages the design of the high-end Spirit 4K system to provide a 2K image-capture capability that is in line with many sectors of the post-production industry. As demand for higher resolutions grows, users can upgrade a Spirit 2K DataCine to a Spirit 4K system.

    Digital Cinema: Grass Valley Server Development; Technicolor Digital Distribution System

    Capitalizing on its ability to support the entire digital film acquisition/post-production/playout workflow, Grass Valley today announced that it has started developing a range of servers tailored to the digital-cinema market that will meet the technical specifications laid down by Hollywood's Digital Cinema Initiative (DCI) and those of the SMPTE working group.
    Meanwhile, Thomson's Technicolor Digital Cinema business detailed the technology, network operations, and content management it is providing through its SkyArc(TM) system, a major new initiative in digital cinema advertising distribution. The SkyArc system provides digital satellite distribution services in the United States to Screenvision, a joint venture of Thomson and ITV plc, which provides advertising to over 15,000 screens in the US.

    Digital In-Home Entertainment: Grass Valley Targets IPTV

    With telecommunications companies worldwide wanting to deliver IPTV (Internet Protocol television) in support of their broadband distribution strategies, Grass Valley today announced the IPS 1200, a compact, powerful, and highly practical multi-channel video streamer.
    Providing all the functionality that an IP broadcaster needs to deliver rich media video content, in a single compact chassis at a highly affordable price, the IPS 1200 joins a long line of digital delivery products, including the award-wining ViBE digital content delivery platform, that offer real operational and commercial benefits.

    Digital Workflows: Grass Valley at NAB 2005

    Today's media and entertainment leaders are demanding greater operational efficiencies, creative control, and cost effectiveness from their digital workflows. The announcements made today reflect the end-to-end approach that Thomson is taking to address these challenges.
    Thomson is already seeing strong results from this approach, as evidenced in several, recent workflow-related orders for Grass Valley equipment and services globally including those from:

--	U.S. TV Station Group Media General for the migration of nine stations to Grass Valley digital news production equipment;
--	U.S.-based Lyon Video; Moscow-based Eurasia Entertainment, Eumovil, a European OB company based in Madrid, and its sister company Media Movil have all placed orders for Grass Valley high-definition (HD) cameras and switchers to cover major sports and entertainment events;
--	Korean broadcast network MBC and Italian broadcasters, 3Zero2 TV, La Sette/Telecom Italia, and Videotime have placed orders for Grass Valley switchers, video servers, cameras, and video compression and networking equipment in support of their broadcast playout facilities; and,
--	Four out of five digital terrestrial television (DTT) broadcasters in France, who have committed their digital facilities to Grass Valley ViBE MPEG-4-ready encoding systems in support of their transmission/distribution workflows.

    The company will highlight its support of critical digital workflows, applications, and technologies at its booth in the Las Vegas Convention Center -- SU-7823. A virtual tour of the booth is available at http://www.thomsongrassvalley.com/tour.

    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 - Partner to the Media & Entertainment Industries

    Thomson (NYSE: TMS)(Euronext Paris: 18453)provides services, systems and technology 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 and Equipment division develops video and film technologies, products and services sold to all major Hollywood studios, all major television, satellite, and cable broadcasters under the Technicolor and Grass Valley brand-names 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.

--30--MC/sf*

CONTACT: Thomson Press Relations: Monica Coull, +33 1 41 86 53 10 monica.coull@thomson.net Laura Barber-Miller, 503-526-7904 (Grass Valley) laura.barber-miller@thomson.net Denise Williams, 503-526-8160 (Grass Valley) denise.williams@thomson.net Investor Relations: Severine Camp, +33 1 41 86 57 23 severine.camp@thomson.net David Schilansky, +33 1 41 86 52 38 david.schilansky@thomson.net

KEYWORD: NEVADA FRANCE INTERNATIONAL EUROPE INDUSTRY KEYWORD: HARDWARE TELEVISION/RADIO CABLE MOTION PICTURES TRADESHOW PRODUCT SOURCE: Thomson

Copyright Business Wire 2005