Avid Acquires Medea

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

Avid Unveils VideoRAID Family of High-Performance,
Low-Cost Storage Solutions
New product line expands company’s leadership in real-time storage systems
for professional content creators
Tewksbury, Mass. – February 28, 2006 – Avid Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVID) today unveiled the Avid® VideoRAID™ family of storage systems that deliver up to 5 terabytes (TB) of high-efficiency storage with guaranteed real-time access for multi-stream, high-bandwidth standard-definition (SD) and high-definition (HD) workflows. Unlike other competitive RAID products that suspend performance in the event of a drive failure, the new Avid VideoRAID line delivers uninterrupted real-time performance, even during a drive rebuild. The new systems – the Avid VideoRAID RTR320 and RTR320X – are the first in a series of low-cost parity RAID storage products that Avid plans to introduce as a result of acquiring Medéa Corporation in January of 2006. While terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, the deal further expands Avid’s position as a leading provider of high-performance storage solutions for content creators in film, video, audio, broadcast, and animation.

“Avid’s storage products are recognized industry-wide for their guaranteed real-time performance capabilities. With Medéa’s low-cost RAID offerings in our portfolio, we now have a tremendously compelling entry point to the Avid family of storage solutions,” said Chas Smith, vice president and general manager of Avid’s Video division. “Avid has an extremely diverse mix of customers, all of whom work within different production environments and have unique storage demands. Now, Avid can meet the needs of virtually any professional in the industry – with cost-effective RAID storage for standalone editing and finishing systems, facility-class Ethernet or Fibre Channel shared-storage systems for networked collaboration, and enterprise-class shared-storage with distributed intelligence and unlimited scalability.”

Martin Bock, former president of Medéa and recently appointed vice president of business development for the Medéa product family at Avid, said, “Our VideoRAID products have had great success in the market because of the unmatched resiliency of our parity RAID technology and the real-time, high-bandwidth performance that enables completion of multi-stream SD and HD projects in record time. When compared to competitive RAID solutions, customers will find that Avid VideoRAID systems deliver superior performance at a lower price per gigabyte.”

The Avid VideoRAID product line leverages the combined bandwidth of multiple drives – with capacity of either 250GB or 500GB per drive – in storage arrays that provide real-time access to SD and HD media assets. The VideoRAID RTR320 and RTR320X systems are built around five-drive and 10-drive storage arrays, respectively, with one of every five drives functioning as a parity drive to deliver extremely robust data protection without interrupting performance during drive rebuilds. The line, which comes in a range of configurations at low-cost price points, is qualified on the following Avid editing systems: Avid Liquid™ Chrome HD; Avid Liquid Pro; Avid Xpress® Pro; Avid Xpress Studio; NewsCutter® XP (with or without Avid Mojo®); Media Composer® Adrenaline™ and Media Composer Adrenaline HD; NewsCutter Adrenaline; Avid DS Nitris®; and Avid Symphony™ Nitris.

Specific features of the VideoRAID RTR320 and RTR320X systems include:

Guaranteed real-time performance and availability (even during drive rebuild);
Scalable storage capacity ranging from 1.25TB to 5TB;
An Ultra320 LVD SCSI, 68-pin VHDCI connection (dual channel for RTR320X);
Single or dual Ultra320 SCSI RAID controller(s);
Single or dual 250–watt power supply module(s);
Hot swappable drive modules; and
Support for up to four RTR320 or two RTR320X units for a maximum 10 TB of raw storage per Avid-qualified workstation.
Pricing & Availability
The following chart includes pricing for the new Avid VideoRAID systems. All prices are USMSRP and based on specific configurations that range in drive capacity (250 GB or 500 GB) and storage array size (5 or 10 drives):



Configuration
Avid VideoRAID RTR320
Avid VideoRAID RTR320X

1.25 TB total storage ( 5 - 250 GB drives)
$3,929
$4,839*

2.5 TB total storage (5 - 500 GB drives)
$6,669
$7,559*

2.5 TB total storage (10 - 250 GB drives)
--
$7,999

5 TB total storage (10 - 500 GB drives)
--
$13,499

* 10-drive array with 5 storage drives and 5 open bays for future expansion.



Avid is currently accepting orders for the new Avid VideoRAID systems. The new products can be ordered through either the Avid or Medea worldwide reseller channels, or through Avid directly. For complete information about Avid VideoRAID storage products, please visit www.avid.com/videoRAID.

Avid will continue to offer its existing local storage solutions, including its Avid MediaDock and Avid MediaDrive systems – as well as all other Medéa storage products – through both Avid's and Medéa’s worldwide reseller channels. For more information about Medéa’s RAID product line, please visit www.medea.com.

About Avid Technology, Inc.
Avid Technology, Inc. is the world leader in digital nonlinear media creation, management, and distribution solutions, enabling film, video, audio, animation, games, and broadcast professionals to work more efficiently, productively, and creatively. For more information about the company’s Oscar®, Grammy®, and Emmy® award-winning products and services, please visit: www.avid.com.

© 2006 Avid Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Product features, specifications, system requirements, and availability are subject to change without notice. All prices are USMSRP for the U.S. and Canada only and are subject to change without notice. Contact your local Avid office or reseller for prices outside the U.S. and Canada. Avid, Digidesign, Film Composer, Media Composer, Pro Tools, Avid Liquid, Avid Xpress, Newscutter, Avid Mojo, Adrenaline, Nitris, Symphony, and VideoRAID are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Avid Technology, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries in the United States and/or other countries. Avid received an Oscar statuette representing the 1998 Scientific and Technical Award for the concept, design, and engineering of the Avid Film Composer® system for motion picture editing. Digidesign, Avid’s audio division, received an Oscar statuette representing the 2003 Scientific and Technical Award for the design, development, and implementation of its Pro Tools® digital audio workstation. Oscar is a trademark and service mark of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Emmy is a registered trademark of ATAS/NATAS. Grammy is a trademark of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, Inc. All other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

http://www.avid.com/company/releases...RAID_avid.html

[Heath McKnight]

Wow.

hwm