Iomega Ships Buz Multimedia Producer, an Easy-to-Use,
Affordable, Integrated Solution for $199
Buz Multimedia Producer Invites Consumers to Take the Director's Chair
as They Capture, Edit and Share Videos, Digital Photos and Sound Using
Their Own PC
ROY, Utah--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 13, 1998-- Iomega(R) Corp. (NYSE:IOM - news)
yesterday began U.S. shipments of Buz(TM) multimedia producer(TM) for the PC.
Buz is the industry's first video capture solution to combine ultra SCSI and hardware video
compression in an integrated solution and is designed to let consumers easily capture, edit and
share videos, digital photos and sound using their own PC. To make Buz available to the widest
range of customers, Iomega is offering Buz at an unprecedented U.S. street price of $199.
Buz multimedia producer is a combination video capture card, Ultra SCSI controller and
software suite that offers one of the easiest ways to get home movies, photos and music from
camcorders, DVD-ROMs, digital cameras, VCRs and laser discs into a personal computer.
Some of the fun, unique creations consumers can produce with Buz include contemporary
masterpieces using old home videos; feature videos; audio postcards to share over the Internet;
birthday cards, calendars, photo albums and invitations using digital photos; and personal
presentations and reports.
Consumers can easily share their Buz creations with their friends, family or the entire world by
using the acclaimed Jaz(R) family of high-performance removable storage products. Jaz
one-gigabyte (GB) and Jaz 2GB drives and disks are ideal companions to Buz offering high
capacity storage for large video and graphics files, further allowing the PC to become a personal
multimedia studio. Buz also allows consumers to save and share content to Zip(R) disks.
''Buz puts everyone from home users to corporate users in the director's chair by capturing
professional-quality video and audio,'' said Fred Forsyth, president of Iomega's Professional
Products Division. ''Buz has already gained the attention of consumers because it is user-friendly,
affordable and fun. At the same time, Buz has gained the appeal of professionals in the music and
film industries because it offers an integrated solution at an affordable price and most of the
high-performance functionality required by these customers.''
As the first product to deliver the power of Ultra SCSI, video capture and multimedia software in
an affordable, integrated solution, Buz multimedia producer brings four revolutionary capabilities
to a PC:
A Buz box for ease-of-use -- Set up is quick and easy with Iomega's ground breaking new
feature called ''Buz Box.'' Easily accessible, this mouse-sized system plugs into the Buz
card in the back of the computer. The Buz Box is a single connection for all multimedia
devices, eliminating the need to dig under the desk every time one wants to attach a
multimedia device to a computer.
Professional quality real-time video capture -- Buz multimedia producer is designed to
deliver professional quality, 720x480, 30fps, 24 bit color (NTSC), at a consumer-friendly
price. Buz uses real-time digital conversion and video compression that produces high
quality video content to a PC.
Fully featured video, graphics and audio creation software -- The multimedia software
included with Buz multimedia producer is intuitive, fun and easy to use. Installation is quick
and easy through the use of Smart SoftWare and tutorials such as the ''Guide to Creating
Better Home Videos.''
A powerful Ultra SCSI controller -- Designed with an Ultra SCSI connection, Buz is
capable of transmitting data at speeds of up to 20MB per second. Costing less than the
average retail price of a traditional SCSI connector card, Buz will also allow users to
connect to other SCSI devices, like Jaz drives, Zip drives, scanners, CD-ROM drives or
DVD-ROM drives to a PC.
Software to Personalize Your Multimedia
By using Buz and the Buz software products including MGI's VideoWave(TM) SE Plus,
PictureWorks' HotShots(TM) and Iomega's RecordIt(TM), users can capture full-motion video;
add text, graphics, sound, and special effects to video; capture still images from video and digital
cameras; and capture audio and video digitally directly to a disk.
MGI Software's award-winning VideoWave SE Plus video publishing software lets users quickly
and easily capture, edit and produce video on their PC. Aimed at the non-technical, general
business and home user, MGI VideoWave takes a fresh approach to video publishing. Its unique
user interface, storyline, powerful editing functionality and real-time previewing capability lets
users quickly and easily combine moving pictures, animations, graphics, photos, sound, music and
narration to tell a story in video.
PictureWorks' HotShots software, a comprehensive cross-platform PC photography tool kit,
makes it easy for consumers to organize, enhance and publish pictures on their computers.
HotShots offers a full range of digital imaging capabilities, including ''one-click'' QuickFix to
correct lighting in pictures and ''mini-preview'' to quickly find any movie, picture, video or audio
stored in a collection.
RecordIt, Iomega's digital recording software, enables audio recording and playback of
pre-recorded and live audio on a PC. Easy to use, RecordIt software includes features similar to
a CD player, such as random track playback. It also provides sound quality comparable to a CD,
offering a convenient alternative to dictaphones, tape recorders and microcassette recorders.
The Power of Hardware
Buz multimedia producer uses a powerful video compression chip set supplied by Zoran Corp
[Nasdaq:ZRAN - news]. This is a version of Zoran's industry-leading motion JPEG chip set,
including code and video PCI controller, which enables recording of high-quality digital video on
the storage medium, and accelerates the editing and personalization of the movie content. The
movies can also be viewed using Zoran's JPEG software movie player.
Buz multimedia producer is a full-featured Ultra SCSI controller with proven Ultra SCSI
technology supplied by Advanced System Products, Inc. Featuring plug-and-play support and an
innovative GUI installation interface, it allows consumers to effortlessly connect Jaz drives, Zip
drives and other SCSI devices to a PC.
Buz multimedia producer is compatible with Video for Windows and requires Windows 95 and
Pentium 100 MHz or higher.
Through rigorous testing, Iomega has distinguished some systems that are not compatible with
Buz that mainly fall into two categories -- machines whose Bios do not follow the PCI 2.1
specification and machines that use lower quality video cards that do not support overlay (a
preview window on a computer monitor).
These systems include any IBM Aptiva built before August 1997; Compaq Presario 4508;
Compaq Desktop 6150; NEC V100 and NEC V133; Packard Bell Platinum P133; Packard
Bell 860CD; HP Pavillion Series 7000; HP Vectra XA; and Gateway 2000 P5-100. For details
and compatibility solutions with some of these systems, please refer to Iomega's website at
www.iomega.com.
Iomega Corp. manufactures personal read/write storage solutions that help people manage their
stuff -- anywhere. Iomega's products provide consumers with what they want, when they want it,
at a price they're willing to pay. The company's industry standard storage solutions, designed for
all types of computer users, include Zip drives and genuine Zip 100 disks; Jaz one- and
two-gigabyte drives and disks; and Ditto tape backup drives and tape cartridges.
Whether used in homes, business, government and education, or by creative professionals, all
Iomega storage solutions ensure high levels of quality and reliability when using authorized Iomega
media products. Iomega products are available through computer retail stores, resellers, major
distributors and OEMs. The company can be reached at 1-800/MY-STUFF (800/697-8833),
iomega.com and additional Iomega press releases can be accessed through the
toll-free fax-back line: (888/88-IOMEGA).
Note to Editors: Iomega, Zip, Jaz and the Iomega logo and the stylized ''i'' are registered
trademarks of, and Ditto, Buz, Buz Multimedia Producer and Clik! are trademarks of, Iomega
Corp. All other product and brand names are the property of their respective owners. For
maximum reliability, use only genuine Zip 100 disks featuring the genuine Zip 100 symbol in your
Zip drive.
Contact:
Iomega Corporation
Jonathan Graham, 801/778-3678
graham@iomega.com
or
Copithorne & Bellows
Andrea Mahoney, 415/975-2277
andrea.mahoney@cbpr.com
or
Analysts/investors:
Iomega Corporation
Susan T. Stillings, 801/778-3585
stilling@iomega.com
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