OT, but related.
Friday April 16, 5:49 pm Eastern Time
Company Press Release
SOURCE: Discreet
Discreet Expands Commitment to Broadcast
Marketplace
Special NAB Broadcast Event to Debut Full Discreet Broadcast Environment
MONTREAL, April 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Discreet, a division of Autodesk (Nasdaq: ADSK - news), today announced
increased commitment to the broadcast marketplace with an initiative designed to bring its full product line to the broad range
of broadcasters and cable networks. The broadcast marketplace offers considerable opportunity for the company, and to
address this market, Discreet is delivering its line of broadcast video and graphic design, graphics generation, editing and
finishing, and 3D solutions at a range of price and performance levels. It also announced that John DeMezzo has joined
Discreet and will be responsible for the company's worldwide field broadcast initiative.
Discreet's broadcast environment comprises point solutions that work as stand-alones or in combination for news and
workgroup editing; promo, bumper and station ID creation; primetime and mainstream episodic editing and finishing; on-air
real-time CG, 3D graphics and effects with automation; and immersive virtual studios.
''We recognized the broadcast market opportunity when we acquired Discreet,'' said Eric Herr, acting general manager of
Discreet and president of Autodesk. ''Discreet has established a proven track record in serving the needs of the
postproduction community, and we believe our customer-driven solutions will bring value to the unique and demanding
broadcast marketplace. With an increased focus on this market we intend to drive market penetration into major networks,
independent stations and affiliates as they make the transition to digital broadcasting.''
Discreet will debut this product line at a special Broadcast Graphics Event at the National Association of Broadcasters Show
(NAB) in Las Vegas on Monday, April 19 (details below). Demonstrations include Discreet's full broadcast environment: the
frost* real-time graphics generator for presenting broadcast graphics and virtual scenery, flint* video and graphics design tool,
smoke* online noncompressed nonlinear finishing system, and edit* Windows NT nonlinear editing system for online finishing
and creative offline.
New Broadcast Leadership
John DeMezzo joins Discreet as director of Discreet's Broadcast Group, and will be responsible for field sales, corporate
strategy and broadcast partnerships. He contributes seasoned industry expertise and business unit sales growth increases.
Previously director of broadcast sales at Avid Technology, DeMezzo revitalized Avid's broadcast sales organization and drove
considerable sales increases. Before that he held sales management postions at video and broadcast industry manufacturers
Lightworks, Dynatech Digital Storage Systems, and Ampex Systems Corp.
''John comes from within the industry and brings a wealth of broadcast sales expertise to Discreet,'' continued Herr. ''John's
relationships with key networks, affiliates and independent station owners, as well as his experience in growing business unit
distribution strategies, will be instrumental in penetrating the broadcast marketplace with Discreet's range of solutions.''
''My objective is to bring Discreet's acclaimed value and responsiveness to broadcasters, and to grow the business,'' said
DeMezzo. ''Discreet's technology is ideal for the visual presentation and delivery of the news, information, scores, data and
results that are intrinsic to broadcast graphics and programming. With the value we bring, Discreet is a force that the broadcast
community will definitely recognize.''
Bill Reinhart also joins Discreet's Broadcast Group where will be responsible for sales of the company's products into
broadcasters for the Eastern Region of the United States. Previously he was at Chyron where he spent more than 10 years as a
senior broadcast sales manager. His responsibilities there included both direct and indirect sales.
Discreet Debuts Broadcast Environment at NAB Special Event
Discreet will hold a special Broadcast Graphics Event on Monday, April 19, from 6:00-8:00 p.m. This event will address the
challenges broadcasters face in today's rapidly changing market and present Discreet's line of solutions. frost* solutions create
commanding visuals with immediacy that build viewership, grow revenue, communicate clearly and are built efficiently with full
control. Graphics possibilities are more sophisticated with flint*, the advanced visual effects and on-air content creation tool
that provides real-time I/O and system interactivity within a full 3D compositing environment. Flexible editorial and finishing
solutions smoke* and edit* are ideal for everything from on-the-fly news editing to promos and program openings to
collaborative editorial workgroups.
Broadcasters are also migrating to digital broadcasting, and Discreet is delivering flexible solutions that work in both 601 and
DTV/HDTV formats today with which they can grow securely.
On the show floor, Discreet will be demonstrating frost* election graphics, live sports and daily news applications, virtual sets
and the SuperBowl XXXIII graphics at NAB, April 19-22, in Las Vegas. frost* will also be shown at the Sony booth, Las
Vegas Convention Center, #L16730, where it is part of Sony's 24p mastering suite delivering CG effects at 1080 24p.
An HD Event will show the innovations discussed earlier on Tuesday, April 20, from 6:00-7:30 p.m. Both events will take
place at the Discreet(TM) booth, Sands Exposition Center, #S4009.
Vertigo will be showing the FOX Sports SuperBowl project at the SGI booth, #S3315. Also, VDS is showing its Gamebug
application (NT) with frost* at the same SGI booth.
Discreet's Broadcast Production Line
Discreet offers a full range of award-winning broadcast graphics generation, visual effects, editing, and virtual studio solutions
that address these essential elements of today's forward-looking broadcast facilities with efficiency and flexibility, saving time
and resources.
frost* is Discreet's resolution-independent, real-time, graphics generator for presenting broadcast graphics and virtual scenery.
frost* is an ideal system for news, financial and sports graphics, and for complex graphic animations that would typically require
mutiple character generators, digital disk recorders, DVE channels and video sources. At NAB, Discreet will unveil the full
HDTV production environment of frost*. This environment enables broadcasters to produce a full range of graphics in HDTV
or 601 resolutions, thus making frost* an ideal investment for networks, affiliates and independent stations migrating to digital
broadcasting including HDTV. With external scripting language capabilities, frost* brings real-time 3D effects and automation
into the world of live broadast production.
In addition, frost* has an upgrade path to an all-digital virtual production studio. Broadcasters can integrate physical and virtual
sets, allowing their talent to step seamlessly into one from the other. The powerful frost* toolset allows broadcast designers to
create photorealistic 3D sets and make design changes anytime within the same software, saving time and money. With support
for HDTV, the investment is secure into the future.
flint* is a video and graphics design tool ideal to create promos, special event and show openings, bumpers, station ID
packages, and even regional or national commercials and TV magazine shows that need eye-catching, high-quality graphics and
effects. Based on an open system, flint* cost-effectively combines live action with graphics, 2D and 3D animations and text,
color correction and stunning visual effects using an Academy Award-winning set of tools. Designers can bring their vision to
life easily and quickly with the tools, interactive experimentation and speed of flint*. For today's broadcasts, the Web and any
new format required, cable channels, affiliates and large networks can improve their look with flint*.
smoke* is Discreet's creative online editing and finishing system, ideal for short-form projects like spots and promos, and
long-form projects including episodic and TV magazines. As the core of the online editing room, smoke* addresses the full
range of editorial needs: simple conforming with color correction and text for episodic work, visually rich promos that require
multiple versions, and effects-intensive spots. smoke* is offered at a price point that enables cable channels, affiliates and large
networks to do their finishing all on one fast system. With its instantaneous autoconforming, powerful video and audio editing
tools, integrated 3D text, color correction, image retouch, multilayer compositing with keyer, free-form 3D DVE, and infinite
vari-speed, smoke* is a highly versatile nonlinear online editing system.
edit*, Discreet's Microsoft Windows NT nonlinear editing solution, is scalable to support short-form effect-centric editing and
long-form programming with thousands of clip elements. It is a flexible, cost-effective desktop system designed to meet the
demanding requirements of today's editors with an extensive editing toolset, including valuable timesaving features for
broadcasters such as voice-over, enabling real-time playback of picture and sound for talent to read to while recording their
voice-over, and direct capture to timeline, allowing editors to start putting their story together as they transfer material,
bypassing time-consuming predigitizing. Featuring workgroup-based editing support, edit* allows multiple journalists to
collaborate on a project as required. edit* is a cost-effective, real-time system for TV show finishing and delivers
uncompressed quality for conforming, real-time color correction, graphics and DVEs.
Networking, Expansion and Infrastructure
Discreet has invested in infrastructure solutions that enable frost*, flint*, smoke* and edit* to integrate easily within any
broadcast facility, in addition to working extremely efficiently together. From support for automation to high-speed networking
and collaborative project work, Discreet's proven systems are designed to operate efficiently.
sparks*
sparks* are plug-ins from third-party developers that offer our customers the option of expanding their system capabilities even
further at any time. Customers can write their own plug-ins, but with over 400 spark* plug-ins already available, many
functions are already available off the shelf.
About Discreet
Discreet, a division of Autodesk, develops systems and software for visual effects, 3D animation, editing and production used
in the creation of digital moving pictures for video, HDTV, the Web, broadcast graphics, interactive games and feature films,
including the last three years' winners of the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. Discreet products are used extensively in
film and video postproduction, games and multimedia, broadcasters' graphics, programming and on-air event coverage.
Software by Discreet is also popular with designers and architects for 3D visualization and conceptualization. Discreet was
recently recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with a Scientific and Engineering Award for flame*
and inferno*. Headquartered in Montreal, Discreet was established in 1999 when Autodesk acquired Discreet Logic and
merged its operations with Kinetix®, the San Francisco-based multimedia business unit that Autodesk created in 1996.
Autodesk is the world's leading supplier of PC design software and digital content creation. The fourth largest PC software
company in the world, Autodesk has more than four million customers in over 150 countries. For more information, contact
any Authorized Autodesk® Reseller, call Autodesk at 800-964-6432, or visit www.autodesk.com. Autodesk shares are
traded on the Nasdaq national market under the symbol ADSK.
For further information, visit the Autodesk Discreet Logic website at www.discreet.com or e-mail info@discreet.com.
NOTE: Autodesk, the Autodesk logo, and Kinetix are registered trademarks, and Discreet is a trademark, of Autodesk, Inc.,
in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders.
SOURCE: Discreet
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