March 28, 2002
                                      

Paramount First to Adopt Digital Dailies System

Antex Media Director Device Replaces VHS Copies, Improves Security

Gardena, California. (March 28, 2002) -- Antex Electronics is pleased to announce the initial roll-out of its digital dailies delivery and playback system for Paramount Pictures. Utilizing the Antex Media Director video-on-demand (VOD) platform, Paramount can now replace its tape-based dailies distribution and reviewing system with this state-of-the-art digital store and forward solution.

“Hollywood has been distributing a blizzard of VHS tapes to view dailies for over a decade,” says Antex President David Foley. “We have developed a system that replaces the need for mass VHS duplication with the means to automatically receive the day’s footage with even higher visual and audio quality.”

The heart of the system is a Tivo-like device called the Media Director that has a 120 Gig internal hard drive, 10/100 network card, internal 56k modem, along with an asset management and digital audio and video playback system. Each person who needs to see the dailies has a Media Director connected to a TV or computer monitor and either a phone line or network connection at his or her desk.

Instead of sending the day’s footage to a duplicator, daily footage is encoded digitally. The encoded footage (identified by show, date, and clip description) is then transferred to a central media server. Each Media Director automatically checks this server for new footage and downloads it to its internal hard drive periodically – say, every night at 3am. The studio exec then uses a custom remote control to call up each clip complete with digital slow motion, frame advance, fast forward, rewind, volume, and pause control.

“It is important to note that the Media Director is a store and forward device,” adds Foley. “Instead of streaming video which is typically jerky and bandwidth intensive, the Media Director downloads video for subsequent playback from its internal hard drive delivering uninterrupted full frame quality video and audio.”

About Antex Electronics

Founded in 1983, Antex Electronics is the leading developer and original equipment manufacturer of digital audio sound cards, satellite receivers and Internet appliances for the broadcast, communications, and entertainment industries. Antex products are used around the world in mission-critical audio applications for a wide variety of consumer and corporate customers, including Akamai, Microsoft, Yahoo, DMX MUSIC and Pinnacle Systems. For further information, please contact Antex at (800) 338-4231 or visit www.antex.com..

Learn more about the Media Director and the complete Antex product line by visiting us at NAB 2002, booth s6719 Sands Expo Hall, Las Vegas, NV, April 8-11.