SeaChange Transforms Production Workflow at Television Suisse Romande

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MediaLibrary/MediaClient Platform Cuts Storage Costs across Production and Delivers Significantly Greater Workflow Efficiencies

ACTON, Mass. and GENEVA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

SeaChange International's (NASDAQ: SEAC) breakthrough MediaLibrary/MediaClient architecture is radically transforming production and post production workflow at European broadcaster Television Suisse Romande (TSR). Through the advantages of open and extremely scalable Network Attached Storage (NAS) and patented single-copy storage, TSR is establishing universal shared storage for any device and any media file type in the capture, edit and playout chain.

Based in Geneva, Switzerland, TSR is the dominant multichannel broadcaster serving French-speaking Swiss viewers. For its extensive production requirements, it has rolled out three SeaChange Broadcast MediaLibrary (BML) 24000ex systems to initially make more than 2,500 hours @IMX50-MXF of online storage available to EVS XT2 disk recorders (for live content acquisition), Avid NewsCutter XP NLEs (for post-production) and five SeaChange MediaClient codecs. SeaChange's inherent support of common IT standards will allow TSR to push EVS's non-proprietary IMX50-MXF XFile assets into more cost-efficient and centralized storage without transcoding.

Today, a five-node BML 24000ex cluster can provide more than 800 hours of storage in IMX50 format and support hundreds of IP-connected devices throughout a broadcast operation. A single media asset (program, graphic, audio, etc.) stored on a BML can be accessed concurrently by any number of editors and producers. Attached to MediaClients, the BML even supports simultaneous on-air delivery of Standard Definition and High Definition streams from a single media asset.

"The MediaLibrary/MediaClient architecture is the core of our new tapeless environment and delivers tremendous workflow gains by increasing interoperability between broadcast applications," said Mr. Claude Mex, associate director of production, TSR. "We have been able to ensure that the exceptional performance of the storage server is extended to the overall solution through the high bandwidth transfer rates possible between the BML and EVS servers. We're finally capturing efficiencies and new capabilities that were unimaginable working with tape, while gaining a fully HD-ready infrastructure."

"Production, sports in particular, is probably broadcast's most challenging environment, and your workflow clearly determines how well you perform on-air in front of viewers," said Chris West, vice president of broadcast sales, SeaChange. "Using an open architecture to link content capture, production and on-air delivery, TSR will achieve optimal efficiency. We believe they have set up a breakthrough workflow that will be adopted by other broadcasters."

MediaLibrary/MediaClient vs. Legacy Storage Arrays

The SeaChange Scalable NAS architecture eliminates the need for proprietary software on client workstations. There is no need for costly and time intensive integration - just qualification. This also eliminates performance bottlenecks created by metadata servers and NAS gateways. There is no single point of failure, a vulnerability that's inherent in legacy storage arrays. By distributing file system processing evenly to each node in the cluster, SeaChange's patented technology eliminates the usual pitfalls of the alternative file system controller approach. And, unlike any competing architectures, the SeaChange BML's patented MediaCluster 'single-copy' technology guarantees fault-resilience without costly mirroring.

Integrated software-based MediaClient codecs separately perform the real-time encoding or decoding operations. MediaClients support the wide range of compression formats and file wrappers used in transmission, editing and production, including MPEG-2 long GOP format in SD and HD; frame-based formats such as IMX, DVCPro, DVCam; as well as MXF and QuickTime. Any format will play back-to-back frames accurately from the same decoder output. Now, completed material from production servers no longer needs to be transcoded or dubbed back to tape for ingest before playout from the on-air server, reducing operator intervention and significantly cutting the time from production to broadcast.

The range of proven content storage, streaming and management solutions on show at NAB2007 (April 16-19 in Las Vegas) will highlight SeaChange's ability to put broadcasters on a cost-effective path to high-definition delivery and help them secure new distribution opportunities.

About Television Suisse Romande

Television Suisse Romande is a subsidiary of SRG SSR idee suisse, known in English as the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation, and serves Switzerland's French-speaking population from its broadcast center in Geneva. TSR has been part of western Switzerland since 1954 and today encompasses two channels, TSR 1 and TSR 2. Like its Swiss Broadcasting Corporation counterparts around the country, TSR is supported by licence fees that help it carry out its public service mandate throughout all aspects of programming. Part of this mandates is the provision of news and information programming, which accounts for more than a quarter of TSR 1's total programming hours. Overall in French-speaking Switzerland, TSR 1 enjoys a 33% market share - a figure more than double its next nearest competitor.

About SeaChange

SeaChange International, Inc. is the leading provider of end-to-end and best-of-breed solutions for the world's television industry. Its powerful video on demand and advertising software and scaleable hardware enable broadcast, cable and telco operators to provide new on-demand services and to gain greater efficiencies in advertising and content delivery. With its Emmy Award-winning and patented technology, thousands of SeaChange deployments are helping broadband, broadcast and satellite television companies to streamline operations, expand services and increase revenues. Headquartered in Acton, Massachusetts, SeaChange has product development, support and sales offices around the world. Visit www.schange.com.

Source: SeaChange International, Inc.

Released March 27, 2007