SUNNYVALE, Calif. — April 25, 2007 — Omneon Video Networks, Inc. today announced that Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR) has deployed an Omneon Spectrum™ media server system to support tapeless operations in a new state-of the-art facility in Munich. BR, public radio and television broadcaster for Bavaria, worked with German distributor Netorium to integrate the Spectrum media server system as a key element of its transition from traditional tape-based to more efficient file-based operation. The operation went live in March 2007.

Known for its excellent documentary productions and coverage of the world-famous Oktoberfest, BR is one of the nine regional broadcasters that belong to Germany’s ARD radio and television network. BR’s new facility consists of four playout complexes and an integrated digital production and archive area for the main channel, Bayerisches Fernsehen, and the educational channel, BR Alpha. By replacing a tape-based system, the Spectrum gives the network faster, more reliable, and more flexible media access and playout.

“We selected the Spectrum server to support ingest, storage and playout, primarily because of the flexibility and interoperability enabled by its modular, open architecture,” said Herbert Gerstmayr, project engineer at BR. “Omneon’s media server system has helped us redefine our workflow, supporting any media type and simplifying our access to assets. Overall, Omneon has played a key role in enabling us to achieve our project objectives.”

Within the new BR facility, the Spectrum servers support retrieval of material from the archive, nonlinear editing, studio production, and on-air playout. The new workflow at BR begins with the ingest of material into the Omneon server systems — and later into a Front Porch Digital DIVArchive system through Harris iMedia. Integration of the facility’s 64 Avid editors and six Avid Unity systems with the Omneon servers via Marquis Medway brings the servers and editing stations into a unified working environment.

The BR production server system consists of three Omneon modules, each featuring 24 to 31 channels of MXF-wrapped MPEG IMX 50-Mbit video and 600 hours of storage. The Omneon Spectrum system’s native MXF implementation was another reason BR selected the platform. MXF streamlines direct transfer of files over the broadcaster’s IT infrastructure, allowing BR to avoid multiple stages of compression and decompression so that interchange is more straightforward. BR was one of the first German broadcasters to apply MXF as its house standard.

The Spectrum media server system is Omneon’s flagship product, designed to meet the unique challenges posed by the broadcast industry. Fast, flexible, and reliable, the Spectrum system supports many different third-party applications for control and transmission, media management, archiving, and collaborative production.

More information about Omneon server and storage solutions is available online at www.omneon.com.

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About Omneon
Omneon is a leading provider of flexible media server and active storage systems that optimize workflow productivity and on-air reliability for the production, distribution, and management of digital media. Omneon is a pioneer in the use of advanced IT technologies and open systems for broadcast applications, producing a modular and expandable video server architecture in the Omneon Spectrum. The company's MediaGrid active storage system delivers centralized content storage that is scalable in capacity, bandwidth, and media-processing power. The company has an extensive global presence with customers in 45 countries on six continents. Omneon is on the Web at www.Omneon.com.

About Bayerischer Rundfunk
Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR), one of the nine regional broadcasting members of Germany’s ARD radio and television network, is the public broadcasting authority for the German Freistaat (Free State) of Bavaria. BR operates from the Bavarian Broadcast Center located in Munich.

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