Omneon today announced that Funoon TV has selected a Spectrum™ video server system to support tapeless end-to-end production and playout at the NileSat broadcast facility in 6th October City, Egypt. Funoon, a Kuwait company that began operations in January 2006, is the Middle East’s first free-to-air comedy channel.

“Like broadcasters the world over, we selected Omneon because the Spectrum system does everything we need, and because of its proven reliability,” said Funoon Executive Manager Tareef Al Awadhi. “The Omneon media servers offer immense productivity gain, power, and flexibility for broadcast operations and is very well supported in the Middle East.”

Funoon initially will deploy two Spectrum server systems to transmit two channels of situation comedies, movies, and performances by stand-up comedians in Arabic to viewers across the Middle East. The Omneon Spectrum system, under the direction of Pebble Beach automation, will improve workflow efficiency, by providing central storage for both playout and production. Source material located on the Spectrum can be edited by producers using Final Cut Pro on their desktops. In the future, the Spectrum system’s open and advanced architecture will enable Funoon to grow the system cost-effectively along with its operations.

Omneon Spectrum server systems are installed at facilities across the Middle East, enabling broadcasters to migrate from analog to digital, from tape to disk, from standard definition to high definition, and from single- to multi-channel operations, while seamlessly supporting a full spectrum of formats. More information about the Omneon Spectrum media server system is available at www.omneon.com.

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 Funoon
The FUNOON comedy channel is the first free-to-air satellite television channel in the Middle East. The channel began broadcast of both original and syndicated programming in early 2006 through the NileSat Constellation and in 2007 also began to broadcast through ArabSat Bader 4. Original programming includes Abdul Hussein AdulReda's satiric half-hour show poking fun at modern-day media and politics. FUNOON is the only television channel devoted to making Arabs laugh 24 hours a day, seven days a week

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