Omneon Video Networks today announced that it has enabled native MXF support for its entire line of Omneon Spectrum™ media servers. MXF is the new Material eXchange Format for interoperability developed by the Pro-MPEG Forum in cooperation with a number of industry leaders, including Omneon, and it has recently gained approval through the SMPTE standardization process. All Omneon Spectrum™ media server users will now have the option to select either MXF or QuickTime® as the media wrapper format for material stored in the system.

"MXF is quickly gaining acceptance as the standard file format for interoperability, enabling more seamless transfers of both program essence and metadata between systems," said Geoff Stedman, vice president of worldwide marketing for Omneon. "Adding native MXF format support is a natural and logical extension of Omneon's open architecture and further demonstrates the company's commitment to interoperability and industry standards."

MXF is essentially a new building block for IT-based broadcast and post-production environments and enables interoperability between previously incompatible systems. MXF features include platform independence (including compression, network protocol, and operating systems), extensive support for metadata and improved workflows, and packetized and streaming file-based capability. MXF is an open industry format with broad-based support from industry vendors as well as tested interoperability between those vendors.

As a member of the MXF Group of the Pro-MPEG Forum, Omneon has been closely involved in the development of the new standard. Omneon's deployment of MXF as a native file format embodies the true spirit of the MXF initiative, eliminating all forms of format conversion or transcoding when working with the new format. MXF has been added to the Omneon file system, allowing the system to treat MXF wrapped content in a manner similar to the way in which it has treated QuickTime wrapped content. Both reference and self-contained MXF models are being supported in Omneon's implementation.

At NAB2004 Omneon will demonstrate both playout of native MXF wrapped material as well as real-time interoperability with Sony eVTR by transferring 50 Mb/s IMX encoded MXF files from the deck and playing them out through an Omneon Spectrum™ system.

Learn more about Omneon's server solutions at www.omneon.com.

About Omneon
Omneon Video Networks is the leading provider of cost-effective and flexible networked media server solutions for the broadcast and video industry. The company′s unique strategy integrates a strong foundation in broadcast with the best practices of information technology - giving its customers the best of both worlds. Because Omneon Spectrum media server systems are based on an open and advanced architecture, broadcast and video professionals are able to minimize both upfront and ongoing expenses, while gaining the flexibility to capitalize on emerging opportunities. Omneon pioneered the use of open systems in broadcast and, as a result, receives wide support from the application developer community. Visit Omneon on the Web at www.Omneon.com.

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