Sky News Chooses EVS for all-in-one Ingest/Edit...

London (UK), Liège (Belgium), October 20, 2009, EVS Broadcast Equipment S.A. (Euronext Brussels: EVS.BR, Bloomberg: EVS BB, Reuters: EVSB.BR) (Pinksheets: EVBEF), the leader in Professional Digital Video applications for live and studio TV production, today announced that it is to provide a server solution to UK based 24 hour news channel Sky News, a service of the British Sky Broadcasting Group (London Stock Exchange: BSY, NYSE: BSY), ahead of the organisation's launch of an HD news channel in Spring 2010. Sky News and EVS will now work together to introduce the new technology at Sky News' West London headquarters, with HD upgrades at its Central London studio, the regions and internationally. Replacing current equipment and introducing a single tapeless solution through EVS, with Apple's Final Cut Studio as the craft edit solution will lead to significant enhancements across Sky News, including improving its day-to-day newsgathering operation and output abilities on TV, as well as online and radio. The benefits of a new tapeless solution operating across ingest, edit and playout include being able to get Sky's news output onto multiple platforms quicker and improved integration between Sky News' bureaux and field teams and its headquarters at Osterley, West London. The use of EVS Instant Tapeless Technology, including the XS and XT[2] production servers, XStore[2] SAN server, IPDirector, as well as XEDIO, with Final Cut studio across the board means teams back at HQ will be capable of last minute tweaks to any news package sent in, whether it has come from London, Liverpool or Lahore - something not currently possible under the existing arrangements. Bevan Gibson, Deputy Head of Technology for Sky News, said: "The EVS product is always in record, and this feature combined with ultra fast turnaround, will bring a new dimension to the way we can handle breaking news. An architecture that is flexible for News, allowing us to adapt quickly to changes in news contribution and distribution practices. "EVS have a progressive and pioneering outlook which matches our ethos. They are a partner who will work with us in shaping products to suit our needs and we are delighted to announce that we will be working with them at this exciting time for the channel." Sky News will now work to introduce the EVS solutions across its operation by Spring next year and will embark upon a thorough training system with all affected staff to ensure a smooth changeover next year. Henry Alexander, General Manager EMEA at EVS: "EVS is extremely proud to be working in partnership with Sky News on this challenging studio project. The combination of our expertise in the design and manufacturing of fast and reliable broadcast technology with the quality of Sky's leading programmes provides an exciting opportunity to deliver and launch a technically advanced HD News Channel in 2010." For further enquiries about EVS, please contact: Jacques GALLOY, Director & CFO Geoffroy d'OULTREMONT, Investor Relations & Corporate Communications Manager EVS Broadcast Equipment S.A., Liege Science Park, 16 rue du Bois Saint-Jean, B-4102 Ougrée (Liège), Belgium Tel: +32 4 361 70 14. E-mail: corpcom@evs.tv; www.evs-global.com For further enquiries about Sky News, please contact: Charlotte Dixon Publicity Manager, Sky News Tel: +44 7824 824834 Forward Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements with respect to the business, financial condition, and results of operations of EVS and its affiliates. These statements are based on the current expectations or beliefs of EVS's management and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or performance of the Company to differ materially from those contemplated in such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties relate to changes in technology and market requirements, the company's concentration on one industry, decline in demand for the company's products and those of its affiliates, inability to timely develop and introduce new technologies, products and applications, and loss of market share and pressure on pricing resulting from competition which could cause the actual results or performance of the company to differ materially from those contemplated in such forward-looking statements. EVS undertakes no obligation to publicly release any revisions to these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. Notes to Editors: About EVS Group EVS Broadcast Equipment designs, develops and markets professional digital equipment for Television. The company employs over 240 persons in 13 countries and sells its products to professionals of the video and audio sectors in more than 90 countries. EVS is a public company traded on Euronext Brussels: EVS, ISIN: BE0003820371. For more information, refer to www.evs-global.com EVS Broadcast is the world leader for Live TV Production Digital Disk Recorders and Related Software Applications, especially in the field of sports. The company's dedicated hardware and software suite offer a complete production platform: live slow motion (LSM), high speed slow motion, replay only, clips generation, quick clips editing, real-time SD/HD video files transfer, time delay, multi-camera recording, metadata association, graphics storage and play-out, digital transmission, multi-format ingest and play-back, audio record & edit, webcasting, mobile phone clipping. Main software applications like the "IP Director®" are running on the dedicated robust and flexible hardware the "XT[2]® Platform". The world's leading broadcasters, such as NBC, BSkyB, FOX, RTBF, RTL, NHK, CANAL+, ABC, ESPN, TF1, CCTV, PBS, CBS, BBC, ZDF, Channel7, RAI, TVE, NEP, MEDIAPRO, EUROMEDIA, BEXEL, ALFACAM and many others use EVS' solutions. EVS 47,2% affiliate XDC is pioneering Digital Cinema Logistics and Play-out and operates between the movies distributors and exhibitors. XDC has installed more than 500 digital screens throughout Europe in Germany, Sweden, France, Austria, Portugal, UK, Belgium, etc. About Sky News * Sky News images are available from Sky's stills department on 0207 800 4202. * Since its launch in 1989, Sky News has established itself as a formidable and innovative force in the world of news broadcasting. It now provides news to around 145 million people in 36 countries in Europe alone, with distribution across Africa, the Middle East and Asia. * Valued for fairness, balance and journalistic objectivity by both viewers and regulators, the award-winning channel has also earned a reputation for the speed of its 24-hour coverage and flexibility in reporting live news - first. * In addition to its status as one of Europe's leading 24 hour news channels, skynews.com is one of the fastest growing websites on the continent and reaches way beyond its eight average and half million monthly unique users. It serves text and video to Britain's commercial radio websites, to giant animating billboards in all major railway stations in the UK seen by 56 million commuters a fortnight, to passengers on Virgin Atlantic flights, and more than 500,000 iPhone users via the most downloaded news application in the country. * In March 2009 Sky News Radio became the sole provider of national and international news to all commercial stations in the UK - reaching around 31 million listeners in total - when it took over the contract to supply IRN stations, in addition to its existing clients. * Sky News won a Golden Nymph at the 2009 Monte Carlo Television Festival for Best 24 Hour News Programme for its coverage of the Mumbai terror attacks. Sky News was also named Best News Service at the Broadcast Digital Awards 2009 and Skynews.com won the Association of Online Publishers award for website of the year, 2008. This announcement was originally distributed by Hugin. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
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