BILLERICA, Mass. — Dec. 17, 2008 — Echolab Inc., a leading provider of professional video switchers and broadcast tools, today announced that the Princeton University Broadcast Center has deployed the company’s Overture1™ MD (multi-definition) production switcher in a new 1,600 square-foot HD facility located in the Frank Gehry-designed science library that opened this fall.

“A lot of things about the Overture switcher impressed me, but the major selling point was its ability to perform upconversion and crossconversion internally,” said David Hopkins, director of the Broadcast Center. “Many people I work with on campus asked how, in our new HD environment, we were going to support all the SD sources we inevitably deal with. It was great to be able to tell them we have a piece of equipment that makes that easy. Another challenge for us was limited space in the control room, but because the Echolab switcher is so compact, it fits perfectly. For something its size, it is amazing what it can do.”

The Princeton Broadcast Center relies on a professional staff of five, supported by freelancers and students, to create programming including public lectures and commencement, as well as faculty and student projects. A typical faculty-initiated project was the studio’s inaugural production, shot in December. The project consisted of a series of three interviews focused on how engineers can help repair and develop the economy. Student projects, often more production-intensive, will take full advantage of the Overture1 switcher’s arsenal of transitions and effects. The Overture series was designed to be easy to use, which makes it particularly well-suited to a facility like Princeton’s where some operators will be rookies.

“Echolab was happy to provide an outstanding educational institution like Princeton University with an outstanding broadcast switcher,” said Nigel Spratling, Echolab president. “Innovative technology enables our Overture1 to offer versatility and state-of-the-art functionality at the right price.”

Echolab’s Overture1 was built on the company’s award-winning System on Chip (SoC) technology, the Overture MD extends that technology to allow the system to not only accept and deliver both digital and analog signals but to accept them in both SD and HD formats without external format conversion. Because the Overture1 accommodates sources like DVD players, satellite, remote studios, and microwave links without genlocked sources and external A-to-D converters, it is easier to install and more cost effective than other systems with comparable features.

More information about the Overture series of production switchers and other Echolab products is available at www.echolab.com.

About the Princeton University Broadcast Center
Princeton University’s state-of-the-art HD video studio and a professional audio recording studio opened in the fall of 2008. The studios are located in the new Lewis Science Library building and provide video production for major events on campus such as public lectures, opening exercises, and commencement. Lecture recordings, podcasts, and rich media content are managed by the Broadcast Center.

Echolab Overture1™ Switcher Provides Professional Training Tool for Suffolk County Community College Students

BILLERICA, Mass. — July 8, 2008 — Echolab, Inc., a leading provider of professional video production switchers and broadcast tools, today announced that Suffolk County Community College (SCCC), a two-year college known nationally for its radio and television production program, is using the 1-M/E Overture1™ switcher within a new fully digital center. The Echolab switcher is part of SCCC’s state-of-the-art facility in Selden, N.Y., where students prepare for careers in the field of professional broadcasting.

“In a teaching facility, ease of equipment operation leads to a better learning curve, and that’s just what Echolab’s switching solutions have provided for our students,” said Alan Bernstein, professor of radio and television production at SCCC. “While our new Overture1 system offers robust switching capabilities, its ease of use enables effective training for both entry-level and advanced users.

The Overture1 is not unlike our program here at Suffolk County Community College: It’s a cost-effective system that provides everything one could possibly need but at a very appealing price point compared with competitors’ offerings.”

SCCC upgraded to a 1-M/E Overture1 system to take advantage of the switcher’s advanced functionality and feature set, including a greater number of keyers, new Dip and DVE transitions, the SuperSource™ layering engine, and floating frame synchronization. Echolab’s high-performance Overture1 combines internal conversion and synchronization with powerful key layering and special effects to provide simple control over complex production tasks and, in turn, streamline creation of a sophisticated on-air look.

Overture switchers accept up to 32 multiformat analog and digital signals and provide as many as 16 multiformat outputs. Internal frame synchronization helps to ensure the quality of effects, and the integrated up/crossconversion within MD models streamlines switching of video in multiple formats. Features such as the Stinger™ transition and SuperSource™ crosspoint keys allow operators to implement simpler workflows while creating more advanced visual productions.

Echolab’s Stinger transition is a special “Take Block” keyer with combined mix/wipe and graphic control that reduces complex animated transitions to a single button press. The Overture switchers’ new SuperSource allows the operator to build a custom layout using DVEs and graphics and then assigns the composition to a crosspoint button. A DVE key in each Take Block enables instant transition effects, and the MD Overture systems offer as many as four channels of DVE with warp and lighting effects. Robust DVE capabilities are complemented by as many as 34 internal graphics/still stores.

“The Echolab switcher provides the most flawless transitions you could ever imagine, and it has several times the power of any production switcher we’ve had here at our facility,” added Bernstein. “Our students find it easy to learn switching techniques on the very capable Overture1 switcher, and they leave our program with the skills and confidence to work with any type or size of switcher they encounter in their professional work.”

Adwar Video, a reseller of professional video and multimedia products with headquarters in Farmingdale, N.Y., worked in concert with Echolab to supply SCCC with the Overture1 system. More information about the Overture series and other Echolab products is available at www.echolab.com.

About Suffolk County Community College
Suffolk County Community College is the largest multicampus community college in the State University of New York (SUNY) system, enrolling more than 22,000 students each semester. SCCC offers 69 degree and certificate programs in business, communications, the arts, computing, health, community and human services, liberal arts, and technical, scientific, and engineering studies. By 2005 the college had graduated more than 86,312 persons. In accordance with the mission of the college, SCCC provides universal access to higher education; prepares students for transfer to four-year institutions; prepares students for a first career, a career change, or career advancement; and assists underprepared students in acquiring the necessary skills and knowledge to increase their career and educational opportunities. More information is available at www.sunysuffolk.edu.

“The MEB initiative aims to enhance the broadcasting curricula and training in an outreach program involving Middle East universities,” said Dale Matthews, executive director of Oregon-based iTV and producer for the Fall Classic Webcast. “I contacted the people at MEB about the possibility that experienced students from the Middle East could take part in the groundbreaking project, and the tournament organizers and I were very pleased that young women from different parts of the world could come together in a first for the broadcast industry. Echolab’s loan of an Opera production switcher provided us with the technical capabilities we needed to make this one-of-a-kind broadcast a success.”

Thirty-two teams and many of the best players from around the country took part in the Durango High School Fall Classic. Eight students from the UAE University, under the guidance of Matthews as producer, used the Opera production switcher to create content for Web broadcast, available for online viewing live around the world. The Middle East production crew easily integrated five cameras into the live production. While these prosumer three-chip cameras provided by iTV normally need to be synced externally, the internal frame synchronization of the Opera switcher allowed the team simply to power up the unit, plug in all of its cameras, and get right to work.

“The Durango High School Fall Classic is remarkable in that it attracts top-level female volleyball players from across the United States,” said Nigel Spratling, Echolab president. “What made this year’s event even more special was that a group of young women was able to travel from across the globe to take part in production of the event. We’re proud that our switcher technology played a role in this significant step forward for broadcasting and for successful collaboration among young people of different countries and cultures.”

Echolab’s Opera is a flexible SD production switcher with a unique dual-format design, complemented by internal frame synchronizers and frame buffers that make the Opera the perfect switcher for production systems that require handling of both analog and digital media. The production switcher can be installed into an analog system without additional conversion gear, and its modular architecture provides a cost-effective means of transitioning from analog to digital at the desired pace.
More information about the Opera dual-format production switcher and other Echolab products is available at www.echolab.com.

Chris McClendon
Chief Engineer, WMGT

WMGT is a small market station, an NBC affiliate owned by the Morris Network Inc., that serves Middle Georgia facilities in historic downtown Macon. We launched our news operations, comprising of three daily newscasts, in 2004, and today they are the second-most-watched TV news programs in our market. This past March we enhanced the quality of these newscasts significantly – and simplified our production operations – by bringing online a new Echolab Opera 3932 dual-format (digital/analog) production switcher, which replaced an older analog system.

Though our news operations are tapeless and we’ve launched 24-hour HD broadcasts from our digital transmitter, we haven’t yet upgraded all of our systems from analog to digital. The intelligence and flexibility of the Opera in handling both analog and digital inputs, managing crossconversion internally, and outputting composite and digital video enabled us to make a big jump forward – in terms of the technical director’s job and in the quality of our news production – with just one purchase. What’s more, the internal frame sync on every Opera input actually allowed us to eliminate the external processing gear and, in turn, a point of failure. Now we just plug in the input and everything is timed properly.

The Opera was also appealing to us because of its intuitive control panel. The panel layout is equipped just with what we need, and not the features we don’t. It took me only a couple of days to train the TD on the new production switcher, and we’ve found that we now can include much more sophisticated elements into our programming with far fewer button-presses. The switcher’s two DVEs give us a lot of new options during production, and the overall video quality has improved, as well.

To get the most out of the Opera, we’re also using Echolab’s Commander auxiliary panel, which extends the switcher’s control to internal and networked devices, providing easily customizable shortcuts to all switcher functions. As a result, the TD can move from one preset effect to the next using just one button rather than 12. With this capability we can do a lot more during the show with less risk of error. While we’ve added elements that make our news more interesting, exiting, and dynamic, we’ve actually simplified the work required to produce each show.

Getting the Opera installed and online was the easiest install I’ve ever performed. I did it myself and, when I did have a few questions, was able to pick up the phone and talk to an Echolab engineer right away. As we complete our shift into the digital world, we can swap out analog cards for digital cards, which means that going forward the Opera will continue to be a useful and valuable part of our operations.

Chris McClendon has been with WMGT since 1991 and has overseen the growth of the station including the launch of daily newscasts, the move to digital, implementation of tapeless news production, and the start of HD broadcasting.

O’Doherty’s Productions Wins Bet With
Echolab Nova Production Switcher

BILLERICA, Mass. — June 20, 2007 — Echolab Corporation today announced that O’Doherty’s Audio Video Productions of Dublin, Ireland, is deploying the company’s Nova 1416 switcher in its 26-foot broadcast truck, which travels almost 2,500 miles a month to provide A/V services to 16 racetracks spread across Ireland and Northern Ireland. O’Doherty’s is the premier provider of audio information, announcements, graphics, camera coverage, and replays to monitors and giant screens at racetracks in Ireland.

The company was looking to upgrade its digital production and found Echolab to provide a switcher that, after bouncing around day after day on bad roads, was built for endurance. The Nova 1416 offers a robust system with high-end features, including a frame buffer that allows O’Doherty’s to store the individual racetrack logos, 16 routable AUX outputs that provide distinct SDI camera feeds, and flexible upstream and downstream keyers. Since space is at a premium, the compact 5-RU size of the Echolab Nova 1416 switcher is a plus, as is its cool, power-efficient operation. As with all Echolab switchers, at the heart of the Nova is Echolab’s innovative system-on-chip architecture, making the Nova not only easy to upgrade, but guaranteeing it will be in the race for many years to come.

“Echolab designed the Nova with complex, demanding, and space-limited production operations exactly like O’Doherty’s in mind,” said Nigel Spratling, president of Echolab. “With its sleek Identity 4 panel, the Nova 1416 is perfect for an action-packed OB truck, meeting demands for reliability, ease of use, and maximum creative control.”

About O’Doherty’s
Based in Dublin, O’Doherty’s has served the horse racing industry for half a century. O’Doherty’s OB1 truck provides complete audio-video services for 16 racetracks in Ireland and Northern Ireland, feeding content to SIS, ATR, and RTE for broadcast around the U.K. and Europe. O’Doherty’s also provides owners, trainers, and jockeys with same-day DVDs and VHS tapes of races.