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Thomson Launches Grass Valley ContentShare2 Comprehensive Workflow and Media Management System (30/4/2007)

New Workflow Engine Bridges Business Systems with Creative Processes and Technologies to Deliver Simplified, Secure, Overarching Content Management

Representing the first completely new approach to the creation, commercialization, and delivery of content since the television industry began, Grass Valley(tm) ContentShare2(tm) from Thomson (Euronext Paris: 18453; NYSE: TMS) defines media workflows by their progress through the entire enterprise, instead of by how the media interacts with technical operations. The open software solution is unique in bringing together both business and creative systems to create a secure media asset and process management foundation, increasing project efficiency from creation through to distribution and archiving.

"While there are a number of suppliers in our industry who claim to be able to deliver content or asset management, none have taken the logical step of integrating business systems, as well as creative technologies at the operational management level, to create a vital and secure commercial platform," said Patrick Montliaud, Vice President, EROW Sales and Integration and Transmission Solutions for the Grass Valley business within Thomson. "What ContentShare2 does is to provide, for the first time, a unified view allowing media production and delivery to be managed as a process specifically tailored to the TV and digital media businesses, with the flexible to handle a variety of additional business processes."

ContentShare2 is an open, service oriented architecture which includes a workflow engine designed to manage workflow across the entire production and business chain. The software's open nature allows for a broad range of interfaces with external applications, including enterprise management tools as well as production and broadcast scheduling systems. By incorporating these links and providing integration with ingest and playout automation and other applications, ContentShare2 is the industry's first truly comprehensive workflow system.

ContentShare2 organizes work using the concept of "workplaces": locations in the process where specific tasks are undertaken-for instance, ingest, preparation, content approval, financial reporting, or playout. When operators log in, their workplace has specific tools available to accomplish their portion of the work. The software moves each project through the workflow from concept to delivery, allocating tasks to be completed at each workplace.

On the management side, it provides a global monitoring solution, tracking the health of hardware, software, and operational systems under its control.

Supervisors can view the status of each project in the workflow. If tasks are late, they can determine the cause and reassign technical or staff resources as needed.

"The result is that the operation becomes more agile: staff and resources are better used, quality is maintained, and no time is wasted transferring data from broadcast to financial management," explains Montliaud. "There are plenty of business, creative, and broadcast automation applications out there, and users should be free to select the one which best suits their operation. ContentShare2 provides the software layer that brings it all together, the overarching framework which delivers process control."

ContentShare2 is by design highly configurable and offers a system solution than can be adapted to users needs. This is in contrast with other systems that force customers to adapt their processes to a standard solution and thereby reduce their competitiveness. With this system, Thomson provides a complete range of professional services to integrate Thomson and third party solutions with local partnerships as required.

Pricing and Availability

The ContentShare2 platform will be available in first half of 2007. The base pricing for an entry-level CS2 solution is $180,000 (€142,000). However, this architecture is highly scalable and specific pricing depends on configuration.

www.thomsongrassvalley.com

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