AmberFin Enriches iCR Solution to Support Evolving Customer Needs

AmberFin Enriches iCR Solution to Support Evolving Customer Needs

LONDON, June 23/PRNewswire/ --

- AmberFin iCR 3.5 to Incorporate Extensive New Compatibility Functions

AmberFin today announces the launch of the newest upgrade to its iCR
software, the open standards, future proof platform that digitises and
transforms new and archived content, across multiple delivery platforms.

The latest version of AmberFin iCR incorporates enhanced compatibility
features, supporting evolving customer needs, including support for the Sony
XDCAM and Panasonic P2 DVCPRO SD/HD encoding standards as well as increased
interoperability with Apple Final Cut Pro and Avid editing systems. This
combats the compatibility challenges faced by content owners today.

Scott Allen, VP of Marketing at AmberFin, comments: "Incompatibility is a
key issue facing the TV, film and broadcast industry today. At any stage of
the content creation process, incompatibility can increase the time and cost
in getting content to market and can prevent owners from making the most of
the revenue potential from their content. The latest version of AmberFin iCR
provides further functionality that eliminates incompatibility barriers and
easily creates content for any required format."

Sony XDCAM and Panasonic P2 DVCPRO SD/HD

By incorporating the latest Sony and Panasonic formats, AmberFin iCR 3.5
eliminates the need for re-encoding and maintains quality while improving the
speed of operations and reducing costs. Content owners can seamlessly mix
camera resolutions and formats, solving numerous compatibility issues between
different types of production formats without tying up creative staff and
equipment.

iCR 3.5 also allows easy conversion between standard definition (SD) and
high definition (HD) formats, without extra equipment. As HD becomes more
essential to deliver, from traditional TV to the internet, this ability to
convert content from one format to another and between platforms is becoming
increasingly critical.

AmberFin iCR can also be used to review and quality control any of those
formats in real-time allowing detection of faults that are invisible to the
human eye. With as much as 40% of ingested content needing to be re-encoded
due to issues that could have been detected and fixed at the mastering and
quality control stage, iCR brings significant improvements to a facility's
throughput.

Apple Final Cut Pro and Avid editing

AmberFin iCR 3.5 supports background ingest to generic centralised
storage systems for both Apple Final Cut Pro and Avid, supporting both P2
DVCPRO and XDCAM SD/HD formats. iCR can also enable content capture of DVCPRO
and XDCAM directly to the Apple Final Cut native QuickTime format, thus
eliminating time intensive clip imports. The system can also be fully
controlled by automation or asset management systems, helping to
industrialise the encoding process for production or archive ingest.

As content owners increase their focus on expanding the reach of their
assets there is an enormous opportunity for those who can deliver the same
content at a high-quality across multiple platforms. Content must be
delivered quickly and cost-effectively to meet consumer demand, but in order
to do this content owners are looking at ways to resolve the challenges
inherent in the traditional workflow. AmberFin iCR's modular approach enables
content owners to select the applications most critical for their business
needs, creating the most effective processes for their market segment.

About AmberFin

AmberFin enables content owners to maximise the value of their TV, film
and video content, from capture through to distribution, while increasing
revenues, reducing costs, saving time and eliminating incompatibility issues.
AmberFin iCR, with four-time Emmy-award winning technology, plays a key role
in turning the content that owners have into the content their customers
want. As an open standard, future proof platform that digitises and
transforms new and archived content, AmberFin iCR delivers the best quality
pictures at smaller file sizes across multiple delivery platforms, including
the Internet, VoD, mobile and other small screen devices. AmberFin already
has 100s of iCR systems in the field, and is trusted by some of the world's
most prestigious companies including Sony, NBA, Turner Broadcasting, BT,
Channel 4, RTM and Warner Brothers, managing the digitisation and repurposing
of their content.

Privately held by Advent Venture Partners, AmberFin is part of the Snell
& Wilcox Group, headquartered in Basingstoke, UK. More information is
available at: http://www.amberfin.com

PR contact:

Hotwire
amberfin@hotwirepr.com
+44(0)207-608-2500

Source: AmberFin

PR contact: Hotwire, amberfin@hotwirepr.com , +44(0)207-608-2500.

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