HBO Selects Thomson For Major New HD Initiative

To help
distribute all of its 26 channels in pristine high-definition (HD) television
resolution, HBO (Home Box Office) has ordered Grass Valley HD cameras, servers,
and routers from Thomson. The

Grass

Valley cameras will be used in HBO’s digital
production studios in

New York City, and the
servers and routers will be installed in HBO’s main playout facility in

Hauppauge,

NY.

“For
HBO, moving to the automated K2-based distribution systems from Thomson has
resulted in the development of an electronic workflow that has increased
efficiencies and allowed us to put safeguards in place to ensure the reliable
distribution or our programs,” said Charles Cataldo, Senior Vice
President, Broadcast Operations and Engineering, HBO Communications. “We
wouldn’t trust our playout operations to anything but

Grass

Valley
server technology because we’ve grown comfortable with the mission-critical
24/7 performance they provide. Moving to the new

K2
server systems is the next logical step in our evolution to high
definition.”

“Thomson
has a long-standing relationship with HBO that has been very fruitful for both
companies,” said Jeff Rosica, Senior Vice President of Thomson’s Broadcast
& Professional Solutions business unit. “HBO has been instrumental in
the continuing development of Grass Valley K2 server system from Thomson and
we’re pleased to continue to support HBO and help it achieve its goals as it
moves aggressively into the distribution of HD programming to meet new consumer
demand.”

HBO has
already begun its comprehensive migration from Grass Valley Profile XP Media
Platform servers to the latest-generation K2 Media Server and Media Client
systems from Thomson and expects to complete the process by the end of the
year.