Thomson Announces Several Major Orders at IBC 2007

Paris (France) – Amsterdam (The Netherlands) — Thomson (Euronext Paris: 18453; NYSE: TMS) today announced several major orders for its broad range of high-definition (HD) solutions as well as for its content security solutions. These announcements are being made on the eve of the International Association of Broadcasters Conference (IBC), Sept. 7 to 11 in Amsterdam.

From mobile and live event as well as news production applications in broadcast to subscription television services, major global media leaders are choosing solutions from Thomson. Highlights announced by Thomson today include:

HD broadcast equipment

Thomson selected by NTV-Plus for deployment of HD Set-Top Boxes
The leading Russian Pay-TV Operator, NTV-Plus, choose Thomson for the rollout of a new High Definition (HD) TV set-top box. The HD set-top box will support the launch of Russia’s first high-definition TV service by NTV-Plus this year.

Australia’s FOXTEL Selects Thomson for HD Compression
FOXTEL, Australia’s largest and most successful PayTV provider, FOXTEL, has signed a deal to purchase HD and SD compression equipment from Thomson for FOXTEL’s HD launch in 2008. Nine new compression systems will be supplied to FOXTEL and will work in tandem with the existing installed base of ViBE compression equipment. FOXTEL is now available to more than 70% of Australian homes.

Alfacam To Equip 10 HDTV OB Trucks with Thomson’s Grass Valley production equipment: including the largest camera order to date for Thomson
Alfacam, one of Europe’s leading outdoor broadcast and TV facilities providers that is part of the Alfacam Group (Euronext Brussels: ALFA), and already a significant user of Thomson equipment has ordered 144 HD Cameras and 10 HD Switchers to equip 10 new HD outdoor broadcast trucks. Alfacam Group is also investing in its own playout center and has ordered a 20 channel K2™ Media Server system to support it.

CBT Systems builds two major production facilities with Thomson HD equipment and systems
CBT Systems, a US premiere system integrator, has been implementing two major projects that make extensive use of Grass Valley™ high-definition production equipment from Thomson. Both projects have been built on highly efficient, virtually tapeless workflows that facilitate the fast creation and distribution of HD content for distribution on a variety of platforms that include traditional television and the Internet.

Broadcast Solutions Asia places massive order for HD cameras and switcher from Thomson
The Singapore-based remote production company has announced that it is starting its migration to high definition with an order for HD cameras and a production switcher from Thomson The order includes 24 multi-format cameras and a 3.5 multi-format production switcher.

Content Security

HBO protects content with the Thomson shield
Home Box Office (HBO) will implement a comprehensive Thomson Shield watermarking solution from Thomson to protect its 26 high-definition (HD) premium channels against piracy within its file-based infrastructure. The Thomson Shield Forensic solution is based on NexGuard™ video watermarking technology, which consists of embedding a virtual, invisible, and unique barcode in the essence of the video.

Links: Thomson; NTV-Plus