Pinnacle Systems Announces New Video Editing Contest

September 30, 2008 — Pinnacle Systems, Inc., a part of Avid Technology, Inc., announced today a new online video editing contest, “Montage Your Way to Las Vegas.” Pinnacle Montage, which is included in all three versions of Pinnacle Studio version 12, is an innovative, theme-based feature that makes editing movies with up to 181 video tracks amazingly easy. The contest begins on October 1, 2008 at 8:00 a.m. PST, when the www.pinnaclesys.com/share website goes live; and ends on November 30, 2008 at 11:59:59 p.m. PST, when video submissions and voting will no longer be accepted.

The contest is open to all legal residents of the U.S. and Canada (excluding Quebec) who are age 18 and over as of the contest entry date. To enter the contest, participants click on the contest website, submit a 100-word description of their positive experience with the Pinnacle Montage feature and a sample video that is no more than 2 minutes in length and 10MB in size. Submissions will be posted as they are received, in accordance with contest rules. Visitors to the contest website can read about Pinnacle Montage users’ experiences, view the submitted videos and vote for their favorites.

Winners of the contest will be determined by the video that receives the highest average weighting between the number of votes and highest rating through the Pinnacle System’s website during the contest period. The first-place winner will receive airfare for two and hotel lodging at Las Vegas during the Computer Electronics Show (CES) January 08, 2009 – January 11, 2009, an approximate retail value of US$2,500. For second place, the winner will receive a Nintendo Wii, an approximate retail value of US$250. The third-place winner will receive a Pinnacle Montage Winter Pack, a new add-on pack that includes new creative pre-sets themed as Winter, Fall, Back To School, Harvest, Halloween, Christmas, New Years, Valentines— an approximate retail value of US$79. Pinnacle staff members will also select their favorite video and highlight it on the website for everyone to enjoy.

Contest winners will be announced early in December. A list of the winners can be obtained by accessing the contest website.

About Pinnacle Studio Version 12 Software and the Pinnacle Montage Feature

Pinnacle Studio, the #1 consumer video editing software in the U.S. and major European countries 2, is setting the standard for making the latest technologies exceptionally easy to use. Pinnacle Studio is also the recent recipient of the coveted “European HD Video Editing 2008-2009” Award. To meet the needs of consumers with various budgets and levels of experience, the Pinnacle Studio line includes Pinnacle Studio, as well as Pinnacle Studio Plus and Pinnacle Studio Ultimate with full HD support and more advanced audio/video tools.

In addition to supporting HD DVD creation, Pinnacle Studio Plus and Ultimate now allow users to natively author and burn Blu-ray format (BD-MV) discs with full motion menus. Support for the AVCHD format is also included to enable users to capture video from the new AVCHD camcorders and edit their content directly--without having to expend time making format conversions. With the advanced, built-in disc burning capabilities included in Studio Plus and Studio Ultimate, users can archive their videos on DVD, HD-DVD and Blu-ray discs or make AVCHD format discs on standard DVDs that will play on Blu-ray players and many older players.

Videos created with Studio version 12 can be directly uploaded directly to web-sharing sites like YouTube or loaded into Sony PSP, Apple iPod, DivX- certified players and 3GP cell phones.

With the new Pinnacle Montage feature, which is exclusive to Pinnacle Studio version 12, first-time video editors and people who don't have time to experiment can mix video, photo and audio files to create entertaining, multi-track videos in just minutes. Users simply select one of the 11 themes with more than 80 professionally designed templates. With Pinnacle Montage, up to 18 tracks can be overlayed and enhanced with titles, sounds, music, transitions and other effects to make videos come alive.

Pinnacle Studio 12 Family Pricing and Availability

Designed for Microsoft Windows XP and Windows Vista systems, the Pinnacle Studio version 12 family includes Pinnacle Studio, as well as Pinnacle Studio Plus and Pinnacle Studio Ultimate with full HD support. SRPs are US$49.99, $99.99 and $129.99, respectively. The Pinnacle Studio version 12 family is available now at e-tail and retail stores and the Pinnacle Systems e-store. Upgrades from all of the previous Pinnacle Studio versions to version 12 are also be available from the Pinnacle Systems website for a fee.

For more information on the “Montage Your Way to Las Vegas” contest, visit the contest website at www.pinnaclesys.com/share.

SOURCE Pinnacle Systems, Inc.