Adobe and Microsoft Announce Expanded Support For Windows Media at NAB2002

LAS VEGAS, April 8, 2002 — Today at the National Association of Broadcasters event, NAB2002, Adobe Systems Incorporated and Microsoft Corp. announced that Adobe is expanding its support for Microsoft® Windows Media (TM) in its Premiere® and After Effects®
products, and will support Microsoft’s next version of Windows Media, code-named “Corona,” when it ships later this year. Adobe will demonstrate this expanded support for Windows Media, including “Corona,” in Adobe Premiere and After Effects during NAB2002 this week. The demonstrations will take place in the Adobe booth (No. S6927) in the Sands Convention Center and in the Microsoft booth (No. L1650) in the Las Vegas Convention Center.

“Microsoft Windows Media Audio and Video technology, and ‘Corona’ in particular, dramatically enhance the whole desktop video experience,” said Bryan Lamkin, senior vice president of graphics at Adobe. “Adobe is committed to providing our customers with the ability to encode into this remarkable format from our applications. This will enable our customers to optimize their digital media production and open up new opportunities like high-definition Windows Media on the desktop.”

“Adobe’s expanded support of Windows Media Format is going to make it easier for content creators to take full advantage of the dramatic leaps in quality we are making with Corona,” said Will Poole, corporate vice president of the Windows Digital Media Division at Microsoft. “Combined with Adobe’s pioneering advances in digital editing tools, this is going to be a tremendous solution to both provide the best-quality digital media in the smallest file sizes, and have the sophisticated control over the creation process our mutual customers demand.”

Building on the industry-leading innovations in Windows Media Audio and Video codecs, Windows Media “Corona” will take media compression to a new level by introducing two new professional-level video and audio codecs. A new version of the Windows Media Video codec is capable of producing DVD-quality standard-definition (SD) video at one-half to even one-third the comparable MPEG-2 data rate, depending on the content. This will make it possible to put up to several times as much SD video onto a single DVD. It also provides a 20 percent efficiency boost compared with the previous version and introduces the ability to provide high-definition (HD) 720p video resolutions at file sizes half that of today’s DVDs for local playback on the PC. The new Windows Media Audio Professional (WMA Pro) is the first codec to enable Web-based delivery of 6-channel surround sound with full-spectrum, full-resolution audio (24-bit/96kHz sampling).

These advances will significantly improve the quality of streamed video and enable desktop high-definition video production. Both Adobe Premiere and After Effects will provide support for Microsoft’s “Corona” technology with new Plug-ins when it becomes available later this year.

“We look forward to being able to incorporate this technology into our workflow along with the Adobe tools,” said Dave Tecson, senior editor of Edgeworx, a desktop post-production facility specializing in After Effects work. “Producing high-definition video from the desktop is important to the growth of our business, and we expect that Windows Media ‘Corona’ will fulfill this promise.”

Also announced today and featured for the first time at NAB2002, the new Adobe After Effects Plug-In Power Pack features the ability to encode Windows Media Audio and Video 8 files from inside After Effects. This workflow enhancement allows users to accelerate their digital media production by removing the need to use standalone encoding applications. An advanced Windows Media Audio and Video 8 encoder, a key component in the next release of Adobe Premiere, is also being demonstrated at NAB2002.

About Windows Media

Windows Media is the leading digital media platform, providing unmatched audio and video quality to consumers, content providers, solution providers, software developers and corporations. Windows Media offers the industry’s only integrated digital rights management solution and the most scalable and reliable streaming technology tested by independent labs. Windows Media Technologies includes Windows Media Player for consumers, Windows Media Services for servers, Windows Media Tools for content creation and the Windows Media Software Development Kit (SDK) for software developers. Windows Media Player, available in 26 languages, is the fastest-growing and now leading media player. More information about Windows Media can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmedia/ .

About Adobe Systems Inc.

Founded in 1982, Adobe Systems Inc. ( http://www.adobe.com/) builds award-winning software solutions for network publishing, including Web, ePaper, print, video, wireless and broadband applications. Its graphic design, imaging, dynamic media and authoring tools enable customers to create, manage and deliver visually rich, reliable content. Headquartered in San Jose, Calif., Adobe is the second-largest PC software company in the United States, with annual revenues exceeding $1.2 billion.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software — any time, any place and on any device.

Microsoft and Windows Media are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.

(c) 2002 Adobe Systems Inc. All rights reserved. Adobe, the Adobe logo, After Effects and Premiere are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Inc. in the United States and/or other countries

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/ on Microsoft’s corporate information pages. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may since have changed. Journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team for additional assistance.

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