Centaur and Telestream Enable Delivery and Automated Ingest of Local Ad Content for Broadcasters

Companies team up to provide all-digital transfer of local and regional advertising content to stations' on-air systems

ALEXANDRIA, VA and NEVADA CITY, CA, April 5, 2006 – Centaur Storage, Inc., the leading provider of digital content distribution for local broadcast markets, and Telestream, the leading provider of broadcast workflow automation solutions, today announced technology integration to enable fully-automated, all-digital file transfer of Centaur-delivered advertising content to broadcasters' on-air servers. Centaur’s cost-effective internet delivery is a perfect fit for local and regional markets, eliminating traditional tape shipments to the station and account executive downtime for tape pickups.  The Centaur-Telestream integrated solution expands that capability to enable automated ingest of local/regional advertising content at the station. Centaur-delivered content is transferred from a PC with Centaur Spot Exchange™ to the station's commercial play-to-air server via Telestream's FlipFactory® TrafficManager workflow automation application. The joint solution offers first-time streamlined digital workflow advantages for local/regional ad content, analogous to national spots.

“The Centaur-Telestream integration extends our tapeless workflows to include automated ingest of a greater number of ad spots coming into our facility,” said Reed Wilson, Technology Manager, Broadcast Media for Belo Corp. “The joint solution improves our workflow efficiency by providing one location to look for all of our incoming content and automatic file transfer to our play-to-air servers.”

Centaur Spot Exchange™ is an easy, cost-effective solution to transfer advertising content and metadata by internet.  It provides an efficient means for stations to receive spots from local production houses, and/or for regional Hubs (centralized master control) to receive content for stations within their TV group.  No new hardware is needed – users simply install Centaur’s desktop software and drag-n-drop to exchange spots via Centaur’s state-of-the-art server network.  Spots typically transfer in a few minutes time, and Centaur automatically alerts station personnel when new content is available.  To ensure efficient delivery, content download may begin while the upload is still in progress. Transfer automatically resumes following any internet outages, and proof-of-delivery is provided.

“Our integration with Telestream enables the seamless flow of Centaur-delivered advertising content and metadata throughout broadcast facilities, simplifying operations and expediting transfer to air,” said Laura Adams, Centaur VP of Sales and Marketing.  “Broadcasters can now benefit from digital delivery and automated ingest of local/regional advertising content, just as they have come to expect for national spots.” 

Telestream’s FlipFactory TrafficManager automatically ingests content from multiple digital delivery services, transcodes, and transfers the media files directly to desired destination systems in the required formats.  FlipFactory TrafficManager automatically monitors Centaur folders for the arrival of new material, compares the new material with traffic dub lists, transcodes and delivers media and metadata files to the broadcast server.  Incoming content is localized and transcoded into a low-resolution proxy format for quality control viewing and consolidated into a single traffic-monitoring application. FlipFactory TrafficManager also communicates with leading station automation systems, automatically sending metadata and notification that new content is available for playout.

“We are delighted to be working with Centaur, a pioneer in digital media distribution for local and regional broadcast markets,” said Anna Greco, Telestream Director of Business Development and Product Marketing. “Our integrated solution brings local and regional advertisers and their broadcast recipients into the digital age, automating what was previously a very manual process. For our existing broadcast customers, this solution expands the benefits of digital file transfer to a greater number of ad spots coming into the facility.”

The fully-automated Centaur-Telestream solution will be released June 2006.  Centaur and Telestream products are sold separately.  Both companies will demonstrate their products at the National Association of Broadcasters Convention (NAB) in Las Vegas, April 24-27, 2006; Centaur Booth C11635 and Telestream Booth SL2781.  

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About Centaur (www.centaurstorage.com)
Centaur’s easy-to-use, cost-effective solutions have made it the leading provider of digital content delivery for local and regional broadcast markets.  Customers select Centaur’s internet delivery services to enable efficient exchange of digital media with colleagues anywhere, in any format.  Users simply install Centaur’s desktop software and drag-n-drop to exchange advertising content, news stories, programming episodes, clips, teasers, prepro, or any other digital media via Centaur’s state-of-the-art server network.  Tailored for the broadcast industry, Centaur features auto-alerts for new content, proof-of-delivery, accelerated transfers via simultaneous upload/download, and metadata for automated ingest to air.  Centaur is privately held, with headquarters in Alexandria, VA.

About Telestream (www.telestream.net)
Telestream products have set the standard with the world's leading media and entertainment companies, corporations and government institutions for the encoding, organizing and delivery of digital media. Customers rely on Telestream products for convenient, cost-effective, and robust digital media access and exchange over IP networks. Telestream's automation applications and smart media organization solutions streamline workflows for broadcasters and media companies, as well as content owners and content creators in government, higher education and corporate markets. Telestream and its team of video experts are located in Nevada City, the “video valley” region of Northern California. The company is privately held.

About Belo (www.belo.com)  
Belo Corp. is one of the nation's largest media companies with a diversified group of market-leading television, newspaper, cable and interactive media assets. A Fortune 1000 company with 7,600 employees and $1.5 billion in annual revenues, Belo operates in some of America's most dynamic markets in Texas, the Northwest, the Southwest, Rhode Island, and the Mid-Atlantic. Belo owns 19 television stations, six of which are in the 15 largest U.S. broadcast markets. The Company also owns or operates seven cable news channels and manages one television station through a local marketing agreement. Belo's daily newspapers are The Dallas Morning News, The Providence Journal, The Press-Enterprise (Riverside, CA) and the Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, TX). The Company also publishes specialty publications targeting young adults, affluent populations and the fast-growing Hispanic market, including Quick and al dia in Dallas/Fort Worth, and the d, El D and La Prensa in Riverside. Belo operates more than 30 Web sites associated with its operating companies. Additional information is available at www.belo.com or by contacting Carey Hendrickson, vice president/Investor Relations & Corporate Communications, at 214-977-6626.