New TrinityTM series delivers unique offering for fast-growing hi-definition video switching market

Boston, MA, February 28, 2006 - Polatis Inc, a supplier of high performance optical switch products, today released a new series of products for routing signals in the rapidly growing high definition video industry. The TrinityTM family of optical video routing switches is a specialized product for customers in the video transport, broadcast, intelligence and video post-production industries. Through its all-optical nature, Trinity expands the capabilities of today's broadcast infrastructure to meet the needs of existing & future broadcast standards.

While the vast majority of audio and video transport signals are carried over copper today, distances are limited to only 50-100 meters for transporting new high definition standards such as 1080p. Transport by optical fiber permits far greater distances without amplifying and re-clocking. All-optical switching enables the signal to be routed with universal interfaces capable of handling virtually any audio and video signal, whether analog or digital.

The Trinity series is designed specifically for the video transport and broadcast market. It supports virtually all protocols and feed rates - AES, SMPTE-276M, 259M, and 292M, ASI/DVB, NTSC, PAL, QAM, and others. Under-pinning the Trinity design is Polatis' unique beam-steering technology. Unlike other photonic solutions, Trinity can establish and maintain connection routes without a signal present, in a pre-provisioned "ready and waiting state". Not relying on an optical signal feedback to maintain the connection also means no modulation is introduced to the signal, a feature valued by customers who use Polatis products for RF-over-fiber applications today. Like all Polatis products, traffic can be bi-directional, and carry single or multiple wavelengths.

"We believe the timing is right for this product, as optical interfaces on video routers become more commonplace, and the bandwidth for contribution-quality high-definition signals naturally drives the infrastructure towards fiber", commented Aaron Bent, Polatis VP of Marketing. "Optical switching can simply be viewed as a logical and flexible extension to the existing protocol layers in video routing. To ease implementation, we've designed Trinity to integrate seamlessly with the existing routing infrastructure. It supports the popular SMS-7000 Native Protocol for control, and even supports familiar strategies like global tie-line management."

Trinity is the highest performing product in its class, with optical losses less than 1 dB for its 16x16 product. Polatis is immediately introducing two products, a 1RU product, managing up to a total of 32 fiber interfaces, and a 3RU product, managing up to a total of 64 fiber interfaces.