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CBS White House Broadcast Enabled by Polatis Optical Switch

Cambridge, UK, Andover, MA., - September 23, 2008 - Polatis Inc., a supplier of high performance optical switch technologies, has announced that its Trinity™ family of optical video routing switches have been used by global broadcast leader CBS to bring live feeds from The White House.

The CBS Washington DC Bureau has utilised the Trinity optical switch to connect camera sources within The White House via leased fibres.  This allows CBS to remotely select camera positions and route them back to the Washington DC Bureau, a task that would have previously required a team of engineers manually linking cameras with patch cords based on the day's shooting schedule.    
  
"This is a truly prestigious deployment of our Trinity optical switch products and one of which we are extremely proud," said Sean Gordon, Director of Sales, Video Products, at Polatis.  "This contract with the CBS Washington DC Bureau reinforces the capability of Trinity to provide highly reliable, quality signal switching in an environment where performance is of the utmost importance and downtime or signal loss can be disastrous for an international broadcaster.

"As well as receiving a secure, highly reliable routing capability, CBS has also been able to take advantage of reduced man-power costs and time, and a 6dB saving in optical budget due to the elimination of the patch panel and high-loss connectors."

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. 

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About Polatis

Since inception in 2000, Polatis has set the benchmark in ultra-low loss optical switching. Its patented DirectLight® optical beam steering technology is powering the creation of highly reliable and compact photonic switching solutions. Polatis delivers a broad range of optical switching products with class-leading performance to customers in the communications, video, defense and instrumentation sectors. The company has headquarters located near Boston, Massachusetts and in Cambridge, UK. Polatis Inc. is supported through investments by 3i Group, Alta Berkeley, Esprit Capital Partners, EonTech Ventures, Flagship Ventures, Prism Venture Partners, JK&B Capital, Boston Millennia Partners, Harris and Harris Group, GE Capital, MTDC, Arcadian Venture Partners, and Gainesborough Investments.
To learn more please visit: www.polatis.com 

Contacts:

Howard Jones
BCS Public Relations
0044 115 948 6917
0044 7980 772 285
howard@bcspr.co.uk