- StudioNet-FC™ Unites Digtal Video systems For the College's Multimedia School -
EDEN PRAIRIE, MN – (September 5, 2000) — Rorke Data, Inc., a subsidiary of Bell Microproducts (NASDAQ: BELM), announced today that the company's StudioNet-FC, a high bandwidth Fibre Channel work group solution, has been selected for use by Northern Oklahoma College. The system will offer students high speed transfer and playback of media and the ability to access a fully-shared environment.
"Hands down, Rorke's Fibre Channel solution offered our College a sophisticated advantage over the competition", says Piyush Patel, Director, Multi-Media and Digital Communications, Northern Oklahoma University. "The superior technology coupled with Rorke's qualified team of sales professionals served as the decision maker for Northern Oklahoma College. Rorke assembled a qualified team of Fibre Channel experts and worked the solution as a team before a product list was provided to us."
"We have worked with many vendors over the years and working with Rorke has been a true pleasure", says Joe Kinzer, President, Northern Oklahoma College. "We had very strict requirements and demands on the system Rorke really came through in a very timely manner", says Marion Tucker, VP of Information Systems, Northern Oklahoma College.
The system installed by Rorke, addressed the College's problem of having hundreds of gigs of data sitting on each workstation's hard drive and then moving it back to one location for the instructor grade. The system solved the problem by having all data stored in one location for instructors to easily access and modify. The students have been benefiting by having the data stored on one location allowing them the flexibility to move around the lab and work in collaborating groups. Also by having the entire student body accessing the same set of media, professors can make alterations and updates on media that propagate down to the student timelines.
The Multi-Media and Digital Communications Lab is set up to emulate the post production environment of the future. "Teaching in a state of the art facility has made me feel good about my students because they receive real life post production training, in an environment that other schools simply can't offer, making my students more marketable", says Kyle Green, Professor, Northern Oklahoma College.
Product applications include the Media 100 iFinish, which is authorized by Media 100. "This ability will aid in keeping our workstations running optimally", says Patel, "We will also be teaching courses in Maya, Commotion, Maya Fusion, Photoshop, After Effects, Macromedia Director, Flash, iShell, and streaming content development."
"Proof of Bell Microproducts strategy in acquiring companies like Rorke and their European subsidiaries is demonstrated by such successful cutting edge deployments of SAN technology and related professional services," said Phil Roussey, Sr. Vice President of Marketing at Bell.
About Rorke Data. Rorke Data, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bell Microproducts, Inc., is a full digital storage solutions provider with expertise in Fibre Channel RAID, SAN, DVD, tape and optical libraries, Unix, NT and Mac environments, high bandwidth networks, digital asset and document management, and engineering and maintenance services. Founded in 1985, Rorke Data Europe, located in Emmen, The Netherlands, is composed of six divisions: Medical Archive Applications, Audio/Video, Prepress, Imaging, Document Management, Engineering and Installation Services. More information about Rorke Data can be found at www.rorke.com.
About Bell Microproducts
Bell Microproducts is an international value added provider of a wide range of high technology products, solutions, and services to the industrial and commercial marketplace. The company's offering includes semiconductors, computer platforms, peripherals, and storage products of various types including desktop, high-end computer and storage subsystems, fibre channel connectivity products, RAID, NAS and SAN storage systems and back-up products. Bell Microproducts is an industry-recognized specialist in storage products and is one of the world's largest storage-centric value-added distributors.
The company's products are available at any level of integration from components, to subsystem assemblies, to fully integrated, tested and certified system solutions. The company adds value with a broad range of services including testing, software loading, kitting, mass storage system integration, and computer system integration. Trained and certified technical personnel complete each of these processes at Bell Microproducts' ISO 9002 facilities. Bell Microproducts markets and distributes more than 100 brand name product lines, as well as its own BellStor storage and TrademarkÒ computer brands, to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), contract electronic manufacturing services (EMS) customers, value-added resellers (VARs) and system integrators in the Americas and Europe. More information can be found in SEC filings, or by visiting the Bell Microproducts Web site at www.bellmicro.com.
Safe Harbor Statement. This release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements, which reflect the Company's current views of future events and financial performance, involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results or facts to differ materially from such statements for a variety of reasons including, but not limited to: the ability to successfully integrate the operations of recent acquisitions, industry conditions, changes in product supply, pricing, and customer demand, competition, other vagaries in the computer and electronic components markets, changes in relationships with key suppliers, foreign currency fluctuations and the other risks described from time to time in the Company's reports to the Securities and Exchange Commission (including the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K). Investors should take such risks into account when making investment decisions. Shareholders and other readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date on which they are made. The company undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements.
StudioNet-FC, and the StudioNet-FC logo are trademarks of Rorke Data, Inc.
