Rorke to Announce A.V.I.P. Program at NAB 2001
Relationship with Parent Bell Micro Leveraged to Offer A/V Industry InteroperabilitySAN Lab
Las Vegas, Nev., NAB 2001, Sands Expo Center Booth #i6442, April 23, 2001 Rorke Data, Inc., a subsidiary of San Jose-based Bell Microproducts, Inc. (NASDAQ: BELM), has announced its new A.V.I.P. (Audio Video Interoperability Program) at the Bell Micro Solutions Center in Eden Prairie, Minn. The new Interoperability Lab is a joint project of Bell Micro and Rorke, and required a recent five-fold expansion of the Solution Centers space and resources.
Given recent advances in network topology, and in data storage generally, there have been many Interoperability Labs being announced and launched,� noted Joe Rorke, VP Marketing, Rorke Data, “but this is the only lab in the industry to focus exclusively on putting high bandwidth infrastructure and storage products together with high resolution digital content applications. The A.V.I.P. will give diverse A/V industry OEMs a proving ground to help reshape workflows and increase ROI, all based around cutting-edge data storage Co-sponsored by a number of well-known industry leaders, founding Interoperability Lab partners include Vixel, Gadzooks, Chapparal, Q Logic, Seagate, Emulex and JNI. Additional sponsors will be announced in late spring 2001.
The new Interoperability Lab offers a wide range of fully-functional post production and content-creation equipment and application software to its various OEM partners, including a High Definition Post Production Suite. The components are installed within the context of multiple operating systems and the latest high-end storage and networking hardware.
A key component of the Interoperability Program is communication, said Bob Herzan, VP/Worldwide Sales, A/V Division, Rorke Data. “As new products and workflow approaches are tested and approved, this knowledge will be quickly disseminated to our authorized resellers, OEMs, and their collective end-users, worldwide.A.V.I.P. leverages Rorke’s 16-year history and knowledge of A/V industry workflows with Bells Fortune 1000 customers and vendor relationships throughout the international data storage
Interoperability Lab hardware covers a span from switches to host bus adapters to data storage devices offering the latest interfaces, including Fibre-Channel, Ultra 3 SCSI LVD, and IDE. CPUs include Apple Macintosh, Compaq, Dell, Rorke Data, Sun, SGI, Hewlett Packard and IBM. Operating systems include Mac OS 9 and OS X, WIN 95-2000, Irix, Solaris and Linux. Other components include broad ranges of switches, HBAs, archiving systems, RAID and JBOD systems, test equipment and over 100 video, audio, publishing and streaming applications.
About Rorke Data
Rorke Data 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, together with its European subsidiary, 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. Rorke Data is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bell Microproducts, Inc. (Nasdaq: BELM).
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 companys 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 companys 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 150 brand name product lines, as well as its own BellStor storage and TradeMarkcomputer 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 website 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.
For more information on the new A.V.I.P., contact: Rorke Data, Inc., 7626 Golden Triangle Drive, Eden Prairie, MN 55344; 800/328-8147 or 952/829-0300; fax: 952/829-0988; website: www.rorke.com.
