Announces Activision Blizzard Esports as Launch Customer

MONTREAL, April 23, 2020 — At its GV LIVE Presents — Innovate 2020 event on April 23, Grass Valley launched its new cloud-based software as a service (SaaS) Agile Media Processing Platform (GV AMPP). This game-changing solution unlocks the power of elastic compute for live sports, news, and playout workflows, helping customers easily transition to the future-ready public, data center or hybrid infrastructures.

The first application available for the platform, AMPP Master Control, has been on air with Blizzard since the opening of the Overwatch League 2020 season in early February. In response to the COVID-19 crisis and building off this solution set, AMPP has been an essential system enabling the esports leader to keep its Overwatch LeagueTM and Call of Duty® LeagueTM matches live since March 28, enabling truly distributed remote production with all operators and talent working from their homes.

"Our leagues rely on cloud infrastructure to produce live, multi-language broadcasts for global audiences," said Pete Emminger, vice president of global broadcast at Blizzard Entertainment. "As a launch customer for Grass Valley, the Overwatch League has been using AMPP since the start of the 2020 season. AMPP provides an incredible value as it furthers our cloud capability and empowers our remote broadcast setup, allowing us to remain flexible even in the face of a global health pandemic."

With AMPP Master Control, Activision Blizzard Esports' production teams can create highly configurable "virtual" master control rooms accessible from anywhere in the world and eliminate the need for a conventional equipment room. Multiple distribution streams with separate graphics and languages for each audience region can be produced by a single operator — all from one web-based interface and equipped with only PCs, screens, and a connection to the cloud. All monitoring and local program distribution processes take place entirely in the cloud.

GV AMPP allows production teams to flexibly create customizable workflows, with a variety of apps such as multiviewers, router panels, test signal generators, switchers, graphics renderers, clip players and recorders — all of which can quickly be deployed to support a wide range of workflows. Built on a unique microservices architecture based on five core technologies — fabric, timing, connectivity, identity, and streaming, GV AMPP truly enables elastic media services and directly addresses many of the issues that complicate common IP and cloud deployments, delivering seamless network connectivity, timing and ultra-low latency.

GV AMPP is the core technology powering the newly announced GV Media Universe, a comprehensive ecosystem of cloud-based tools and services that revolutionizes the way live media is produced. The GV AMPP platform is cloud native and cloud-agnostic, while supporting the processing of video/audio both in the public cloud, in a private, on-premise data center, or in hybrid topologies. This flexibility and power will bring about a significant paradigm shift in live content production, allowing shows to be produced from any location.

Tim Shoulders, Grass Valley's president, commented: ""The ability to adapt their content and delivery models to changing consumer habits is critical to the success of our customers' businesses. With GV AMPP, we're delivering a simple way to unlock flexible production workflows where cost and features scale up or down as needed. Our work with Activision Blizzard Esports is a perfect example of how this technology allows live content producers to leverage a new level of agility and flexibility; we're delighted they have chosen GV AMPP to produce their tournaments. We're also thrilled that they are leaning on Grass Valley as they expand their production capability across their legendary portfolio of properties during these challenging times."

GV AMPP was used to produce Grass Valley's GV LIVE Presents — Innovate 2020 event on April 23.

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For information about Grass Valley solutions and services, please visit grassvalley.com.

About Grass Valley

Grass Valley's end-to-end ecosystem of reliable, open standards-based solutions helps content creators, broadcasters and media organizations to produce brilliant content and build successful media businesses.

We are the trusted partner to many of the biggest and most creative names in the media and entertainment business, enabling the production of rich, high quality content that brings the viewer closer to the action; engages them with the story and connects them with each other.

Headquartered in Montreal, Grass Valley has been in the broadcast business for 60 years and is part of St. Louis-based Belden Inc. In February 2020, Black Dragon Capital signed an agreement to acquire Grass Valley from Belden. This transaction is expected to complete in H1 2020.

Belden, Belden Sending All The Right Signals, and the Belden logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Belden Inc. or its affiliated companies in the United States and other jurisdictions. Grass Valley products listed above are trademarks or registered trademarks of Belden Inc., GVBB Holdings S.A.R.L. or Grass Valley Canada. Belden Inc., GVBB Holdings S.A.R.L., Grass Valley Canada and other parties may also have trademark rights in other terms used herein.

OVERWATCH, THE OVERWATCH LEAGUE, BLIZZARD, and BLIZZARD ENTERTAINMENT are trademarks of Blizzard Entertainment, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. CALL OF DUTY AND THE CALL OF DUTY LEAGUE are trademarks of Activision Publishing, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries.

About the Overwatch League™

The Overwatch League™ is the first major global professional esports league with city-based teams across Asia, Europe, and North America. Overwatch® was created by globally acclaimed publisher Blizzard Entertainment (a division of Activision Blizzard—Nasdaq: ATVI), whose iconic franchises have helped lay the foundations and push the boundaries of professional esports over the last 15 years. The latest addition to Blizzard's stable of twenty-two #1 games,[1] Overwatch was built from the ground up for online competition, with memorable characters and fast-paced action designed for the most engaging gameplay and spectator experiences. To learn more about the Overwatch League, visit www.overwatchleague.com.

[1] Sales and/or downloads, based on internal company records and reports from key distributors.

About the Call of Duty League™

Call of Duty League™ is the official esports league of the Call of Duty franchise, from publisher Activision. The inaugural season of Call of Duty League includes 12 teams from four countries and spotlights the best Call of Duty esports players from around the world. Call of Duty League launched in 2020, and features fresh ways for pro players, amateurs, and fans to come together around one of the world's most beloved games. To learn more about the Call of Duty League, visit callofdutyleague.com.

About Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.

Best known for blockbuster hits, including World of Warcraft®, Hearthstone®, Overwatch®, the Warcraft®, StarCraft®, and Diablo® franchises, and the multi-franchise Heroes of the Storm®, Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. (https://www.blizzard.com), a division of Activision Blizzard (Nasdaq: ATVI), is a premier developer and publisher of entertainment software renowned for creating some of the industry's most critically acclaimed games. Blizzard Entertainment's track record includes twenty-two #1 games* and multiple Game of the Year awards. The company's online gaming service, Blizzard Battle.net®, is one of the largest online-gaming services in the world, with millions of active players.

*Sales and/or downloads, based on internal company records and reports from key distributors.

About Activision Blizzard Esports

Activision Blizzard Esports (ABE) is responsible for the development, operation, and commercialization of Activision Blizzard's professional gaming properties including the Overwatch League™, the Call of Duty® League™, Call of Duty Challengers™, Hearthstone® Masters, StarCraft® II esports, Warcraft® III: Reforged™, and the World of Warcraft® Arena World Championship and Mythic Dungeon International, among others. ABE also operates Tespa, the leader in collegiate esports. It is ABE's vision to be the most innovative, scalable, and valuable developer of global competitive entertainment.