BARCO and Samsung Announce Strategic Cooperation Agreement

Barco has selected Samsung based on the performance of its LCD technology. Samsung, being the world market leader in a variety of LCD panel sizes, has the invaluable technology know-how and production capabilities to produce the large panel size Barco requires for this major life critical ATC project.

Luc Vandenbroucke, Managing Director of BarcoView and Vice President of BARCO n.v. explains: "We are pleased to be working together with a world leader in visualization like Samsung in designing and developing new standards of optical performance in ATC applications. This agreement offers enormous possibilities, both for BarcoView and Samsung, in a niche market where life-critical information has to be displayed in real-time on the screen."

The bundling of Barco's expertise with Samsung's proven record resulted in ISIS, the first large size 2Kx2K LCD main display family for ATC applications. Barco incorporated the Samsung 20" x 20" LCD into this display family, which combines performance, low lifecycle cost, user comfort and an open system environment into an innovative visualization architecture. Barco engineers have designed the mechanics and signal processing to design a display solution that meets the specific optical requirements of the ATC market.

Dr. Jun Hyung Souk, Vice President of R&D, from Samsung says "We are happy to cooperate with Barco for this new opportunity and challenge in a new niche market such as ATC. As a world TFT LCD market leader, Samsung is committed to offer the best display technology to human life. I wish ISIS represents a good example of the commitment and users enjoy such a technological breakthrough."

The Barco-Samsung agreement is not necessarily limited to the ATC market. The present cooperation with Samsung does not exclude that the newly designed LCD display will be introduced in other niche markets BarcoView is active in.

About BarcoView:
BarcoView with operation facilities in Kortrijk (Belgium), Toulouse (France), Atlanta, Georgia and Portland, Oregon (USA) designs and manufactures high-resolution display systems, displays, graphics controllers and display subsystems for highly demanding niche markets such as C4I, avionics, vessel and air traffic control, vehicle electronics, and medical imaging applications.

Alongside Barco Projection Systems and BarcoVision, BarcoView is one of the three strategic activities of the BARCO Group, which are all active in Image Processing. Barco Projection is in various markets of large screen visualization, whereas BarcoVision develops systems for visual inspection and quality control. In 2000, the entire BARCO group delivered a turnover of euro 751 million. BARCO has a network of subsidiaries, distributors and agents in 97 countries throughout the world. BARCO has been quoted on the Brussels Stock Exchange since 1986, and is now quoted on Brussels/Euronext. BARCO is a BEL 20 and a Next 150 company and is member of the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes.

About Samsung Electronics:
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., with 1999 sales revenue of 22.8 billion USD, is a world leader in the electronics industry. The Korea-based concern has operations in about 50 countries with 54.000 employees worldwide. The company consists of three main business units: Digital Media Systems, Semiconductors including TFT LCD and Information & Communication Businesses. For more info, please visit our website: www.samsungelectronics.com and www.samsungtftlcd.com

For more information, please contact

Inge Govaerts
Public Relations Manager
Barco Security & Monitoring

Telephone +32 56 36 8052
inge.govaerts@barco.com