EXHIBIT 99.1

              Pinnacle Systems, Inc. Acquires Puffin Designs, Inc.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA , 3/30/2000--Pinnacle Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:PCLE), a leader in
professional and consumer video solutions,  announced today that it has acquired
Puffin Designs, Inc. of Sausalito,  California. Puffin Designs, a privately held
company, is an  industry-leading  provider of content creation solutions made by
and for  professionals  working in broadcast,  film, and video content  creation
markets.  Puffin  Designs has  developed  and sells an advanced  set of software
tools for real-time paint, rotoscoping and visual motion tracking.

These Puffin  Designs  tools allow content  producers to create more  compelling
special effects and visuals and  subsequently  publish them on tape,  film, DVDs
and Web pages.  Pinnacle  Systems plans to integrate  Puffin Designs  technology
with its  family of  industry  leading  content  creation  solutions  to provide
complete solutions for creating programs for film, broadcast and streaming media
markets.

Mark Sanders,  President and CEO at Pinnacle Systems said, "Pinnacle Systems has
long admired Puffin Designs  technology and the talented team. This  acquisition
will allow Pinnacle  Systems to leverage its already strong position in creation
and  distribution  of rich media  content  over  broadcast  networks  and on the
Internet.  This  acquisition  is  part of our  strategy  to  build  a  low-cost,
high-quality  infrastructure  that will be essential for the next  technological
wave as broadband Internet connectivity enables full quality video on the web."

Ajay Chopra,  Chairman of the Board at Pinnacle  Systems said, "We are delighted
to have the Puffin Designs team join Pinnacle Systems.  We are also very pleased
that Scott Squires,  founder of Puffin  Designs,  will join Pinnacle  Systems as
Creative  Visionary - a newly created  position.  Scott and his colleagues  from
Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) were nominated for the Academy Award this week in
the Visual Effects  category for their work on Star Wars:  Episode 1 The Phantom
Menace.  Scott's mix of creative and technical talent will be a tremendous asset
as  Pinnacle  Systems  builds  on  its  leadership   position  in  creation  and
distribution of rich media."

"Puffin  Designs is pleased to be joining  forces  with  Pinnacle  Systems.  Our
customers and products will benefit  greatly from the combined  resources of the
two  companies.  I look forward to continuing  the vision behind Puffin  Designs
products at Pinnacle Systems," said Scott Squires, founder of Puffin Designs.

Pinnacle  Systems is acquiring all intellectual  property,  product and software
rights,  along with all other assets and liabilities of Puffin Designs, and will
account  for  this   transaction   as  a  purchase.   Under  the  terms  of  the
stock-for-stock  purchase  agreement,  Pinnacle Systems will issue approximately
360,000 shares of Pinnacle  Systems common stock in exchange for all outstanding
shares of  Puffin  Designs,  and will  assume  all  outstanding  Puffin  Designs
employee  stock options.  This equates to an  approximate  purchase price of $13
million  based on yesterdays  Pinnacle  Systems  closing  stock price,  plus the
assumption of up to $2 million in debt and assumed liabilities.





About Pinnacle Systems, Inc.

Pinnacle  Systems'  broadcast,  desktop,  and consumer  products  provide  video
professionals and consumers  cutting-edge digital video tools to create,  store,
distribute and view web enabled  digital video easier and more  affordably  than
ever before.  Pinnacle  Systems may be reached at (650) 526-1600 or on the World
Wide Web at www.pinnaclesys.com.

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