Deadliest Warrior TV Show Uses National Instruments LabVIEW and NI CompactDAQ to Help Determine Battle Outcomes

Deadliest Warrior TV Show Uses National Instruments LabVIEW and NI CompactDAQ to Help Determine Battle Outcomes

Hit Spike TV Show Selected National Instruments Products for Ease of Use, Flexibility and Fast Time to Measurement

AUSTIN, Texas, June 1, 2010 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- When staging battles between the most feared warriors in history, the hit Spike TV show, "Deadliest Warrior," uses National Instruments (NASDAQ:NATI) software and hardware to help determine the winner. The show, whose engineers have conducted demonstrations at NIWeek, selected NI LabVIEW graphical system design software, the NI CompactDAQ data acquisition platform and NI DIAdem data management software to conduct impact tests and measure and analyze the biomechanics of injury. The ease of use, quick setup and seamless integration of NI products makes them ideal for meeting the show's need for a fast-time-to-measurement solution that can be reconfigured easily to perform a wide range of measurements.

"Deadliest Warrior" pits warriors such as pirates and knights against each other to measure their combat skills as well as the impact and severity of the weapons used. The show uses the latest technology and world-class fighters to reenact battles and fighting styles of each warrior and then uses measurement data to determine who would win in a head-to-head competition. The first season of the show averaged 1.8 million viewers and was the Spike TV channel's best-selling series in 2009 across all download-to-own platforms.

"'Deadliest Warrior' is a hit with our viewers because it allows us to answer the age-old question of 'Who would win in a fight?' using real, cutting-edge technology to determine the outcome," said Gary Tarpinian, "Deadliest Warrior" producer. "Because time is money on a TV show, we needed a solution that could be set up quickly and was capable of taking measurements from a lot of different sensors. National Instruments software and hardware products deliver the flexibility and accuracy we need to acquire and analyze measurements quickly, and, as an added bonus, they are visually compelling for a TV audience."

LabVIEW and NI CompactDAQ serve as a single software and hardware interface, respectively, to third-party sensors that take measurements from the weapons and fighters used in the battle simulations. Because of the modular nature of NI CompactDAQ, "Deadliest Warrior" engineers easily can swap out NI C Series modules from the chassis and quickly perform a variety of measurements. Additionally, DIAdem makes it easy for the engineers to bring multiple test measurements into one software environment to quickly compare, analyze and visualize data from the sensor measurements and determine the results.-

Readers can learn more about how the "Deadliest Warrior" show is using National Instruments hardware and software by visiting www.ni.com/deadliestwarrior. Readers also can learn about other unique applications using National Instruments products at www.ni.com/awesome.

About National Instruments

National Instruments (www.ni.com) is transforming the way engineers and scientists design, prototype and deploy systems for measurement, automation and embedded applications. NI empowers customers with off-the-shelf software such as NI LabVIEW and modular cost-effective hardware, and sells to a broad base of more than 30,000 different companies worldwide, with no one customer representing more than 3 percent of revenue and no one industry representing more than 15 percent of revenue. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, NI has more than 5,000 employees and direct operations in more than 40 countries. For the past 11 years, FORTUNE magazine has named NI one of the 100 best companies to work for in America. Readers can obtain investment information from the company's investor relations department by calling (512) 683-5090, e-mailing nati@ni.com or visiting www.ni.com/nati.

DIAdem, LabVIEW, National Instruments, NI, ni.com and NI CompactDAQ are trademarks of National Instruments. Other product and company names listed are trademarks or trade names of their respective companies.

Editor Contact: Hilary Marchbanks (512) 683-5937

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Source: National Instruments

CONTACT: Hilary Marchbanks of National Instruments, +1-512-683-5937

Web Site: http://www.ni.com/

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