LOS ANGELES, Sept. 3, 2002 — Microsoft Corp. and PacketVideo today announced a breakthrough agreement that will enable PacketVideo to support Microsoft®
Windows Media (TM) 9 Series technology in the PacketVideo pv3 Mobilemedia System (TM) , becoming the first wireless solution to support this technology. PacketVideo will now offer Windows Media Audio and Video 9 Series as an option to PacketVideo’s customers within its embedded mobile-media solutions for handsets and as part of its pvServer (TM) for content delivery. The new offering further extends the leadership of PacketVideo Embedded Solutions as the mobile-media solutions of choice for leading handset manufacturers in Europe, Asia, Japan and North America, and opens up new distribution opportunities for music and video content using the quality and security of Windows Media 9 Series.
“Our customers want flexibility in designing new products and services,”
said Dr. James Brailean, chief executive officer of PacketVideo.
“The addition of Windows Media 9 Series is a great complement to our current 3GPP products, offering a combination of leading technologies that give customers the choice they want. This agreement represents a new era of cooperation that will drive the wireless industry forward toward the successful deployment of innovative multimedia services that enhance communications, information and entertainment to bring people closer together.”
The agreement and cooperation between the two companies, including co-marketing plans, brings together best-of-breed solutions that each offer unique features and benefits to the mobile marketplace. The resulting solution offers greater choice of technology for wireless device and mobile operator customers as well as for major players in the information and entertainment space, including content owners and distributors that want to expand their existing content distribution beyond the television and the PC to wireless devices.
“PacketVideo is a leading provider to the wireless industry, and it has a deep understanding of customers’ needs and concerns,”
said Will Poole, vice president of the Windows Digital Media Division at Microsoft.
“Coupled with the launch of Windows Media 9 Series, this agreement opens up new opportunities for wireless operators to access the wealth of high-quality Windows Media content available on the Web, and for content owners to use a secure, high-quality format to reach the vast array of new, media-enabled wireless devices around the world.”
PacketVideo can now deliver Windows Media 9 Series audio and video to mobile handset platforms such as Symbian (TM) , Nucleus® and others, including Windows®
Powered smart devices, as part of integrated client solutions that will support multiple media formats. This support will include both encoding and decoding of Windows Media Audio and Video 9 Series, as well as downloading and streaming of Windows Media content.
On the server side, PacketVideo can now offer its customers the option of Windows Media downloading and streaming capabilities as part of its standards-based carrier-class server product line. PacketVideo’s pvServer offers a unique, flexible architecture for wireless media that will be extended to allow for integration of Windows Media Services 9 Series in Windows .NET Server to deliver Windows Media content. PacketVideo also will use Microsoft .NET standards-based SOAP and XML interfaces to deliver both standards-based and Windows Media 9 Series formats. PacketVideo’s pvServer has already been adopted by leading mobile operators globally.
PacketVideo’s pv3 Mobilemedia System is based on standards adopted by the wireless industry through organizations such as the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP and 3GPP2) to enable new services such as mobile-media streaming and Multimedia Messaging (MMS).
Windows Media 9 Series offers the latest evolution of Microsoft Windows Media advancements in audio and video compression, third-generation digital rights management for audio and video, scalable media server technology, and seamless access to the vast array of popular content providers that support Windows Media today.
“MPEG-4 and Windows Media are clearly the pre-eminent media formats for wireless. Soon consumers will have handsets that can play both types of content,”
said Gerry Kaufhold, principal analyst with In-Stat/MDR, a leading market research firm.
“Microsoft’s collaboration with PacketVideo on mobile digital media is a huge step forward for consumers and the wireless industry as a whole.”
About Windows Media
Windows Media is the leading digital media platform, providing unmatched audio and video quality to consumers, content providers, solution providers, software developers and corporations. Windows Media offers the industry’s only integrated digital rights management solution and the most scalable and reliable streaming technology tested by independent labs. Windows Media Technologies includes Windows Media Player for consumers, Windows Media Services for servers, Windows Media Tools for content creation and the Windows Media Software Development Kit for software developers. Windows Media Player, available in 26 languages, is the fastest-growing and now leading media player. More information about Windows Media can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmedia/ .
About PacketVideo Technology
PacketVideo’s pv3 Mobilemedia System (TM) is the world’s leading 3GPP-compliant wireless multimedia solution that encodes, delivers and decodes wireless multimedia, video and audio over error-prone wireless networks. pv3 Mobilemedia System is a carrier-class solution comprised of pvAuthor (TM) for encoding content, pvServer (TM) for controlling and delivering rich media, and pvPlayer (TM) for decoding and displaying content on mobile devices. PacketVideo has also developed and launched pvPlayer (TM) , pvAuthor (TM) and pv2way (TM) Embedded Solutions that allow mobile device manufacturers to quickly and cost-effectively bring products to market with customized decoding, encoding and two-way video-conferencing capabilities.
PV Embedded Solutions are licensable integrated building blocks that lower development risks by delivering prevalidated, application-targeted software subsystems to reduce design and development schedules for the inclusion of mobile-media capabilities in handsets.
About PacketVideo
PacketVideo is the world’s leading provider of carrier-class infrastructure software that enables mobile media today. PacketVideo’s software products enable the distribution of one- and two-way video, high-quality audio, animation, and rich graphics over wireless networks to mobile devices such as handsets and PDAs. PacketVideo’s products are compliant with standards and specifications from 3GPP, 3GPP2, MPEG-4, WAP, IETF and other global standards organizations and technical forums. PacketVideo is a privately held company headquartered in San Diego, Calif., whose investors include AOL Time Warner (NYSE: AOL), Comverse Technology (Nasdaq: CMVT), Credit Suisse First Boston, GE Equity (NYSE: GE), Intel Capital (Nasdaq: INTC), Kyocera (NYSE: KYO), Motorola (NYSE: MOT), Philips (NYSE: PHG), QUALCOMM (Nasdaq: QCOM), SAIC, Siemens’ Mustang Ventures, Sony Corporation of America (NYSE: SNE), Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: SUNW), Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) and others. More information can be found at http://www.pv.com/ .
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software — any time, any place and on any device.
Microsoft, Windows Media and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
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