RealNetworks Launches a Commercial MPEG-4 Interoperability Site;
RealVideo 9 technology to be submitted for consideration to MPEG and VCEG
Joint Video Team
LOS ANGELES, Streaming Media West/Internet World, April 24
/PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- RealNetworks(R), Inc. (Nasdaq: RNWK) (Booth #404),
the global leader in Internet media delivery, announced several initiatives
focused on driving innovation and commercial viability of MPEG-4 using
RealNetworks digital media platform. Today RealNetworks is launching a
commercial MPEG-4 interoperability site powered by RealSystem(R) Servers
(http://www.realnetworks.com/info/mpeg4). This new site enables MPEG-4 encoder and
player developers and suppliers to verify their early prototypes and
releasable products utilizing RealNetworks' commercially available RealSystem
software. In order to participate broadly in MPEG-4 inoperability tests,
RealNetworks has joined the MPEG-4 Industry Forum. Additionally, RealNetworks
has been and will continue to submit components of RealVideo(R) 9 technology
for consideration to the MPEG and VCEG Joint Video Team, a joint effort
between two leading standards bodies, ITU-T and ISO/IEC MPEG, tasked with
creating a single interoperable solution for a next generation of standard
video coding.
"RealNetworks has always been focused on creating great technology,
products, and services for digital media creation and delivery. Supporting
industry standards plays a central role in our work," said Martin Plaehn,
senior vice president, Media Systems, RealNetworks, Inc. "The creation of an
MPEG-4 interoperability site and RealNetworks' proposed contributions to the
Joint Video Team further facilitate the commercial viability of the MPEG-4
standard."
"Apple is excited that RealNetworks has joined the MPEG-4 Industry Forum
and will work to help further the adoption of the MPEG-4 open standard," said
Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing.
"With streaming media leaders like Apple and RealNetworks working together to
provide true interoperability with MPEG-4, customers and content providers
will be the winners."
Today's announcement reflects RealNetworks' ongoing effort to participate
in the development and adoption of standards for the streaming media industry.
These efforts have resulted in fundamental industry standards such as RTSP
(Real-time Streaming Protocol) and SMIL (Synchronized Multimedia Integration
Language), both of which are commercially supported in the RealSystem and
fully interoperable with many media delivery products available today.
"As a premier and experienced provider of standards-based products, Sun is
working closely with RealNetworks to provide broadcasters and network
operators commercially viable MPEG-4 solutions for large-scale deployments
using the RealSystem, running on the Solaris operating environment, and Sun
enterprise servers and storage," said Jonathan Schwartz, senior vice president
and chief strategy officer, Sun Microsystems, Inc. "We share RealNetworks'
focus and enthusiasm in facilitating interoperability with third party
authoring tools and media enabled consumer products."
Realizing commercial interoperability for the MPEG-4 standard via the
RealSystem platform provides multiple benefits to our partners and customers:
-- Content owners and broadcasters have continued freedom and flexibility
in creating and distributing their content in whatever format fits
their business needs.
-- Network operators can deliver multiple media types, including MPEG-4,
through a single infrastructure while gaining performance, fault
resilience, systems management and application integration benefits.
-- Device manufacturers have the flexibility to choose an MPEG-4 player
software provider independent of the delivery platform decision.
-- Third-party content creators benefit from the numerous installed
networks of RealSystem software that enables reliable broadcast and
delivery of MPEG-4 content over any IP network to large consumers
audiences and business users worldwide.
Additionally, RealNetworks is submitting to the MPEG and VCEG Joint Video
Team (JVT) several components of Real Video 9 for consideration in MPEG-4 part
10 including refinements to systems and methods for intracoding video data,
which would increase the efficiency of key frame encoding and provide content
owners and the end-user with higher quality video at lower bit rates.
RealNetworks is actively engaged with other industry experts in the JVT to
advance state-of-the-art, standard-based video coding.
About RealNetworks
RealNetworks, Inc. is the global leader in Internet media delivery. It
develops and markets software products and services designed to enable users
of personal computers and consumer electronic devices to send and receive
audio, video and other multimedia services using the Web. Consumers can access
and experience audio/video programming and download RealNetworks' consumer
software on the Internet at http://www.real.com. RealNetworks' systems and
corporate information is located on the Internet at
http://www.realnetworks.com.
NOTE: RealNetworks, RealVideo and RealSystem are trademarks or registered
trademarks of RealNetworks, Inc. All other companies or products listed
herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
SOURCE RealNetworks, Inc.
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Related links:
http://www.real.com
Company News On-Call:
http://www.prnewswire.com/gh/cnoc/comp/119814.html
CONTACT:
Erika Shaffer, +1-206-972-5514, or
eshaffer@real.com, or Kimberly Pepper, +1-206-892-6553, or
kpepper@real.com, both of RealNetworks
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