RealNetworks RealSystem 8 Available As A Beta

2-Jun-00

At Real Conference 2000, RealNetworks, Inc. introduced RealSystem 8, incorporating RealVideo 8, the world's first Internet media system to successfully deliver a high clarity, full-motion video experience to consumers using dial-up modems, full-screen VHS quality at mainstream broadband rates and near DVD-quality video to those using high capacity networks or downloadable media. Independent testing found that, at mainstream broadband rates, more than 70 percent of viewers surveyed found RealVideo 8 to be as good as or superior to VHS quality and 92 percent of viewers preferred RealVideo 8 to the competing offering from a leading operating system provider. ""Once again RealNetworks and our partners have leveraged the extensive flexibility of RealSystem to provide groundbreaking innovations that truly differentiate this new medium,"" said Jeff Pancottine, Senior Vice President, Media Systems, RealNetworks, Inc. ""It's why we continue to extend our industry leading position."" RealNetworks has more than 125 million unique registered users of its industry-leading RealPlayer. RealSystem 8 has been enthusiastically received throughout the industry. Adobe, Akamai, Cidera, Digital Island, EMC2, Hewlett Packard, iBEAM, IBM, Intel, live365, Macromedia, PanAmSat, RedHat, Silicon Graphics and Sun Microsystems have all announced support for RealSystem 8. Academy AwardÆ-winning director Francis Ford Coppola said, ""RealNetworks has broken through the Internet's video barrier and provided unprecedented opportunities for filmmakers and broadcasters. It's an exciting time for everyone in the creative community to explore the wonders of this new mass medium that thankfully now is on the way to deliver first-rate video."" ""We see the combination of RealSystem 8, with its dramatic video improvements and unequalled Internet media quality, and Sun's family of Sun Enterprise servers with the Solaris Operating Environment, creating the industry's first widespread broadband applications engine,"" said Greg Papadopoulos, CTO of Sun Microsystems. ""The tremendous innovation RealNetworks has delivered is a clear result of intensive focus on the critical technologies required to unlock widespread, mainstream use of Internet media and move the business models associated with this industry forward."" RealSystem 8 makes creation, delivery and viewing of Internet media a snap. It streamlines the delivery of Internet media with support for over 40 media data types and formats, including MP3. RealSystem 8 is also fully supported by the industry leading RealProducer encoding family of products. The RealSystem and its underlying Software Development Kits (SDKs), including the newly released Real Visualization and Real Digital Distribution SDKs, allow developers to build and expand upon the open, extensible architecture of RealSystem 8. RealVideo 8, developed by RealNetworks and Intel, and RealSystem 8 make a high quality video experience available to virtually all Internet users. RealVideo 8 scales from narrowband through broadband delivering VHS quality for DSL and cable modem users and full motion near-DVD quality at 1Mbps. The incredible efficiency gains in RealVideo during the past year alone have provided a reduction in VHS quality file sizes from 1200kbps to 500kbps. As a consequence it is now considerably more cost effective for content creators, broadcasters and infrastructure providers to deliver compelling video experiences to consumers over both existing and emerging media pipelines. ""RealNetworks has dramatically advanced its video quality with RealSystem 8, while simultaneously making a breakthrough in delivery by significantly reducing bandwidth requirements,"" said Peter Desnoes, CEO, iBEAM Broadcasting. ""This only further signifies that RealNetworks is a leader in making the Internet the next mass medium."" ""RealNetworks is a leading innovator in streaming,"" said Paul Sagan, Akamai President and COO. ""We are very excited to roll out RealSystem 8 for our customers."" RealSystem 8 Provides New Interactive Experiences, Commerce Opportunities RealSystem 8 also offers a host of new features, including: - MP3 - RealSystem 8 provides the industry's first robust support for native streaming MP3 files. - Flash 4 - The joint development and e-commerce initiatives of Macromedia and RealNetworks are making wholly new online experiences possible for consumers. - HTML - RealSystem 8 has been extended to take advantage of HTML pages and capabilities directly within the RealPlayer, allowing content authors to include forms, scrolling and custom controls. - iPoint - Princeton Video Image has announced a new way for broadcasters to increase ad revenue with RealSystem 8. PVI's technology, iPoint, allows broadcasters to seamlessly insert customized virtual advertisements and interactive program enhancements into RealVideo 8. - RichFX - RealPlayer 8 displays 3-D computer generated video transmitted at 1/20th the size of traditional video. RichFX, formerly known as WebGlide, video content is delivering a wealth of new opportunities, particularly in the area of narrowband e-commerce.Preliminary findings from independent testing, found that at mainstream broadband rates, more than 70 percent of viewers surveyed found RealVideo 8 to be as good as or superior to VHS-quality and 92 percent of viewers preferred RealVideo 8 to the competing offering from a leading operating system provider. . Tests were conducted by showing viewers individual clips using the respective technologies. The full report will be available on www.realnetworks.com the week of May 29. Availability A beta of RealProducer 8, the encoding platform and a preview of RealServer 8, the media delivery server are immediately available from www.realnetworks.com. RealVideo, a component of both RealProducer and RealServer, will interoperate with RealSystem 7, allowing broadcasters, content providers and infrastructure providers to begin producing and serving RealVideo 8 content. General releases of both products will be available in the second half of this year. About RealSystem 8 RealSystem 8 is the only standards-based, operating system-independent, fully scalable and highly extensible media delivery platform. RealSystem 8, which includes RealServer, RealProducer and RealPlayer, runs on all major server platforms and supports more than 40 media data types. More than 200 developers have created applications for the platform. Over 85* percent of Web pages containing streaming media content use RealNetworks formats. (*Source: Inktomi Search Engine accessed through iAtlas.com) About RealNetworks RealNetworks, Inc., based in Seattle, Washington is the recognized leader in media delivery on the Internet. It develops and markets software products and services designed to enable users of personal computers and other 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. Source: RealNetworks, Inc

Read More:
http://www.realnetworks.com
http://www.real.com