Philips And Liberate Extend Relationship In Digital Set-Top Box Arena

Liberate To License MHP Software From Philips

11-Sep-00

Philips Electronics (NYSE: PHG) and Liberate Technologies (NASDAQ: LBRT), collaborators in the development of the recently introduced Philips Receiver for the AOLTV service, have extended their relationship in an effort to further develop digital set-top box technologies and products. As part of their agreement, Liberate plans to license the Multimedia Home Platform (MHP) software module, developed by Philips as an extension to the Liberate TV Navigatorô client software. Philips is a current licensee of Liberate TV Navigator client software.In addition to Liberate licensing the Philips MHP software module, the two companies will focus their new joint activities in the following areas: application and tool development for MPEG-4 and MHP technologies, as well as Home AV networking specification (HAVi) activities, which will provide ease-of-use and application interoperability between Philips set-top boxes and connected devices.""It is increasingly important that Philips align itself with technology innovators that will enable Philips to continue transforming the digital set-top box into a multimedia home entertainment device,"" said Rob van Oostenbrugge, President and CEO, Philips Digital Networks. ""Philipsí MHP software solution, combined with the Liberate software platform, will facilitate the delivery of Internet-enhanced content, services and applications to information appliances. Philips looks forward to continuing our existing relationship with Liberate to further develop innovative set-top box products and services.""""Partnering with Philips on their DVB standards-based MHP implementation reinforces the Liberate commitment to open standards, and builds on our collaboration on the AOLTV set-top box,"" said Mitchell Kertzman, President and CEO, Liberate Technologies. ""As we expand our combined efforts to digital set-tops, Liberate and Philips will offer our network operator customers a premium, integrated solution to deliver next generation services.""Philips and Liberate recently worked together to develop the Philips Receiver for the AOLTV service, which incorporates the Liberate TV Navigator client software, combining both the Internet and television into an interactive medium. The set-top box enables a range of AOL services found on AOLTV, including AOL e-mail, chat, instant messaging and enhanced TV programming.At IBC2000, Philips and Liberate demonstrated Liberate TV Navigator software and Philips MHP software running on a range of Philips digital set-top boxes. The combined Liberate and Philips set-top platform is intended to be a catalyst for developing a residential gateway and new categories of Philips in-home accessories, including speech recognition input devices, wireless speakers and display devices, cameras for teleconferencing, and voice and data communications products.As a part of the agreement with Liberate, Philipsí current and next generation digital set-top boxes, featuring the TriMediaô processor, will become one of the official reference platforms for Liberate TV Navigator software. The TriMedia processor, developed by Philips and based on VLIW processor technology from TriMedia Technologies, Inc., is a special-purpose microprocessor for the real-time processing of audio, video, graphics and communications data streams. The advanced processor is said to be well-suited for high-performance Internet-based applications such as streaming media, e-commerce, gaming and other two-way interactive services as well as a wide variety of new television entertainment services.Philips and Liberate are active members of the Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) consortium, and have played an active role in developing and defining the MHP standard. The TriMedia processor-based development platform, developed by Philips, is a widely-accepted MHP reference implementation. Philips recently initiated a licensing program for MHP software, comprising of MHP middleware, MHP applications and software tools.

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