VM Labs Reveals ""Nuon"" As Highly Anticipated Official Name Of Project X

VM Labs today unveiled the long-awaited official name and logo for its interactive digital video entertainment standard, until now code-named ""Project X."" The new moniker, NUON, represents a powerful and flexible technology that will transform digital video products such as DVD players, digital satellite receivers and digital set-top boxes into versatile interactive multimedia centers allowing consumers to enjoy games, interactive software and other flexible applications all on the same platform. ""The name NUON reflects the wide-reaching power of a technology capable of introducing millions of consumers to interactive entertainment through their television sets"" said Richard Miller, CEO of VM Labs. Like a proud parent, VM Labs has taken a great deal of time and care to select the name NUON. As the company labored to come up with an appropriate name for their cutting edge technology, many word combinations were tested, including those relating to media processing, video games, unparalleled speed and graphics, enriched audio and digital content. Ultimately it was decided that no pre-existing word or combination of words could do justice to the technology, therefore an entirely new word was required. VM Labs enlisted the help of Lexicon, a world renowned branding firm which developed such well known names as PentiumÆ, PowerbookÆ and DeskjetÆ, to create a name that would become synonymous with the advanced technology. Focus groups found an immediate affinity to NUON, suggesting that the name reflected something entirely new, powerful and futuristic. The important task of developing a logo to complement such a dynamic name was assigned to The Beeline Group in Newark, California, renowned for their work with HewlettÆ Packard, Nike; and top companies in the videogame industry. The logo was conceived from an early demonstration of the technology's power and capabilities. A sample of real-time raytracing showed a wavy body of water which would reflect the image and light source from a series of spheres. The logo became a fusion of these strong graphic elements, which also abstractly represents the name NUON. ""Consumers will come to recognize and look for the NUON logo on home electronics hardware and software as an assurance they are getting the advanced level of interactivity and digital video convergence only NUON will provide,"" explains Greg LaBrec, Vice President of Marketing for VM Labs. ""The logo will appear as an icon on the front of enhanced hardware, as well as on packaging, software, and traditional advertising media."" The NUON technology will add unprecedented programmable processing power to digital consumer electronics devices, providing an advanced interactive software platform for the living room. In addition to unsurpassed interactivity, the architecture provides the raw horsepower to decode digital video and audio, while delivering advanced trick modes and an enhanced user interface. This highly parallel and scaleable processor is capable of executing in excess of 1.5 billion instructions per second. The first products are expected to be available in 1999.