Digital Harmony Scores $2.45 Million in Venture Funding To Roll Out New Technologies For Consumer Electronics Devices

Digital Harmony Technologies Inc. (DHT) announces the receipt of $2.45 million in funding via a second round of capital investment. DHT received $1.7 million from Hong Kong-funded venture capital firm Anderson Information Technology Ltd. DHT is concentrating this funding on refining the companyís technology Digital Harmonyë, which is based on the high-bandwidth digital data bus technology called IEEE-1394.The Anderson Information equity will be used to complete the development of Digital Harmony and enable expansion of DHTís licensing program. Also, the capital will be used to increase sales and marketing efforts and fund the creation of the first Digital Harmony Product Certification Center where licensee products are tested and certified as Digital Harmony compliant.Based on the same open standard as FireWireÆ (Apple Computer) and iLINKë (Sony Corp.), the Digital Harmony IEEE-1394 interface provides an intelligent, high-speed connection to all consumer electronics devices, including digital audio systems, game consoles, Web-enabled TVs, set-top boxes, DVD players and more. Digital Harmony licenses its 1394 technology to many consumer electronics and professional audio manufacturers including Boston Acoustics, California Audio Labs, Denon, Go Video, Harman/Kardon, Infinity, JBL, Lexicon, Loewe, Meridian Audio, Madrigal/Mark Levinson, Onkyo, Panja (formerly AMX/Phast), Peavey Electronics and Stellar One.Existing and future licensees can look forward to the benefits of the Digital Harmony Product Certification Centers, the first to be in the United States, with others to be established in Europe and Asia in late 2000. The centers will enable Digital Harmony to guarantee seamless interoperability among different companies, plug-and-play set up for products and ease of use for the consumer. Consumers seeking new products will look for the Digital Harmony logo attained through the manufacturerís certification to guarantee devices are tested to work together in a home entertainment environment.By backing DHT, Anderson Information continues its focus on financing up-and-coming intellectual property and technology companies in the United States. The Anderson funding enables DHT to bring Digital Harmony technology to consumer home entertainment devices. ""Digital Harmony Technologies is the third home consumer electronics technology to receive financing by our firm,"" says Chan Ki, President of Anderson Information Technology. ""Digital Harmonyís technology is making a wide-ranging consumer impact, and we are lending our financial expertise to such ingenuity.""""This round of funding will bring the first generation of Digital Harmony enabled devices to market in 2000,"" says Digital Harmony Technologies President and CEO Greg Bartlett. ""With the availability of Digital Harmonyís patented technology, manufacturers lower their R&D risk, guarantee interoperability and get products to market quickly,"" Bartlett added. ""Starting with the release of the Digital Harmony Reference System in early 2000 there will be a new standard to which all other networked audio/video systems will be compared.""About Digital Harmony TechnologiesDigital Harmony Technologies Inc. (www.digitalharmony.com) was the first company to demonstrate audio-on-1394 and the first to demonstrate a multi-vendor 1394 home entertainment system with all audio, video and control commands on the IEEE-1394 bus Based in Seattle, Digital Harmony offers complete interoperability solutions for both home entertainment (Digital Harmony) and professional audio/video (Digital Harmony Proô) systems, providing Digital Harmony firmware that implements open standards, running on Digital Harmony compliant integrated circuit processors. Digital Harmony Product Certification Centers ensure product compatibility, using independent and rigorous testing measures. OEM licensees have access to a growing family of 1394 audio/video device reference designs, further reducing the time-to-market of new devices. Consumers will rely on the Digital Harmony logo as a seal of approval - an indication from an objective, third-party source that their digital audio/video products will operate harmoniously in an IEEE 1394 network.