Sonic Foundry Collaborates With Microsoft on Internet Tools Strategy

Sonic Foundry (AMEX: SFO) today announced that the first elements of its VEGAS technology are being introduced through the Beta release of Windows Media On-Demand Producer, the new easy-to-use authoring tool to be provided by Microsoft to Windows Media Technologies users. VEGAS is Sonic Foundry's ongoing research and development effort designed to bring the latest in media authoring to the content creation market.

"VEGAS promises to deliver unprecedented power and flexibility through a suite of authoring tools designed to meet the needs of the rapidly growing Internet streaming media market," said Sonic Foundry Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rimas P. Buinevicius. "We're designing a series of products which are both sophisticated and yet streamlined in their use."

Buinevicius continued, "Sonic Foundry's previous development effort has resulted in some of the most sophisticated audio media authoring tools ever released. The experience we've gained from developing for the professional consumer has helped us leverage our product family into new market opportunities that now include an ever growing number of users authoring specifically for the Internet. We expect our R&D effort will produce additional products that continue to be tailored to the various vertical markets we serve, including the Internet and intranet community."

The VEGAS technology effort is being developed to take advantage of the latest advances and capabilities of the Windows NT multiprocessing environment. By harnessing the processing power of the native CPU(s), VEGAS allows a software specific solution to audio and video authoring. VEGAS is being designed to minimize the cost of hardware obsolescence, by adding reliability, performance, and expanded features through the use of Sonic Foundry's software-based product family.

Sonic Foundry is aggressively working on developing a full scale suite of audio media authoring tools which promise to build on its reputation of providing powerful performance driven products. Future products evolving from the VEGAS technology line are expected to transcend multiple user categories including specific functions and/or products designed for Internet content developers, musicians, videographers, broadcasters, and audio engineers.

Designed for both experienced Web developers and novice streaming media authors, Windows Media On-Demand Producer delivers production and encoding features for Internet and intranet content developers who are deploying media content in areas such as news, entertainment, and training. For example, Web developers with existing download and play content can use Windows Media On-Demand Producer to easily convert WAV and AVI files to the Advanced Streaming Format (ASF) for streaming to the Windows Media Player. This simple process enables end-users to play the content immediately, providing a superior viewing or listening experience.

Additional information describing Windows Media On-Demand Producer and its technical specifications can be found at www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/tools/odproducer.asp.

NOTE: Microsoft, Windows, NetShow, and Windows NT are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries. All other names and terms in this release may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.