Sonic Foundry Joins Microsoft Broadband Jumpstart Initiative

Sonic Foundry, Inc. (Nasdaq: SOFO), the leading developer and marketer of comprehensive, professional-quality digital media authoring software products for the Windows platform, today announced its inclusion in the launch of the Microsoft Windows Media Broadband Jumpstart program first announced this past September. The Jumpstart initiative builds on the success of Windows Media Technologies and showcases Microsoft's end-to-end strategy for jumpstarting broadband business models and overcoming the barriers to making broadband services a reality by establishing the infrastructure for consumer delivery of broadcast-quality content and related applications.

"Being part of the Broadband Jumpstart initiative underscores Sonic Foundry's historical role as the fundamental code behind encoding technology. One of the primary objectives of the Sonic Foundry Media Services division is to help promote the development of the broadband network," notes Curtis Palmer, Sonic Foundry's Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer. "Our tools are advancing its growth by allowing companies to create that content more easily, and by improving the quality of the encoded materials. By developing specialized encoding processes for high-quality broadband content, we are helping to speed the availability of broadband content, which will result in a better experience for consumers."

For the past eight years, Sonic Foundry has invested heavily in developing an arsenal of proprietary audio and video processing algorithms. Its proprietary filtering processes provide video output with sharper images, higher frame rates, and overall superior fidelity to the original. Sonic Foundry CODE[TM] delivers true-to-the-original, 24-frame-per-second encoded output in a secured format. Files processed using Sonic Foundry CODE technology require less processing power when played back at the client, and show improved frame rate and image quality.

Sonic Foundry Media Services uses its own fully-proprietary systems end-to-end in the production process to encode, verify, and move media over the Internet, including a massively scaleable system for large volume, 'craft' encoding that includes advanced solutions not yet available in its retail product line. And because Sonic Foundry writes the tools that process the media, they can easily adapt their encoding processes to any new codec or format, which sets the pace for ongoing developing within the broadband network arena. "To take advantage of the broadband opportunity, content providers need the kind of high-quality encoding solutions that Sonic Foundry provides with Windows Media formats," said Dave Fester, Director of Marketing, Streaming Media Division, Microsoft Corp. "We're excited that Sonic Foundry is joining this broad coalition of companies working to move the industry forward."

From its inception, Sonic Foundry has established solid relationships with industry hardware and software leaders like Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Warner Bros., Fraunhofer Institute, Launch.com, Dolby Labs, and Atomic Pop. Their agreements cover everything from OEM deals to joint development efforts, and as a result, Sonic Foundry is in a position to know, in advance, the new technologies and associated challenges facing their clients.

To be contacted by a Sonic Foundry Media Services Consultant, customers should e-mail mediaservices@sonicfoundry.com, or contact Frank Carey at frankc@sonicfoundry.com.