Sonic Foundry Media Services Takes a Music Industry Bow

They invented the tools of the trade. Sonic Foundry, Inc. (Nasdaq: SOFO), the leading developer and marketer of comprehensive, professional-quality digital media authoring software products for the Windows[R] platform, celebrates the launch of its brand-new Sonic Foundry Media Services division at the WebNoize 99 music industry conference in Los Angeles, November 15-17. Sonic Foundry Media Services is a comprehensive premium service offering the highest quality encoding of audio and video in any format to the music, film, broadcast, and corporate markets. The launch offers content providers the opportunity to take advantage of Sonic Foundry's next-generation CODE[TM] technology.

"Sonic Foundry is already a pioneer and leader in the digital media management and tools industries, and has created what are widely considered to be the world's most advanced collection of digital media processing algorithms," notes David Mighell, Director of Business Development for the new division. "Our strategic partners have the content … and we have the science. Sonic Foundry is, very simply, the fundamental code behind encoding technology. Creating optimal encoded content requires a deep understanding of the craft — the art and science of creating audio and video optimized for Web delivery. Sonic Foundry has created a proprietary, massively scaleable system for large volume, 'craft' encoding. The system includes advanced algorithms not yet available in its retail products. Sonic Foundry also has the capability to integrate virtually any security technology into a service package, and is platform agnostic."

"Sonic Foundry's success as a products company has always depended on its ability to service the needs of the content community, by building tools specific to their requirements," notes Curtis Palmer, Sonic Foundry's Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer. "The most conservative estimates underscore the fact that over 50% of all streaming media content on the Web today was produced using Sonic Foundry tools. We've been the Encoding Originals[TM] all along."

For the past ten years, Sonic Foundry has invested heavily in developing an arsenal of proprietary audio and video processing algorithms. It remains the leader in broadband video encoding. Its proprietary filtering processes are the most sophisticated in the world and provide video output with sharper images, higher frame rates and overall superior fidelity to the original. Only Sonic Foundry CODE[TM] delivers true-to-the-original 24-frame-per-second encoded output. Files processed using CODE[TM] technology require less processing power when played back at the client, and show improved frame rate and image quality. Sonic Foundry Media Services is the only business of its kind to use its own fully-proprietary systems end-to-end in the production process to encode, verify and move media over the Internet."

Sonic Foundry Founder and President Monty Schmidt — a leading expert on music editing software and digital encoding — will address conference attendees on the subject of digital security during the WebNoize conference at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles at 12:00 p.m. on Tuesday, November 16, 1999. "In the dot-com gold rush, it makes sense for investors and clients to pay attention to the people selling the picks and shovels," says Schmidt. "Sonic Foundry has long been in the picks and shovels business as providers of music editing software tools. Now as musicians and record labels seek new ways to reach audiences via the Internet, we are pleased to provide them with the latest in expert consulting services and encoding solutions."

With over a decade of successful tools development, Sonic Foundry has established solid relationships with industry hardware and software leaders like RealNetworks, Microsoft, Fraunhofer Institute, Liquid Audio, Sony, Dolby Labs, and Diamond Multimedia. 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.