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REALNETWORKS’ NEW HELIX SERVICE DELIVERY SUITE AND HELIX MOBILE SERVERS ENABLE MOBILE OPERATORS TO RAPIDLY AND EFFICIENTLY DEPLOY COMMERCIAL CONTENT SERVICES
Seattle, WA and London, UK February 17, 2004 — RealNetworks®, Inc. (Nasdaq: RNWK), the leading creator of digital media services and software, today announced the general availability of the new Helix™ Service Delivery Suite (‘Helix SDS’) and the next generation of Helix Universal Server and Universal Gateway mobile. Together, these products and services enable mobile operators around the globe to quickly and efficiently launch commercial multimedia services to their mobile customers.
"TeliaSonera has used RealNetworks’ mobile platform to power our streaming services for broadband customers for many years and has selected the Helix platform also for delivering mobile services," said Jukka Helin, Head of MediaLab at TeliaSonera Finland. "Using the Helix platform gives us cost savings as well as new possibilities to introduce easy-to-use services covering all networks. We are delighted to see RealNetworks’ commitment to the mobile market continue with this latest mobile product launch."
Helix Service Delivery Suite - Accelerating Operator Content Service Deployments
Helix Service Delivery Suite provides the necessary middleware between existing operator systems and the media delivery infrastructure, to decrease integration work and accelerate the deployment and launch of commercial mobile content services. Helix SDS acts as an intelligent interface negotiating between existing billing, authentication and customer service systems and an operator’s media delivery infrastructure. In addition, Helix SDS enables:
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Content security through URL protection and integration with Digital Rights Management systems. |
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Data usage collection for more accurate customer billing. |
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Multimedia services using prepaid billing. |
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Access to quality of service data. |
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Automated discovery, encoding and staging of content from multiple content providers. |
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Multiple monitoring points within a network. |
Helix Universal Server and Universal Gateway mobile - Leading Mobile Media Delivery Platform
Helix Universal mobile products empowers mobile operators to rapidly deploy a complete video and audio content delivery platform that will enable operators to monetize the rapidly growing number of advanced media-capable handsets now widely in circulation. By the end of 2004, 45 million full-feature, media-capable and other high-end handsets are expected to ship globally. (Zelos Group, http://www.zelosgroup.com).
The Helix Universal Server mobile and the Helix Universal Gateway mobile are carrier-class media delivery products optimized for deployment in today’s mobile networks. Available on Linux and Solaris, these products enable content such as news, sports and entertainment to be streamed across both 2.5 and 3G networks in RealAudio® and RealVideo®, 3GPP and 3GPP2 formats. New feature functionality includes:
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Full compliance with the 3GPP Release 5 specification for multimedia. |
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Support for both hinted and unhinted media files, to support files created by RealNetworks’ Helix Mobile Producer, as well as standards-compliant 3rd party encoders. |
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Multi-bitrate adaptation - the ability to dynamically respond to changes in network available throughput and across networks. |
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Proven commercial interoperability - new platform includes functionality to support both standard 3rd party multimedia players as well as compensate for non-standard features in existing 3rd party multimedia-enabled handsets. |
"RealNetworks is leading the global market in commercial deployments of mobile multimedia services," said Ian Freed, Vice President of Mobile Products and Services, RealNetworks, Inc. "With the new Helix Universal Server mobile and the introduction of Helix SDS we can equip mobile operators with robust tools to rapidly bring compelling content services to market."
"Sprint PCS Vision applications deliver useful innovation to our customers. The latest version of Real’s Helix mobile platform will enable Sprint to continue to deliver market-leading multimedia content services to our mobile customers," said Jeff Hallock, vice president of consumer product marketing for Sprint.
For More Information:
Lisa Strong, RealNetworks, Inc. (206) 892-6585, lstrong@real.com
Erika Shaffer, RealNetworks, 206-892-6191, eshaffer@real.com
ABOUT REALNETWORKS’ HELIX MOBILE PLATFORM
RealNetwork’ Helix mobile platform provides mobile operators, content providers and handset manufacturers the tools needed to create and launch mobile media delivery services. Based on RealNetworks’ tenth generation media server technology, the Helix mobile platform is optimized to best serve the needs of the mobile environment including, support for 3GPP, 3GPP2 and other standard formats, the ability to adapt to changes in network availability, and proven commercial interoperability. The RealPlayer mobile is available on millions of handsets worldwide and distribution continues to grow through relationships with leading handset manufacturers such as Nokia and Motorola. For more information please visit: http://www.realnetworks.com/mobile.
ABOUT REALNETWORKS
RealNetworks, Inc. is the leading creator of digital media services and software including the award-winning Rhapsody® Internet jukebox service and RealPlayer 10. Consumers can access and experience audio/video programming and download RealNetworks’ consumer software at http://www.real.com. Broadcasters, network operators, media companies and enterprises use RealNetworks’ products and services to create and deliver digital media to PCs, mobile phones and consumer electronics devices. RealNetworks’ systems and corporate information is located at http://www.realnetworks.com.
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