SmartVideo shows cell phone streaming video

LAS VEGAS -- At the National Association of Broadcasters show this week, SmartVideo Technologies will be demonstrating its high quality streaming video to narrowband Internet and cell phones. SmartVideo says it wireless technology provides a unique outlet for owners and distributors of video content to make their content available to any audience, anytime, anywhere.

NAB is expected to attract nearly 90,000 attendees this year from more than 130 countries and is the world's largest annual gathering of electronic media professionals showcasing all the latest content creation, management and delivery tools, trends, and technologies for television, radio, film, audio, video, streaming media, satellite, and telecommunications. Key points of interest for NAB attendees are SmartVideo's ability to deliver high quality video over the Internet and viewable on any Microsoft Windows Media Series 9 equipped device including Pocket PCs, PDAs, cell phones, laptops and PCs.

NAB attendees will have the opportunity to see high quality full motion programs on both PCs and cell phones directly from the convention floor. SmartVideo claims the ability to deliver exceptional viewing experiences to virtually every Internet subscriber, whether they have a narrowband connection speed of 23Kbps or broadband service. SmartVideo's ability to deliver video to cell phones at an average of 15 frames per second is a significant technological breakthrough, compared to its nearest competitor at only 1 to 2 frames per second, the company said.

"While the company will not abandon its core business of delivering content to the corporate, educational and government sectors, we feel the time is right to become involved in the entertainment and communications arena," said Richard Bennett, President and CEO of SmartVideo. "To help us facilitate this exciting new endeavor, we have engaged Media Consulting Associates who, in my opinion, is the most qualified group to assist us in achieving our goal of becoming the dominant player in the entertainment delivery field. We believe there is an enormous opportunity to capture an untapped revenue stream of existing entertainment content as well as new programming.

SmartVideo made the announcement earlier this week that it had engaged the services of Media Consulting Associates, LLC (MCA) to be its representative in the entertainment and communications community. MCA was recently formed by four of the entertainment industry's top executives: Herman Rush (former CEO of Columbia Pictures Television Group), Jerry Katzman (former President of The William Morris Agency), Ave Butensky (former President of the Television Advertising Bureau) and Joe Indelli (former Executive Vice President of Orion Pictures Television Group).

Rush and Indelli will be participating with SmartVideo at NAB this week in demonstrating wireless video streaming.

SmartVideo notes that there are an estimated 152 million wireless phone subscribers in the United States and more than 1.5 billion worldwide. In the U.S. market alone there are approximately 30 million wireless devices that already have the capability to accept a SmartVideo transmission and, according to industry experts, is expected to increase to over 100 million by 2005.

"Today's society is highly mobile, no longer sitting at home," Rush said. "I believe that SmartVideo is destined to make all forms of entertainment available through the cellular telephone so viewers literally have it available in their hip pocket. The future is now and with SmartVideo's state-of-the-art technology they are poised to revolutionize the manner by which consumers receive and enjoy entertainment, news and sports."

The wireless network being developed by SmartVideo is intended to form a bridge between content providers and the consumer to facilitate delivery of news, sports, weather, financial information, children's programs, travel related films and music videos. The business model under consideration is a "subscription based" service, similar to the cable television medium. Monthly fees are expected to cost up to $10 per month depending on the program bundle selected.

SmartVideo is meeting with major to telephone carriers that handle distribution, marketing and billing. The company has also met with several major advertisers to explore the potential of advertiser involvement and is currently exploring joint ventures with entertainment media companies including major networks, cable channels, Hollywood studios and other content providers.

"In today's mobile society the advertising community recognizes the powerful advantage of being able to communicate with customers literally in their hip pocket," Butensky said.

SmartVideo has developed its own proprietary service platform and provides high quality multimedia solutions that allow for live, scheduled or on-demand programming to be delivered over the Internet and to the wireless environment at speeds as low as 23Kbps. Through its wireless compression technology, SmartVideo claims the capability of transmitting television signals and streaming video to cell phones and other wireless receptors at 15 to 24 frames per second; enabling the Company to deliver content to over 95% of all Internet users. Its high quality video features an equivalent size image to all viewers regardless of their connection speed. In contrast, our competitors are limited to distributing their content only through broadband connections, which today accounts for less than 20% of all Internet subscribers.

SmartVideo Technology is a standards-based, market driven, end-to-end, highly scalable, system architecture that provides a common platform for Internet media delivery. SmartVideo supports multiple media and service formats including dial-up, broadband, and wireless Internet connections. The Company serves corporate, governmental, entertainment and educational sectors with multimedia products and services that include streaming video, audio, interactive programming, graphics, and animation.

SmartVideo says its products and services address the increasingly important role that multimedia plays in the Internet communications industry. Media giants, Internet and entertainment companies have recognized the tremendous potential multimedia offers and are merging to form strategic alliances in an attempt to build market share and be the first to capitalize on it. Companies around the world are actively seeking innovative solutions to harness the power of multimedia communications in the delivery of their message to both internal and external customers. Many believe that multimedia is poised to become the next segment to experience significant growth on the Internet.