Wednesday April 7, 10:40 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
PICK Communications Corp. Launches
www.pickradio.com Using Microsoft Windows Media
Player Technologies
PICK's Open-Platform, Satellite-Delivered IP Media Streaming Service
Available to Internet Service Providers
WAYNE, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 7, 1999-- PICK Communications Corp. (OTCBB:PICK - news) today
announced www.pickradio.com, the first Internet Protocol-based (IP) audio and video streaming delivery service from PICK
Online.Com Inc. The new service makes use of Windows Media Technologies developed by Microsoft Corp.
PICK Online.Com's new service, www.pickradio.com, will deliver multicast audio streams directly to Internet Service
Providers (ISPs) via satellite for a fixed low monthly subscription fee. Participating radio stations will be offered this new service
at dramatically lower costs, compared with traditional unicast, terrestrial-based alternatives. Microsoft Windows Media
Server® will be used to encode and deliver the audio streams. By connecting to participating ISPs with Microsoft Internet
Explorer 5's Windows browser, users will have access to hundreds of radio-station streams via the PICK Radio Station Guide.
PICK's new service will deliver a superior level of audio quality, including stereo, unmatched by any audio streaming service
currently on the Internet.
''We are excited to see PICK's new subsidiary, PICK Online.Com, taking full advantage of Microsoft Internet Explorer 5's
Windows Radio Toolbar and Windows Media Technologies,'' said Peter Davidson, international business development
manager for Microsoft. ''Providing high quality to Internet users, while optimizing the bandwidth needed for the service, is a
very attractive offering to ISPs and the Internet community. We are happy to be supporting PICK in this exciting project.''
''PICK's relationship with Microsoft represents an enormously important step toward the successful launch of our unrivaled
media streaming service,'' said Diego Leiva, chairman and president of PICK Communications Corp.
PICK Radio, www.pickradio.com, will be offered through PICK Online.Com, the recently formed subsidiary of PICK
Communications Corp., and will be delivered utilizing the capabilities of PICK Sat Inc.'s IP Satellite-based Multimedia Delivery
Platform.
PICK Online.Com is currently broadcasting its featured stations over the Internet using traditional unicast technology, to enable
listeners to preview radio-station content. To realize the full benefits of PICK Online.Com's multicast service, a listener must
access www.pickradio.com through an ISP that has installed satellite reception and PICK Online.Com's service.
Existing Technology Limitations
With current technology, audio streaming is delivered through what is known as a ''unicast'' session, which is a one-to-one
session linking the radio station host server, the Internet, and the end user. As more users log on to a radio station's stream,
available bandwidth is allocated to each listener. When listeners fill the limited amount of bandwidth, the audio quality
deteriorates to a point where the sound is no longer worth accessing.
In addition, ISPs experience consumption of a continuous segment of their bandwidth each time an end user accesses a unicast
stream through the ISP's network. Limited and expensive backbone bandwidth is quickly consumed as additional users access
unicast streaming content.
The PICK Online.Com Solution
PICK Online.Com's solution enables the multicasting of audio media streams to ISPs via the wide-area broadcast capabilities of
satellite transmissions. Radio broadcasts are received by PICK Online.Com from existing self-hosted stations and aggregated at
PICK Sat's network operating center in Miami, Fla. From PICK Sat's facility, the broadcasts are uplinked to a satellite for
multicast distribution to any participating ISP located within the satellite footprint, from Canada to Argentina and throughout the
Caribbean. Microsoft Windows Media Technologies is used to encode the audio and listeners use the Microsoft Windows
Media Player to play the stream on their PCs.
The benefits to participating radio stations are substantial. Stations receive access to a greatly increased listener base at a
fraction of the cost of existing audio streaming technology. Moreover, each listener enjoys the same level of high quality audio
delivery, including stereo. With PICK Online.Com's solution, only the total number of satellite-fed Points of Presence (POP) at
each participating ISP limits the total number of listeners.
PICK Communications Corp., headquartered in Wayne, N.J., operates PICK Sat Inc., which provides satellite-based Internet
access and interactive multimedia services to end-user service providers, and PICK Online.Com Inc., a media-content
aggregator and satellite multicast delivery service for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and Broadband Networks, including
Cable Modem and Asynchronous Digital Service Line (ADSL) service providers. The company also provides international
long-distance services to other carriers in the U.S. and the U.K. For additional information, please see the company's Web
sites: www.pickcom.com; www.picksat.com; www.pick-online.com and www.pickradio.com.
Other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Contact:
Dick Kosmicki
The Dilenschneider Group for PICK Communications Corp.
212.922.0900 |
