Thomson-CSF and Silicon Graphics Announce Business Partnership to
Offer Turnkey Intranet Video Solution
Alliance to Provide Streaming Multimedia ATM Solutions
For Real-World Business Applications
NEW YORK, Dec. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- InternetWorld -- Thomson-CSF Enterprise
Networks, Inc (TEN), the ATM switching division of the $14 billion multimedia
giant Thomson, and Silicon Graphics, Inc. (NYSE: SGI) the leading company for
strategic business computing, today announced a business partnership that will
merge the expertise of two industry leaders in ATM networking and Web server
technology. The integrated hardware and software solution will provide
corporations and other organizations with a turnkey solution to make
multimedia applications practical in the business environment.
"An alliance between Thomson-CSF and Silicon Graphics will allow us to
offer customers a turnkey solution to address today's video applications'
networking needs," said Ihab Abu-Hakima, vice president and general manager,
Business Computing Division, Silicon Graphics. "We see valuable business
opportunities to leverage our award-winning WebFORCE(R) MediaBase and cc-NUMA-
based Origin(TM) servers with Thomson's leading communication infrastructure
technology throughout the world."
In addition to expertise in ATM networking, Thomson-CSF also has a strong
background in multimedia through other Thomson subsidiaries including RCA,
ProScan, General Electric among others. "To be effective in today's world,
multimedia technology must be delivered across the network reliably and
efficiently," said Dave Weisman, vice president - sales & marketing, Thomson-
CSF Enterprise Networks, Inc. "The combination of Silicon Graphics' video
server technology and Thomson-CSF Enterprise Networks' proven experience in
ATM networking and multimedia make this a perfect fit for corporations wanting
to take full advantage of the benefits multimedia offers. The goal of our work
with Silicon Graphics is to deliver a pre-configured solution that can be up
and running within one hour."
"The combination of technologies from Silicon Graphics and Thomson-CSF
into a pre-integrated platform will enable network managers to introduce high-
quality video networking capability into their enterprise data networks and
intranets much more easily than ever before," said David Hold, editor of THE
ATM REPORT newsletter and ATMWORLD Magazine.
ThomMedia Suite: the Intranet Video Solution
The Silicon Graphics and Thomson-CSF agreement will integrate components
of their existing technologies into a turnkey multimedia solution. The
solution will be designed for corporations, universities and other
organizations such as banks and hospitals, and will enable initial deployment
of multimedia applications such as distance learning for corporate training
and education, video on demand, multimedia kiosk, and telemedicine.
About Thomson-CSF Enterprise Networks (TEN)
Thomson-CSF Enterprise Networks (TEN) (www.thomflex.fr) is the ATM
networking subsidiary of the giant $14 billion Thomson group of companies.
Thomson-CSF has been building ATM networking products for over ten years and
today earns more than $100 million annually in ATM sales. TEN delivers a
complete line of networked multimedia products which seamlessly integrate with
existing network infrastructure and allow network administrators to deploy a
new generation of mixed media services throughout their organization.
About WebFORCE MediaBase
WebFORCE MediaBase is deployed in Internet and intranet applications by
Internet Service Providers, telecommunications, cable, media and other
organizations that require managed, real-time delivery of video and audio to
the desktop. WebFORCE MediaBase is a complete media streaming solution,
integrating content and network management and scaling from very low 14.4
Kb/second to very high 8Mb/second supporting a variety of codec formats
including MPEG-1, MPEG-2, H.263 and RealNetworks(R) RealAudio(R) and
RealVideo(TM). Combined with the scaleable, high-performance Silicon Graphics
WebFORCE Origin servers, WebFORCE MediaBase distributes high-quality media
over a wide range of networks to thousands of simultaneous users.
Silicon Graphics and WebFORCE are registered trademarks, and Origin is a
trademark, of Silicon Graphics, Inc. RealNetworks and RealAudio are registered
trademarks, and RealVideo is a trademark, of RealNetworks, Inc.
SOURCE Thomson-CSF Enterprise Networks, Inc.
/CONTACT: Alexis Hamilton of Thomson-CSF, 650-843-1265, or
ahamilto@aol.com; or Gayle LeDoux of Silicon Graphics, 650-933-2968, or
ledoux@corp.sgi.com/
/Web site: thomflex.fr
(CGI) |
