LA MUSIC AWARDS signs with USVO...
L. A. MUSIC AWARDS SIGNS WITH USA VIDEO INTERACTIVE
FOR WEB BROADCAST OF CEREMONIES
Merging Rivers Media to Produce Broadcast
SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA—July 8, 1999—The Los Angeles Music Awards (www.lamusicawards.com) has signed a Letter of Intent with Merging Rivers Media, a subsidiary of USA Video Interactive system (NASD: USVO; ASE: US; www.usvo.com), to produce a web broadcast of its 9th Annual L. A. Music Awards ceremony being held at Hollywood's House of Blues on November 15 and the Inaugural Presentation of Gazzarri's Honors on November 4.
USA Video Interactive, through its Merging Rivers Media subsidiary, will videotape, digitize and compress the event using its Wavelet compression technology, and will host it on the Internet, accessible from a link on the L. A. Music Awards website. Upon successful demonstration of the USA Video Interactive technology to L. A. Music Award officers, the Letter of Intent will move to a contract with terms and conditions to be negotiated.
"I anticipate a huge response from a global community of music lovers who are eager to see original music and musicians on the medium they feel increasingly comfortable using," said Alfred C. Bowman, Founder and Executive Producer of the L. A. Music Awards. "The Internet is increasingly the medium of choice for accessing new and exciting musical talent. Future developments in convergence technology will establish the L. A. Music Awards place in the TV industry of the future."
The L. A. Music Awards is a nine-year-old media event, founded in 1990. The first presentation, December 17, 1991 was held at the Mardi Gras Club in Long Beach, California, bringing together established and emerging musicians, as well as other individuals in the music industry. Since the first show, the popularity and stature of the annual event has grown considerably. This year, the L. A. Music Awards will expand to introduce the 1st Annual Gazzarri Honors event, named after the legendary rock promoter and club owner, Bill Gazzarri. The Gazzarri Honors recognizes venues, producers, journalists and others on the periphery of actual music making. That event will be held November 4 at the original Gazzarri's on Sunset Strip, now called the Key Club. On Monday, November 15, the ninth annual L. A. Music Awards event will be presented at the House of Blues-Hollywood, on the Sunset Strip.
The Master of Ceremonies for the 1999 L. A. Music Awards will be Jeff "Skunk" Baxter of Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan fame, last year's winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award, and an announced candidate for Congress from the state of California. The 1999 Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to Paul Rogers of Bad Company and The Firm, best known for hits like " All Right Now" and "Can't Get Enough of Your Love."
"We are excited to help the L. A. Music Awards move from TV-only broadcast into hyperspace… reaching a global audience on the world wide web," said Rafael O. Quezada, president of Merging River Media. "It's what our technology is made for and this development is in line with our strategy to bring music video of the future to the Internet today."
The USA Video Interactive system will host the broadcast on its NT-based servers from SeaChange International (Nasdaq: SEAC; www.schange.com) which are being installed on the UUNET Internet network. UUNET (www.uu.net) is an MCI WorldCom Company (NASDAQ: WCOM). USA Video Interactive is an international designer and supplier of high-tech Video-on-Demand™ systems, services and solutions. The USA Video Interactive technology allows users to view streaming video or to access digitized video libraries, including movies, sports, other entertainment, educational resources, corporate training seminars and other archives. The USA Video Interactive technology gives users full-motion video; the unique flexibility of standard, VCR-like controls of play, fast forward, reverse and pause; and the convenience of a standard internet-browser format for access. USA Video Interactive can utilize MPEG-1, MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 compression techniques but prefers its Wavelet compression technology. The USA Video Interactive Wavelet technology allows direct streaming and download and play options; provides video images significantly faster and at a higher degree of resolution than with previously available methods; significantly overcomes bandwidth restrictions; and eliminates the blockiness and slowness of current technologies, all at a lower cost. An essential feature of the USA Video Interactive technology is that it allows extremely high compression ratios while retaining broadcast quality.
Contact - Media Relations: Tony Castagno 860-572-1560
Contact - Investor Relations: Kevin Yorio 860-572-1560
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