Sigma MPEG-2 card uses hardware decode..........
Sigma Designs Announces NetStream MPEG-2 Playback Card for
Business Applications
FREMONT, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 26, 1998--
Latest MPEG-2 Playback Card From Sigma Offers Highest Digital
Video Playback Quality
Easily Adds Streaming MPEG-2 Video to Corporate LANs and WANs
Sigma Designs, Inc. (Nasdaq:SIGM), a leader in digital video solutions for personal computers, today announced the
REALmagic NetStream 2 MPEG-2 Playback card. The NetStream 2 enables users to easily play high-quality streaming
video and audio on corporate LANs and WANs. Offering the highest digital video playback quality available, NetStream 2
plays streaming video on VGA displays and television sets with better quality than cable television, VHS tape, or laserdisk.
The easy-to-use NetStream 2 PCI card offers full plug and play installation and compatibility with a broad range of third-party
applications, including video servers for video on demand, MPEG encoders for stored or real-time playback, satellite delivery
systems, streaming video playback systems and scores of customizable interactive training titles.
"With streaming MPEG-2 video, users see television-quality content from Ethernet LAN, ATM, ADSL, or satellite without
interruption or delay," added Talreja. "With NetStream 2 this new technology is accessible and affordable to everybody. For
example, using Microsoft's NetShow Theater Server, hundreds of PCs will be able to use NetStream 2 to view
broadcast-quality video on their PCs."
"Our customers want broadcast quality video. By combining Microsoft's NetShow Theater Server and Sigma's NetStream 2
client decoder cards, we can deliver stunning video and audio on a network," said Dave Seres, Product Manager at
Microsoft. "The market for streaming video is growing rapidly with applications such as interactive training, marketing and
sales automation, corporate communications, advertising, and movies-on-demand for hotels and airlines," he added.
"Corporations are beginning to deploy infrastructure supporting deployment of digital video to include playback on desktop
PCs," said Ralph Rogers, principal analyst for multimedia at Dataquest, San Jose. "Sigma Designs' MPEG playback products
are well positioned to capitalize on this trend as shown by their success in accounts such as Wal-Mart and Smith Barney."
"NetStream 2 is being evaluated by over a dozen major strategic partners that are creating compatible products for streaming
video applications," commented Prem Talreja, Sigma Designs' Vice President of Marketing. Sigma's strategic partners include
Microsoft, Silicon Graphics, Oracle, First Virtual, Starlight Networks, Hughes Network Systems, InfoValue, ixMicro, MIDI,
Clarity, OptiVision, FutureTel, InnovaCom, and Packet Engines.
Key applications for NetStream 2 include distribution of financial news to users' desktops, delivery of training to factory
workers, surgeons or executives, distance learning, video on demand in hotels, ships, and trains, and interactive retail sales
kiosks and ATMs. NetStream products are already installed in major 'seed' projects including a leading cruise line, a major
hotel chain, a power and light utility, an in-home ADSL video-on-demand project, and several campus-wide deployments at
leading universities.
For maximum flexibility, NetStream supports simultaneous VGA monitor, S-Video and composite NTSC and PAL-encoded
television video output. The VGA video output uses an analog overlay technology, guaranteeing 100% compatibility with
virtually all VGA video cards. The hardware X-Y scalar delivers smooth, 24-bit full-color video with no impact on CPU, PCI,
or VGA performance.
Delivering live video playback with absolutely no skipping or jerkiness, NetStream 2 uses a precision variable clock (VCXO)
to lock the NetStream decoder to the frame rate of the broadcast encoder. This ensures that no audio or video frames are
dropped or duplicated. To minimize CPU overhead, NetStream 2 uses PCI DMA bus transfer, not programmed I/O. Video
and audio decompression and playback are both performed by on-board hardware.
NetStream 2 features support for Microsoft's ActiveMovie, now known as DirectShow 2.0. This API is used by most leading
full-screen video servers, including Microsoft's NetShow Theater, the Oracle Video Server, the Silicon Graphics WebForce
Media Server, Sun's MediaCenter, the Starlight Starcaster, First Virtual V-Cast, InfoValue QuickVideo, and a wide variety of
other hardware and software products for streaming stored and live video.
"Our Microsoft DirectShow API support ensures that anyone with familiarity with HTML or Visual Basic can easily create
streaming video applications," commented Talreja. "With DirectShow, a single application can play MPEG-2 from disk, video
servers or live encoders without having to deal with the different ways those sources stream video." NetStream 2 will ship with
the Microsoft DirectShow Player, an easy-to-use ActiveX control which can be embedded inside web pages and Visual Basic
applications.
Supporting home theater quality audio systems, NetStream 2 decodes and plays Dolby Digital (AC-3) and Pro Logic 5:1
channel surround sound in hardware, with stereo output. 16-bit, 20-bit, and 24-bit stereo output is available.
By handling both audio and video in hardware, NetStream 2 keeps the CPU free to perform other tasks, such as using a
spreadsheet or word processor while video is playing in a window. Keeping the CPU freed up is critical in a wide variety of
networked video applications, which frequently need to use the Pentium CPU for tasks such as network data transfer,
desktop productivity software, interactive applications, and MPEG encoders used in distance learning.
The REALmagic NetStream family of products ensures users a solution ideally tailored to their video networking needs,
whether they use MPEG-1 or MPEG-2. REALmagic NetStream 1 delivers razor-sharp MPEG-1 playback in an
economical AT-bus card. NetStream 2 is a no-compromise, high performance MPEG-2 and MPEG-1 playback card that
offers the highest digital video playback quality available anywhere.
REALmagic NetStream 2 requires a PC with an Intel Pentium 133 MHz or higher and 16 MB RAM, PCI 2.1-compliant
expansion slot, VGA graphics card and Microsoft Windows 95. Evaluation samples are available now. The product will be in
volume shipment in Q2'98. The MSRP is $379.
About Sigma Designs
Sigma Designs, headquartered in Fremont, California, is an acknowledged leader in the fast-growing multimedia market.
Sigma entered the multimedia market in 1993 with products based on the MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) standard
for compressing and decompressing digital audio and video signals. Sigma has been a driving force in advancement of the
MPEG technology used in most multimedia PCs on the market today. Sigma Designs' products include affordable MPEG
decoding hardware used in PCs, notebook computers and networked video applications. All Sigma products are sold
worldwide through a direct sales force, distributors, and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).
For additional information, call 800/845-8086, 510/770-0100, fax 510/770-2640 or visit the Company's web site at
sigmadesigns.com.
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements regarding the digital video for PCs market, and the features and
potential growth prospects of the company's MPEG digital video playback products in this market that involve risks and
uncertainties. Actual results may vary due to a number of factors including, but not limited to, the ability of the Company's
REALmagic NetStream 2 MPEG-2 playback card to compete with other technologies and products in this emerging market
and the risk that such products will not gain widespread acceptance or be rendered obsolete by product offerings of
competitors, or by alternative technologies.
REALmagic and NetStream are trademarks of Sigma Designs. Other products and companies referred to herein are
trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.
CONTACT: MEDIA: S&S Public Relations, Inc.
Lauren Finkelman/Regan Daniels
Tel: 800/287-2279
Fax: 312/266-8247
lauren@sspr.com/regan@sspr.com
or
INVESTOR RELATIONS: Sigma Designs, Inc.
Carol Kaplan
Tel: 510/770-2991
Fax: 510/770-2640
carol_kaplan@sdesigns.com
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