7TH Level Announces Support of W3C's Proposed Recommendation of Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language

Business Wire, April 9, 1998

DALLAS,Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Thursday, April 9, 1998-- In a continued move to position itself as a leading Internet technology company, 7th Level Inc. (NASDAQ: SEVL) today announced support for the W3C's proposed recommendation of Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL).

The W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) is an international industry consortium created in October of 1994 to develop common protocols that enhance the interoperability and promote the evolution of the World Wide Web. SMIL enables Web authors to lay out future 7th Level animations synchronized with other time-based multimedia such as audio or images. With SMIL, producing audio-visual content is simple while giving content creators great flexibility and presentation customization.

"As we continue to develop our line of preparation tools for media-rich Internet content, it is important to support emerging standards and platforms on the net. SMIL has gained our support as an important new standard in the preparation of Web content," said Richard Merrick, 7th Level's Chief Strategist.

Authors of SMIL include both key industry players such as Digital Equipment Corporation, Lucent/Bell Labs, Microsoft, Netscape, Philips, RealNetworks and The Productivity Works, and leading research organizations such as Columbia University, CWI and INRIA. "SMIL will quickly become the new standard for streamed media," Merrick said."We look forward to working with this distinguished group of companies towards its acceptance."

7th Level's Internet technology is the first of its kind for producing and streaming real-time, media-rich interactive animation over the Web. Utilizing 7th Level's intelligent character agent technology, the consumer or Internet professional can readily prepare and stream animated characters to serve a variety of functions within a webpage, including site hosting, training, advertising and sales. When combined with other SMIL content, 7th Level's character player will be able to add both personality and interactivity by engaging the end-user, prompting with choices and then triggering appropriate SMIL media streams for playback.

7th Level (www.7thlevel.com) recently announced an agreement with AudioNet (www.audionet.com) by which AudioNet will market to its advertisers and other clients 7th Level's streaming animation technology. AudioNet is the largest broadcast network on the Internet.

The W3C is jointly run by the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science (LCS) in the USA, the National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control (INRIA) in France, and Keio University in Japan. Services provided by the Consortium include: a repository of information about the World Wide Web for developers and users; sample code implementations to embody and promote standards; and various prototype and sample applications to demonstrate use of new technology. To date, more than 250 organizations are members of the Consortium.

CONTACT: Media Contact: Bender, Goldman & Helper

Jenny Rosas or Linda Thurmond, 310/473-4147

jenny_rosas@bgh.com and linda_thurmond@bgh.com

or

Investors: Investor Relations

Gary Fishman or Susan Romero, 212/527-4808

gfish82403@aol.com