BabyPressConference.com Chooses Microsoft Windows Media Technologies; New Netcasting Service Based on Windows Media and Windows NT Solution

Business Wire, Oct 19, 1999

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--October 19, 1999--

BabyPressConference.com, the recently-launched netcasting service for hospitals and their maternity patients, today announced it has selected Microsoft Windows Media Technologies and BackOffice as the infrastructure solution for its streaming video and back-end operations. BabyPressConference.com is now a totally Microsoft-enabled site.

Using the latest Internet-based technology, BabyPressConference.com offers parents the ability to introduce their new baby from the hospital--via streaming video--to family and friends around the world. BabyPressConference.com has chosen to use Windows Media exclusively to deliver this important video moment because of its superior quality, ease of use, and the tens of millions of Windows Media Player users on the Internet today.

Using the Windows Media Player through BabyPressConference.com, family and friends will be able to hear and see the new baby and parents on their computer monitors in a "press conference"-style forum.

In addition to choosing Windows Media Technologies, BabyPressConference.com will also use Microsoft Windows NT and BackOffice suite to power their Web hosting and e-commerce functionality of BabyPressConference.com, closely integrating with Windows Media-based servers for video streaming.

"BabyPressConference.com is an excellent example of how the potential of streaming video is being realized today," said Kevin Unangst, lead product manager, Streaming Media Division, Microsoft Corp. "This service is really the height of what Microsoft Windows Media Technologies can enable for families--allowing them to overcome the barriers of time and distance to share and communicate the joy of a new child."

"Microsoft has proven itself consistently as a world leader in software development," said Richard G. Harte, senior vice president and chief operating officer of BabyPressConference.com. "Our team is excited to use the quality of both Windows Media and Windows NT to deliver state-of-the-art netcasting technology to the health care community, maternity patients, and their family and friends."

BabyPressConference.com is a unique post-birth hospital maternity service that uses the latest Microsoft Windows Media streaming audio and video technology to broadcast parents and their newborn--in full-motion video--over the Internet from the hospital directly to family and friends. In addition, gifts may be purchased on the Web site from a variety of leading retailers, and prenatal, postnatal, and childcare information is available from highly regarded health and parenting sources. BabyPressConference.com was created by GNYHA Ventures, Inc., a wholly owned, for-profit subsidiary of the Greater New York Hospital Association (GNYHA).