Digital Fountain Announces a ``Quantum Leap'' in Content Delivery with New Product Line; Digital Fountain Products Complement Technologies from Microsoft, Sony and Cisco

Business Wire, April 16, 2001

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

FREMONT, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 16, 2001

For the first time, it is now both technically possible and economically feasible to provide on-demand access to rich digital media over the Internet to TV-scale audiences. Digital Fountain's new products are based on the company's patented "Meta-Content(TM)" technology -- a technology that changes the fundamental assumptions associated with distributing rich content. With Meta-Content, individual users can receive content whenever they request it, with no increase in server load for each additional user.

The company's two new products are Streaming Fountain(TM), which serves streaming media, and Download Fountain(TM), which serves rich content, like movies, software downloads, image files and music files. Fountain Servers(TM) are the first and only products that combine the efficiency of a broadcast network with the on-demand access and reliability of the Internet.

Digital Fountain's new product line will offer broad support for content using Microsoft Windows Media Technology. "Digital Fountain's innovative approach combined with support for Windows Media Video and digital rights management technology will open up new opportunities for the distribution of digital media," said Dave Fester, general manager, Windows Digital Media division, Microsoft Corp. "This new technology will help enable new levels of cost effective reach to the more than 240 million secure Windows Media Players worldwide."

Sony will develop a solution component for satellite communication that will use Digital Fountain's Meta-Content technology. "Digital Fountain's technology represents a quantum leap in data delivery," said Sunobu Horigome, corporate executive vice president of Sony Corp. "Fountain servers give content owners the ability to reach an unlimited concurrent audience with high quality."

Cisco Systems will use Fountain Servers to distribute high-impact, high-bandwidth, rich media over major enterprise wide area networks and the Internet. The Cisco Content Delivery Network (CDN) System with Digital Fountain technology, designed for distribution over both satellite and terrestrial systems, will be available worldwide in May through Cisco's direct sales force.

"Cisco's CDN products coupled with the Fountain Server are making it possible for large enterprises as well as hosting and application service providers to launch new e-services," said Cheng Wu, vice president and general manager of Cisco's content networking business unit. "CDNs are bringing content and rich media services to all networks, and Digital Fountain technology is an important piece in solving the scalability puzzle."

A New Era in Internet Content Delivery

"Digital Fountain appears to have solved the paradox of popularity," said Michael Hoch of the Aberdeen Group. "Digital Fountain's technology promises to eliminate the cost barriers associated with Internet-based communications. Popular content can be reliably served to a large, dispersed audience without significantly increasing infrastructure and management costs."

It is generally acknowledged that streaming and downloading rich media over the Internet or corporate intranets is very limited today mainly because of this "paradox of popularity." The cost of the hardware and other computing resources needed to support the distribution of rich media increases dramatically with increases in audience size. This is exactly the opposite of traditional broadcasting, where economies of scale improve with audience size.

Current attempts to stream rich media have been limited to scheduled live broadcasts or scheduled on-demand access, minimizing one of the greatest benefits of Internet-based content distribution -- flexible access to the content users want, when they want it.

"In quest of the Holy Grail of efficient, economical distribution of large files and streaming media over the Internet, much has been promised but very little delivered," said Cliff Meltzer, Digital Fountain's chief executive officer. "Using an entirely different and new technology, Digital Fountain today delivers on that promise."

Meta Content Technology: Behind the Magic

Conventional techniques of one-to-one media delivery -- whether on-demand streaming media or FTP file downloading -- treat every user as independent and unique. The server must verify every user, every bit of content and the order in which the content packets are received. As both content size and audience size grows, servers and networks experience increasing loads.

Based on 30 cumulative years of mathematics research, Digital Fountain's Meta-Content technology presents a radical alternative: it doesn't matter which packets are received, or in what order -- it only matters that the right quantity are received. Meta-Content represents content as a series of unique mathematical equations. Once enough of these equations are received, the receiving computer quickly and automatically reconstructs a perfect copy of the original content.