Hitachi America and BroadWare Announce Internet Solution for Remote Audio and Video Monitoring

Business Wire, April 4, 2001

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

BRISBANE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 4, 2001

Hitachi America, Ltd., a subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE:HIT) and BroadWare Technologies, based in Cupertino, Calif., today announced a joint solution for enabling businesses to monitor live audio and video via the Internet. With Hitachi's MG120S video server and BroadWare's Surveillance.com software, authorized Internet users can view live video feeds of their business operations from one or several cameras -- even if the cameras are located on different continents.

The MG120S video server and Surveillance.com software work seamlessly together, making it faster and easier for security dealers to set up and maintain remote video monitoring services. In addition, the MG120S coupled with Surveillance.com enables customers to view their video using any Java-enabled Web browser. In fact, businesses are able to view, manage, and remotely store any feed from their cameras -- all without needing to download any plug-ins.

"The integration between BroadWare's Surveillance.com and the Hitachi MG120S video server offers security dealers a highly secure, reliable and feature-rich solution for video monitoring via the Internet," said Shahid Javed, project marketing manager for Hitachi America. "In working with BroadWare, we are enabling security dealers to extend their current services and build upon their customers' existing technology infrastructures."

BroadWare's vice president of marketing, Ray Kaupp, added, "The connectivity between Surveillance.com and Hitachi's MG120S video server means that security dealers can save considerable set up and maintenance time. Utilizing existing video cameras and PCs, this combined solution provides everything needed for remote video monitoring via the Internet."

For pricing and availability, please contact either Hitachi or BroadWare. For Hitachi, please contact a local sales office or call 800/Hitachi, or visit www.hitachi.com. For BroadWare, please call 408/366-8001 or visit www.surveillance.com.

About BroadWare

Founded in 1996 and based in Cupertino, Calif., BroadWare develops and delivers solutions that capitalize on its core competencies in broadband networking, digital media, and ASP development. The company's flagship Surveillance.com is the first solution of its kind that is specifically tailored for security dealers wanting to enable their business customers to view, store and manage remote video and audio from any Web browser. The company utilizes proprietary technologies built on standards-based, open architectures that deliver low latency audio and video streaming. For more information on BroadWare solutions, please visit www.broadware.com.

About Hitachi

Hitachi America, Ltd., a subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE: HIT), markets and manufactures a broad range of electronics, computer systems and products, consumer electronics and semiconductors, and provides industrial equipment and services throughout North America. For more information on Hitachi America, visit http://www.hitachi.com.

Hitachi, Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is one of the world's leading global electronics companies, with fiscal 1999 (ended March 31, 2000) consolidated sales of 8,001 billion yen ($75.5 billion(1)). The company manufactures and markets a wide range of products, including computers, semiconductors, consumer products and power and industrial equipment. For more information on Hitachi, Ltd., please visit Hitachi's Web site at http://global.hitachi.com.

(1) At an exchange rate of 106 yen to the dollar.

Note to Editors: (1) MPEG is an international standard specified by the Moving Pictures Experts Group (MPEG) for compression and decompression of video and audio data.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION FOR EDITORS:

Hitachi MG120S

The MG120S Video Server can be used for many applications requiring streaming digital video and audio compression. Remote monitoring, access control, visual verification, traffic management and surveillance are only a few of many types of applications supported. MG120S is a unique product in the digital surveillance industry. It features MPEG1, Motion-JPEG or Single Snapshot JPEG compression formats along with local cache and skip back capability. There is also room for an optional 3.5" IDE local hard drive for faster access time. With the MG120S, all the circuitry for codec operations is housed in a single chip developed by Hitachi. The chip is a compact and low-power consumption configuration suitable for remote, portable and mobile applications.

Surveillance.com

Surveillance.com from BroadWare is being officially unveiled to the public this week at the ISC Expo/West conference in Las Vegas. It is the first solution for viewing, storing and managing remote video and audio via the Web that is specifically tailored for security dealers. It provides unequaled service and support programs for dealers wanting to offer business customers high-quality remote video and audio capabilities. The technical and marketing support programs offered through Surveillance.com dramatically streamline the steps it takes for dealers to increase recurring monthly revenues. Surveillance.com is built on a standards-based, open architecture, and integrates with leading video appliance products.