AGNOSTIC MEDIA -- TECHNOLOGY -- NEWS AND EVENTS

Press Releases

05.16.06:: Agnostic Media First to Interface with Dolby's New File-Based Audio Coding and Loudness Solution for Broadcasters
04.24.06: AMD accelerates and simplifies production, management, and delivery of digital media at NAB
04.18.06: Sun Microsystems Helps Broadcast Industry Bridge the Gap to Next-Generation Multi-Format Content Delivery

News

04.2006:: The Dual-Core AMD Opteron™ Processor Helps Digital Media Industry Leaders Dramatically Increase the Efficiency of Transcoding Massive Files of Content
08.19.04:: Microsoft Case Study: Agnostic Media Digital Media Management Solution Offers Scalability, Reliability for Entertainment Industry
03.30.04:: MPEG-REL Support
11.25.03:: PIAS launch
09.29.03:: DMMP v2.0 launch

Microsoft Case Study: Agnostic Media Digital Media Management Solution Offers Scalability, Reliability for Entertainment Industry

8/19/04 - Agnostic Media develops software that helps media and entertainment companies manipulate and manage digital media assets. From the beginning, the company sought to develop its products on flexible, cost-effective technology that would scale easily to meet the changing demands of media asset management. Agnostic Media chose to build its digital media management products using Microsoft® Visual Studio® .NET, the .NET Framework, and Windows Media® technologies. Agnostic also chose the Microsoft Windows Server System™ integrated server software as the deployment platform. By taking advantage of the .NET Framework, the company reduces its development time, delivering high-quality solutions efficiently without the need for a large development staff. The resulting Agnostic Media products are flexible and scalable, with high reliability and performance. Complete Case Study

Leading Entertainment, Consumer Electronics and Technology Companies and Organizations Support ISO Rights Expression Language Standard

03/31/04 - Agnostic Media, Inc., Content Directions, Inc., ContentGuard, Inc., Content Reference Forum, DMDsecure, EDItEUR, GiantSteps Media Technology Strategies, IFPI, Lydia, Inc., the Motion Picture Association of America, Microsoft, Navio, Inc., NTT, OverDrive, Inc., Ramp^Rate, the Recording Industry Association of America, Rightscom, RightsLine, Inc., SAMSUNG Electronics Co., Ltd., SyncCast, TranTech, Inc., Universal Music Group, VeriSign, Inc. and Warner Bros. welcome the approval by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) of the MPEG REL, its first digital rights management (DRM) standard.

ISO MPEG REL is an XML-based Rights Expression Language used to specify terms and conditions for the authorized distribution and use of any digital content. This rich language will be used not only in the entertainment industry, but also by enterprises and individuals to enable the authorized distribution and persistent protection of valuable data and content in accordance with privacy and confidentiality requirements.

ISO MPEG REL is the first in a set of DRM industry standards to be established by ISO and is an important step forward in building worldwide, robust trust ecosystems for digital content. Other technologies being standardized include metadata, asset identification and aspects of security, protection and trust management.

"If DRM technologies are going to proliferate -- by helping ensure that creators are compensated and consumers can use that content in legitimate ways -- broadly accepted industry standards for interoperability are crucial," said Mike McGuire, research director with GartnerG2’s Media team. "The ISO MPEG REL standard is an important milestone for the future of DRM and digital content delivery."

Brad Hunt, CTO for the Motion Picture Association of America remarked, "The motion picture industry is committed to and participates in the MPEG-21 standards activities that are focused on building cross-industry consensus around important international standards such as the REL and the Rights Data Dictionary (RDD), key components in facilitating DRM interoperability."

"IFPI supports the development of open, interoperable standards as a way to get more music to more consumers in more legal and flexible ways," said Paul Jessop, CTO of IFPI. "The MPEG REL can be a great tool to enable this and IFPI applauds all those who worked with us to bring this standard into being."

Since 1988 MPEG has produced several key standards including MPEG-2, which helped advance interoperability in the delivery and consumption of multimedia entertainment over the Internet and through electronic devices. Today, an overwhelming majority of all video content, whether for entertainment or the corporate enterprise, uses MPEG standards.

Started in 2001, the ISO MPEG REL standard is a critical component of the MPEG-21 Multimedia Framework, the next key set of standards which will enable participants in the digital content value-chain to give consumers greater flexibility and access to digital content. Work on the ISO MPEG REL continues in various industry venues to define specific business terms, using this REL to support new usage models in areas such as: Web services, education, mobile, security, publishing, media and entertainment.

"A clear and effective means of communicating the usage rights for digital content is the critical foundation for creating the broadest range of choice for consumers," said Chris Cookson, CTO, Warner Bros. "We welcome the approval of this standard."

"An ISO standard like the MPEG REL will enhance industry growth. Standards will help us get down to the serious business of selling the music people love with usage rules that are consistent, unambiguous and consumer friendly," said Larry Kenswil, president, Universal Music Group, eLabs. "UMG has been an active participant in the development of the MPEG REL. From the outset, we have been involved in the rigorous process used to build consensus that balances the needs of consumers and other stakeholders with rights holders' desire to offer unique digital business models."

The ISO MPEG REL Standard:

Supports a wide variety of business models in the digital content distribution value-chain independent of content type or industry
Provides an extremely flexible authorization model to describe what the consumer or user is permitted to do with the content
Is independent of formats, products, security technology or other DRM system components
Enables automated multi-tier distribution of digital content while protecting the rights of the content owners and the interests of the users
Is a precise, unambiguous, machine-readable language that can be used in conjunction with other industry standards, including those addressing Web services
Is ready for immediate implementation to support digital content sales or the distribution of enterprise information.

"An international standard for rights expression means that business rules can be expressed flexibly and consistently, "remarked Dr. Leonardo Chiariglione, digital media strategist and convenor of MPEG. "This is an important result towards the goal of giving end-users the ability to enjoy content on a plethora of devices, in new and flexible offerings, while respecting the economic structure of the content value chain. The MPEG REL standard is one of the first realizations of the twenty-first century vision of the multimedia framework which enables unfettered trade in digital content."

More information about MPEG and the MPEG REL can be found at www.chiariglione.org/mpeg/ and at www.iso.ch/.

Agnostic Media's PIAS™ Launch

11/25/03 - Agnostic Media's PIAS™ is a secure network-based and geographically distributed Photo Information and Archival System enabling customers to manage, edit, store, reformat/encode, and distribute digital images and photos. Agnostic Media's PIAS™ is changing the economics of producing and managing digital photos through its platform technologies which have broad applications in numerous markets while producing levels of quality unrivaled in the current marketplace.

PIAS™ is ideally suited for:

Photographers
Editors
Photo Archive Administrators
Online Stock Image Libraries
Marketing Groups

PIAS™ was built upon the Agnostic Media Frameworks™.

Agnostic Media, Inc. launches Version 2.0 of its revolutionary DMMP™ (Distributed Media Management Platform). DMMP™

09/29/03 - Agnostic Media, Inc. launches Version 2.0 of its revolutionary DMMP™ (Distributed Media Management Platform). DMMP™ is the leader in end to end enterprise media asset management for broadcasters, post production facilities, and media entertainment companies.

DMMP™ is a complete network-based application, which quickly and seamlessly integrates with any customer existing infrastructure. Version 2.0 of DMMP™ features real-time or faster than real-time transcoding; native support for AVID files as well as any other video, audio, or image file formats; complete MPEG-4 integration; extensive image processing and manipulation; HD transcoding to 1080i; and sequential image transcoding from DPX images. DMMP™ Version 2.0 still maintains its ease of use and its accessibility to any user with a web-browser.

DMMP™ was developed on Microsoft Corporation's .NET platform. Agnostic was an early adopter of .NET and was an early beta tester. "Our ability to access early .NET technology gave us the toolset and competitive advantage that we required to quickly and efficiently build and deploy an enterprise class distributed platform for managing large volumes of digital media across the entire network", says Kirk Marple, CTO and VP of Agnostic. "DMMP™ is clearly an advanced application platform. It allows us to bring on new customers literally within hours. Our closest competitor takes months to integrate with any new customer.". says Jason Turner, Agnostic's CEO.

DMMP™ licenses are available to customers on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis with no additional hardware or IT support required. It can also be deployed on-site, using existing customer hardware. Flexible licensing options are available to service providers or networking companies who wish to offer a private branded network application.