"This is a major milestone in the work started with Microsoft last year, and underscores our belief that streaming media is finally ready for the corporate environment," said Jack Bradley, general manager of the Cisco Video Internet Services Unit. "Together, Cisco and Microsoft are responding to customer demands and delivering standards-based technologies, enabling essential multi-vendor solutions that are critical for success in the Internet economy."

"Our collaboration with Cisco delivers a robust solution for enterprise customers while building upon both the quality and integration our mutual customers have come to expect," said Anthony Bay, general manager, Streaming Media Division at Microsoft. "This integration underscores the customer demand for, and adoption of, Windows Media as a leading platform for media-rich business applications."

Combined Technologies Offer Customers a Range of Benefits

For corporate end users, today's announcement delivers a common user interface and seamless access to the content in the Windows Media format. Customers no longer need to switch players based on format or find the right servers to ensure the best quality of delivery. The Cisco IP/TV Viewer now provides a unified program listing of Windows Media, MPEG and IP multicast formats. At the same time, IP/TV viewers are directed to the most appropriate server to optimize network efficiency. The user now has transparent access to a wider range of programs.

The Cisco IP/TV 3411 control server manages, simplifies and scales video deployments on multi-service networks by controlling bandwidth usage, distributing content to remote servers, scheduling wide-reaching IP multicast broadcasts and monitoring server activity. It even selects the best video server in proximity to the viewer for greater network control in larger deployments. In addition, by supporting MPEG-2 video, the new Cisco IP/TV broadcast server can transmit video directly from DVD players.

The Microsoft Windows Media platform, meanwhile, provides additional high-quality audio and video delivery methods with comprehensive content creation tools - all integrated into a flexible and easy-to-manage server infrastructure.

By integrating with Windows Media, Cisco IP/TV now supports Microsoft's advanced compression techniques, Windows Media Audio and MPEG-4 video. This integration provides much higher quality with lower bandwidth requirements. Using the Windows Media Format, Cisco IP/TV delivers synchronized Web pages with an audio or video track for multimedia presentations. The new, high-performance Cisco IP/TV 3400 series systems conveniently package Cisco IP/TV softwareincluding Windows Media softwarewith hardware for faster customer deployments.

In addition, Cisco IP/TV adds a scalable, reliable and manageable solution set to Cisco AVVID (Architecture for Voice, Video and Integrated Data), which is a flexible, standards-based architecture for integrating voice and video traffic on a data infrastructure. By deploying a complete solution with Cisco AVVID, customers can implement Internet-based business models while achieving a lower total cost of ownership for the overall network.

Customers Benefit From IP/TV and Windows Media Collaboration

The University of Toledo recently was looking for a cost-effective way to broadcast the inauguration of new President Dr. Vik Kapoor to constituents around the world. Using the Internet with a cost-effective Windows Media-based solution became the obvious choice. The university selected Cisco IP/TV 3.0 software with integrated Windows Media to provide the scalability it needed to deliver the high quality broadcast to a variety of computing platforms.

"Cisco's IP/TV was the only product providing the flexibility to optimize the delivery of video for both our internal and external audiences," said Joe Drees, senior network administrator for the university. "IP/TV offered the highest quality video possible for each user, something we considered crucial to reaching our maximum on-line audience."

The New Cisco IP/TV Product Line

Cisco's IP/TV 3400 Series Servers and Cisco IP/TV 3.0 software provide a complete, turnkey solution for customers who are turning to streaming media to deliver rich, compelling business applications over networks.

Pricing and Availability

All servers, which come preconfigured with Cisco IP/TV software - including Windows Media Technologies, video cards, network interface cards and device drivers - are now available. Cisco IP/TV 3411 control server is sold for U.S. $15,000. Cisco IP/TV 3422 and 3423 broadcast servers are available for U.S. $15,000 and U.S. $27,000. Cisco IP/TV 3431 archive server is sold for U.S. $24,000. Cisco IP/TV 3415 Video Starter System is available for U.S. $25,000. Cisco IP/TV Viewer is free with this release. Cisco IP/TV is backed by the industry-leading SMARTnetT maintenance service and support program. More information about Cisco IP/TV and a free demo CD-ROM can be found at http://www.cisco.com/go/iptv.

About Windows Media Technologies

Windows Media Technologies is the leading digital media platform that provides consumers, content providers, solution providers, software developers and corporations with unmatched audio and video quality. Windows Media Technologies includes Windows Media Player, Windows Media Services, Windows Media Tools and Windows Media Audio SDK. More information is available at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) is the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and personal use, each designed with mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing.

Cisco Systems

Cisco, Cisco Systems and the Cisco Systems logo are registered trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. in the U.S. and certain other countries. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners.