Live streaming over the Internet for everyone with Skinkers Livestation and Microsoft Silverlight

Skinkers keynote with Microsoft at Streaming Media East Exhibition

15 May 2007

New York: At the Streaming Media East Exhibition, Skinkers will join Microsoft on stage as part of the opening keynote presentation entitled “Microsoft’s Next-Generation Rich Media Platform”. The keynote, delivered by Sean Alexander, director of Video Platform for the Server and Tools Division at Microsoft Corp., describes how the Microsoft Silverlight application platform provides infrastructure tools for effective web delivery of rich content that includes audio and video. Joining Alexander on stage will be Matteo Berlucchi, CEO of Skinkers, who will showcase Skinkers Livestation - live streaming over the Internet that works!

Skinkers Livestation integrates Microsoft Silverlight with Skinkers P2P (peer-to-peer) technologies to set a new standard for cost effective and scalable delivery of quality live video content over the Internet. From small to large audiences, Silverlight and Livestation deliver a high quality user experience built on the first viable P2P technology for live streaming.

Matteo Berlucchi, CEO of Skinkers commented: “Internet broadcasting is without doubt the most exciting innovation in broadcasting since satellite and cable television. For content owners there is clearly a market for the many video on demand providers currently emerging, such as Joost,” said Berlucchi, “but there is an enormous demand to stream live TV-like experiences to the desktop, from the narrowcast end of the spectrum right through to very large audiences for must see events.”

“Current streaming techniques require expensive infrastructure demands to serve relatively small audiences. The start up cost for the narrow audiences is too high, and for the larger audiences the cost becomes prohibitive because of the issues of infrastructure scalability. With Skinkers Livestation, broadcasters can reach small audiences very cost effectively, but can also scale up to very large audiences for a fraction of the cost while guaranteeing a rich user experience with minimal latency and no buffering.”

Berlucchi also commented, “Combined with the capabilities of Silverlight, Skinkers Livestation will be able to deliver a truly cross platform solution and provide users with an unprecedented level of interactivity, delivered through a rich user experience. In addition, broadcasters can go to market with live streaming capabilities rapidly and cost effectively. Microsoft Silverlight and Skinkers Livestation deliver live streaming over the Internet for everyone.”

“The work between Microsoft and Skinkers to offer unparalleled rich interactive Web experiences adds great value to the growing online video and Internet broadcasting markets,” said Sean Alexander, director of Video Platform for the Server and Tools Division at Microsoft. “By integrating Silverlight with Livestation, we are enabling high-quality, cost-effective delivery of live video content for a wide range of audiences.”

Livestation is built on technology co-developed by Skinkers and Microsoft Research, who entered into a pioneering ‘technology for equity’ collaboration in June 2006. The software represents the most advanced structured P2P technology for high-speed content delivery available today. From the results of this research, Skinkers has developed the Live Delivery Network, a fully productized enterprise-class software environment designed to support P2P applications. Livestation will be the first product that leverages the unique characteristics provided by the Live Delivery Network when it is released later this year.

Microsoft Silverlight is a new cross-platform, cross-browser plug-in for delivering the next generation of media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web. Microsoft Silverlight (previously called Windows Presentation Foundation Everywhere) integrates with existing Web technologies and assets like Livestation to provide higher quality experiences with lower costs for media delivery. Delivered to end-users through a seamless, fast installation, Silverlight offers consistent experiences to both Mac and Windows users on a variety of browsers including Internet Explorer, FireFox and Safari.

Streaming Media East Conference

May 15 -16 2007, Hilton New York, New York

www.streamingmedia.com/east

About Livestation

Livestation is a software platform designed to distribute high quality live television and radio to mass audiences at dramatically reduced costs. It is based on peer-to-peer technology co-developed by Skinkers and Microsoft Research, who have entered into a pioneering technology for equity collaboration. Microsoft acquired a minority equity stake in Skinkers in exchange for full use of the Microsoft peer-to-peer intellectual property.

www.skinkers.com