MOUNTAIN
VIEW, Calif., March 9 -- SGI (NYSE: SGI) today announced that Loudeye
Technologies Inc., a leading provider of digital media solutions that
unleash the power of audio and video on the Internet, has chosen SGI
as its hardware vendor to accommodate the growth of digital media on
the Web. Together, Loudeye and SGI have developed what is believed to
be the world's most technologically advanced commercial digital media
lab for Loudeye's Seattle facilities.
The lab was designed to increase Loudeye's service capacity and efficiencies
for managing large volume projects such as preparing the North American
music library for Web delivery through its partnership with Valley Media.
The SGI solution for the online digital media archive includes a 12-processor
Origin 2400 server, StorageTek PowderHorn Library with 200TB of storage
capacity, 25TB (part of the Origin server family) of SGI fiber RAID
and VERITAS NetBackup and VERITAS Storage Migrator media management
software.
Leveraging its strategic partnerships with StorageTek and VERITAS Software,
the industry's leading enterprise-class application storage management
software provider, SGI will provide the digital archive as a turnkey
solution with production-level support. Loudeye will use the new lab
to deliver complete digital media solutions, including services and
applications for the encoding, management and distribution of content,
to its corporate, media, and entertainment customers.
Installation of the new SGI digital media lab solution will greatly
increase Loudeye's capacity to store, process and stream video and audio
and deliver the content to its customers' Web site. Loudeye is recognized
in the streaming media industry as a leading vendor in high-volume,
high-quality, scalable digital media services.
"Our relationship with SGI, StorageTek and VERITAS Software on this
project demonstrates the strength of our commitment to the quality and
scalability required to lead as a digital media solutions provider,"
said Doug Schulze, vice president of marketing, minister of markets
and solutions, Loudeye Technologies, Inc. "As we develop the next-generation
Internet media infrastructure for the encoding, management and distribution
of digital media, we remain focused on embracing best-of-breed technologies
and companies that play a pivotal role in driving the convergence of
audio and video on the Web."
"Loudeye's complete digital media solutions are an ideal fit with
our scalable server and high-performance computing technologies for
Media Commerce," said Greg Estes, vice president and general
manager, SGI Broadband and Internet Solutions division. "Our role
in the development of Loudeye's digital media lab reflects our common
vision to empower the next generation of Internet technologies."
Origin Servers Tackle the World's Toughest Problems
The Origin server family from SGI is the leading choice for high-performance,
compute-intensive tasks. For example, Origin servers will transform
nearly 1 trillion measurements recorded by Shuttle Endeavor into the
most detailed 3D topographic map of Earth ever made. In addition, the
U.S. Census Bureau is upgrading its nationwide network of SGI Origin
servers. In preparation for Census 2000, this upgrade has more than
doubled the bureau's processing power, storage and memory in the 46
SGI Origin systems connecting 15 locations, used to generate intricately
detailed maps from massive amounts of geographic data.
About Origin Servers
The SGI 2000 server family is used for high-performance, computationally
intensive applications in business, government and the scientific and
technical communities. Use of SGI MIPS processors, combined with its
IRIX operating system and ccNUMA architecture in a 64-bit scalable server
environment, allows Origin to scale to thousands of processors, providing
the opportunity to seamlessly grow as customer requirements demand.
The company will announce later this year its next-generation NUMA architecture
and advanced cluster technology based on MIPS and Intel IA-64 processors.
About VERITAS NetBackup and VERITAS Storage Migrator
VERITAS NetBackup is the industry's leading enterprise data protection
solution that provides centralized control from a single management
interface. VERITAS Storage Migrator is a multi-tier hierarchical storage
management solution that automatically migrates seldom-used files from
primary to secondary storage while providing transparent access to those
files.
About Loudeye
As a leading Internet media infrastructure company, Loudeye delivers
complete digital media solutions, including services and applications
for the encoding, management and distribution of content. Loudeye recently
secured a $48 million third round of financing by companies dedicated
to advancing the streaming media industry, including America Online,
CBS, Intel, Microsoft, and NBC. Technology companies such as Cisco Systems,
Inc., Hewlett-Packard and Oracle Corporation and media and entertainment
companies such as AtomFilms, BMG Entertainment, EMusic.com, EMI-Capitol
Music Group, Sony Corporation, Warner Bros. Online and Universal New
Media have unleashed a new audio and video experience on their Web sites
through Loudeye. Experience Loudeye at http://www.loudeye.com.
About SGI
SGI provides a broad range of high-performance computing and advanced
graphics solutions that enable customers to understand and conquer their
toughest computing problems. Headquartered in Mountain View, Calif.,
with offices worldwide, the company is located on the Web at http://www.sgi.com.
