Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment Selects WAM!NET Services; Will Transmit DVD content Between Authoring Facility and Replication Center Through WAM!NET's Fast, Secure Network.

Business Editors & Technology Writers

EAGAN, Minn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 30, 2002

WAM!NET Inc. (www.wamnet.com) announced today that Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment (CTHE), a business unit of Sony Pictures Entertainment, has selected WAM!NET's fully managed networking and data storage services to seamlessly connect CTHE's operating and authoring centers in Culver City, California, to its DVD replication facility in Terre Haute, Indiana.

CTHE is a worldwide leader in the marketing, sales and distribution of DVDs and videocassettes. Among the more than 2,500 titles distributed by the company are BLACK HAWK DOWN (as of June 11), ALI, A KNIGHT'S TALE, America's Sweethearts, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (the fastest-selling DVD in CTHE history), Stuart Little, Charlie's Angels and The Patriot; and such film classics as Bridge on the River Kwai, Dr. Strangelove and Lawrence of Arabia.

Initially, CTHE will be sending DVD content for approximately 30 titles per month for duplication at the Sony Disk Manufacturing Plant in Terre Haute, Indiana.

With WAM!NET(R) services, CTHE has the only viable alternative to today's costly analog process of moving and sharing a project's myriad elements via removable media and physical couriers. Given the proprietary nature of CD/DVD content as well as the up to 9-gigabytes or more of data that makes up a single disc image, WAM!NET is the only digital content transmission and storage service suitable to provide fast, secure and guaranteed delivery of these data files.

Remarking on the service, Scott Partridge, CTHE's vice president of DVD Business Development, stated, "In order to maintain our leadership position in the industry, CTHE strives for the best operating procedures and is intent on squeezing more time into our production environment. We looked deeply at the functional workflow and determined significant time savings with using WAM!NET's services."

"We expect the intermediary time to transmission of content will be reduced by two to five days which will enable us to have more time for manufacturing and distribution. Ultimately this will expedite the goals of our sales and marketing group. Simply by removing the physical element of transportation, we gain more time in our already stressed environment," continued Mr. Partridge.

"We are extremely pleased to help expedite CTHE's workflow. When we conduct a return on investment analysis, removable media and couriers represent costs. But what's most important is the value of getting a product to market two to five days sooner. CTHE places significant value on compressing DVD production time, especially given that deadlines are inflexible," notes Tom Van Sickle, managing director of WAM!NET's Optical Media Segment. "Also, using WAM!NET's services to move their production content through a secure network takes physical media out of the hands of third parties who may not have CTHE's best interests in mind."

About Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment and Sony Pictures

Entertainment

Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment is a Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) company. SPE is a division of Sony Corporation of America (SCA), a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Sony Corporation. SPE's global operations encompass motion picture production and distribution; television production and distribution; digital content creation and distribution; worldwide channel investments; home entertainment acquisition and distribution; operation of studio facilities; development of new entertainment products, services and technologies; and distribution of filmed entertainment in 67 countries. Sony Pictures Entertainment can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.sonypictures.com.

About WAM!NET, Inc.

WAM!NET is a global provider of secure, digital content delivery and hosting solutions. The company's managed network, data storage, application hosting and professional services enable its customers to access the combination of IT services they need on an outsourced, subscription basis. In doing so, customers are connected with their partners and clients within WAM!NET's secure, online digital environment, enabling them to share, collaborate, store and manage content. With WAM!NET services, customers gain considerable productivity, time-to-market, and cost-saving benefits, and eliminate time-intensive and costly analog steps in their workflows, as well as the significant capital investments and systems management requirements often associated with proprietary networks or FTP workflows.

Headquartered in Eagan, Minnesota, WAM!NET commenced operations in 1994. The company has more than 15,000 corporate end users of its e-services worldwide. WAM!NET services are available in North America, Europe, and Japan. For information on the company, call 800-611-9006, or visit WAM!NET's website at www.wamnet.com.

WAM!NET is a registered trademark of WAM!NET, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.