Philips and StarBurst Join Forces to Provide Seamless Platform for Data Broadcasting via Satellite.

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 19, 1999--

La Cinquieme is First to Utilize Solution for Distance Learning

at French Schools

Philips Digital Video Systems Company and StarBurst Software have joined forces to provide a seamless solution for one-to-multipoint high-speed data broadcasting of video, audio, software and large data files, it was announced by Jeff Rosica, vice president and general manager, Philips Digital Video Systems Company, North America, and Harland LaVigne, president, StarBurst Software.

The Bank of Programs and Services (BPS) of La Cinquieme, a French state-owned television station focusing on knowledge, training and employment, is the first customer to utilize StarBurst's OmniCast together with the Philips CleverCastPC(tm) system consisting of PC-DVB receivers and an IP-DVB Gateway.

This solution is used to guarantee the simultaneous distribution of a digital pool of audiovisual programs dedicated to actors in educational and social fields. To take advantage of this solution, Philips CleverCast PC Digital Receiver Cards are now being installed in the PCs of thousands of French educational and social sites.

The Philips solution includes the DVS501X/1 IP-DVB Gateway -- a fully DVB-compliant data encapsulator for professional data applications, which receives IP datagrams and encapsulates them into a DVB-ASI compliant MPEG-2 transport stream. To receive the broadcast services, PCs will utilize the Philips DVB-compliant receiver card. The IP-DVB Gateway and the PC-DVB receiver card are the two key components of Philips' DVB compliant, end-to-end high-speed data- casting solution, CleverCastPC.

"We are extremely pleased to have provided the equipment to La Cinquieme for the first installation of CleverCastPC in France. It is the most advanced data broadcasting system available today and the CleverCastPC is easy to install, operate and maintain, making it especially suited for this type of application," said Rosica.

"Educators, government entities, broadcasters and many other new global market niches are discovering the advantages of one-to-many, guaranteed content distribution," added StarBurst's LaVigne. "This is something corporate enterprises have generally begun to adopt over the last two years to distribute everything from training videos to web server replication to Year 2000 software updates.

"By working with a premier satellite technology provider like Philips, we just make it that much easier for enterprises and consumers to quickly deploy -- and thus quickly realize, cost savings, time-to-market advantages and overcome their remote communications hurdles."

Users of the new system will have access to the Web catalog of a large pool of high-value audiovisual programs, with the ability to download them to their PCs via a satellite from Eutelsat's HotBird 3. They can then watch the programs, played back from the PC hard disk, on the PC monitor or a television set connected to the PC card.

CleverCastPC(tm) is an end-to-end DVB-compliant platform for high-speed data broadcasting, that delivers digital video, audio and data via satellite to personal computers fitted with a PC-DVB digital receiver card.

StarBurst Software offers a solution that provides one-to-many, simultaneous, guaranteed content distribution to any number of servers or desktops in a tight time frame. StarBurst products can simultaneously distribute to all servers or desktops over a LAN or WAN, regardless of network type, receiving operating system, number of receivers, or content size.

In France, StarBurst products are distributed by ODYSSEE Ingenierie.

Starburst Software is the leader in developing content distribution solutions that provide one-to-many, simultaneous and guaranteed transmission of content such as video, audio, software and large data files to hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands of remote sites, LAN servers and desktops.

Starburst customers include automotive companies such as General Motors, Ford and Chrysler; retail companies like Toys 'R Us, TJ MAXX, The Gap, Wal-Mart and Rite Aid; hospitality companies including Choice Hotels and Promus Hotels; financial companies such as Ohio Companies and Thompson Securities Information Services; communications companies such as Web TV; and many other industry leaders from a wide array of markets worldwide.

More information can be found at StarBurst's World Wide Web site, http://www.starburstsoftware.com.

Philips Digital Video Systems, a division of Philips Electronics North America Corp., is a leading manufacturer of digital equipment and systems for the professional television and video production communities, and is a world leader in MPEG-2 compression and transmission systems.

-- North American headquarters is located in Salt Lake City.

Phone: [phone]; Fax: [phone].

-- European headquarters is located in Eindhoven, The Netherlands.

Phone: [phone].

-- South American headquarters is located in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Phone: [phone].

-- Far East/Pacific Rim headquarters is located in Singapore.

Phone: [phone].

Philips Electronics, of The Netherlands, is one of the world's largest electronics companies, with sales of more than US$39 billion in 1997. It is a global leader in color television sets, lighting, home telephony products and electric shavers.

Its 264,700 employees in more than 60 countries are active in the area of semiconductors and components, consumer products, professional products and systems, lighting, and software and services.

Philips is quoted on the NYSE, London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and other stock exchanges.

News from Philips is located at www.news.philips.com.