Sonic Foundry Launches Next Generation of Its Interactive Mediasite Publisher Suite.

Business Editors and Technology Writers

NAB 2002

Booth #S6737

LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 9, 2002

Media indexing, archiving and search solution allows organizations

to maximize ROI on digital assets for marketing, communication and

training applications

Sonic Foundry(R) Inc. (Nasdaq:SOFO), a leading software and services provider of rich media content creation and management technologies, today unveiled MediaSite Publisher Version 5.0, a suite of software applications that provides the latest in media content integration, indexing and search technology.

MediaSite Publisher helps corporate enterprises, and educational, media and government organizations, increase the ROI associated with creating media content by enabling maximum reusability and accessibility. Its modular set of tools transforms audio, video and text assets into a dynamic medium for marketing, training, research and various other applications.

The core enabling technologies for MediaSite Publisher derive from Sonic Foundry's award-winning media capture and processing technologies and the recent integration of MediaSite's proprietary indexing and analysis engine -- ISLIP (Integrated Speech, Language and Image Processing). In 2001, both MIT and Frost & Sullivan recognized MediaSite for its digital media management and video mining technology. Since its acquisition of MediaSite late last year, Sonic Foundry has devoted extensive engineering resources to enhance the latest version of MediaSite Publisher, which represents the company's continued drive to provide media solutions that increase the value of digital assets and business collateral of all kinds.

MediaSite Publisher allows for the creation of online reference libraries of key communication content that can be easily and securely shared across any organization. Indeed, a variety of corporations, educational institutions and governmental agencies have recognized the benefits of using MediaSite Publisher to create easily searchable repositories of high-value, information.

"MediaSite Publisher has given us an easy, efficient strategy for transforming video into a powerful teaching and marketing tool," said Razi Imam, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development, CoManage Corporation. "MediaSite Publisher helps us explain complex ideas using a vivid, innovative method that keeps employees, customers, partners and investors engaged."

MediaSite Publisher 5.0 is hardware independent and features XML-export capabilities that allow other search engines to access media metadata. In addition, the suite now provides advanced security and access control, developed in response to increased organizational concerns about data integrity and security.

To increase the ROI associated with media creation, MediaSite Publisher 5.0 provides fully automated media management and workflow capabilities for efficiently processing and distributing audio, video, text and business documents, including emails, notes and PowerPoint(TM) presentations throughout the organization and to customers. On the user side, patented search and navigation technology provides multiple ways for media to be described, searched and located with frame-specific precision, giving users complete control over what and how they view, while reducing search and retrieval time and increasing productivity. Additional features of MediaSite Publisher v5.0 include:

-- Video cataloging, indexing and publishing to the Web.

-- Customizable players that dynamically display media content on demand.

-- Export/import of textual information into a metadata index. Re-use notes,
emails, transcripts and other documents to augment video descriptions.

-- Optional plug-in modules including Real-Time Speech Indexing, PowerPoint(R)
Indexing, AutoIndexing, Image Match Indexing, Highlights Indexing, and Media
Formats.

-- AutoSegmentation module that allows users to segment transcripts using time
and case sensitivity as criteria.

-- XML-export that allows re-use of media metadata by other search engines.

-- Support for industry standard databases such as Oracle and SQL Server.

-- Compliance with the federally mandated Section 508 of the Rehabilitation
Act.

"This release of MediaSite Publisher addresses the current market need for an intelligent multimedia communication vehicle that can re-purpose companies' text, audio and video data, bringing real value to their bottom line" said Rimas Buinevicius, CEO of Sonic Foundry. "The Information Age has presented organizations with significant amounts of data, and no real easy way to handle it. Enterprises will find that this latest version of MediaSite Publisher will scale to meet their most arduous media management demands, while saving time and money in the process."

In conjunction with MediaSite Publisher, Sonic Foundry is releasing the MediaSite Publisher Server, a server-side platform and set of applications that allows customers to build a smart, highly interactive browser-based client interface to seamlessly connect content and indexed metadata created by the MediaSite Publisher.

About Sonic Foundry(R), Inc.

Sonic Foundry, founded in 1991, is a leading provider of professional rich media solutions with offices in Madison, WI; Santa Monica, CA; Pittsburgh, PA; and, Toronto, Canada.

Sonic Foundry Media Software develops sophisticated software tools for the creation, editing and publishing of digital multimedia. Production professionals use its Sound Forge(R), ACID(TM), and Vegas(R) Video tools worldwide for everything from audio and video creation to non-linear digital video editing and streaming media development.

Sonic Foundry Media Systems (formerly MediaSite) provides customized development of automated rich-media applications, and scalable solutions that allow media and entertainment companies, as well as enterprises and government organizations, to deploy, manage and distribute video content on IP-based networks.

Sonic Foundry Media Services is the pre-eminent supplier of digitization, management, and delivery solutions for various industries, with emphasis placed on services for the entertainment sector. These services consist of conversion, reformatting, and encoding of television, film, and audio content for multiple delivery platforms. Serving as the link between content and customers, the services enable media delivery through existing and emerging distribution channels.

Certain statements contained in this news release regarding matters that are not historical facts may be forward-looking statements. Because such forward-looking statements include risks and uncertainties, actual results may differ materially from those expressed in or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include, but are not limited to, uncertainties pertaining to continued market acceptance for Sonic Foundry's products, its ability to succeed in capturing significant revenues from media services and/or systems, the effect of new competitors in its market, integration of acquired business and other risk factors identified from time to time in its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.