Oratrix Development BV

http://www.oratrix.com/

GRiNS for SMIL WILL TRANSFORM MULTIMEDIA WEB AUTHORING

Amsterdam, The Netherlands (August 30, 1999) – Oratrix Development BV today
announced the release of GRiNS for SMIL V1.0, a unique authoring and
presentation system for local and streaming media on the Web.

GRiNS/SMIL allows content providers to create adaptive multimedia
productions that tailor content to the needs and resources of the user
community. Working together with RealNetworks RealSystem G2, GRiNS
provides access to the full capabilities of the SMIL language on Windows,
Macintosh and UNIX systems. Users on all these platforms can finally design
multimedia presentations with adaptive content.

According to Dick Bulterman, founder and managing director of Oratrix
Development, “GRiNS/SMIL will transform Web multimedia from a
one-size-fits-all paradigm to one in which the needs, resources and
capabilities of individual users can determine the quality and content
provided inside a streaming media presentation.”

Presentations can be made that not only adjust for bandwidth constraints,
but also for language (for example, English and Spanish), or media type
(text, image or video).

“GRiNS/SMIL fills a critical gap in the authoring market,” adds Bulterman.
“We greatly simplify the process of creating SMIL presentations for the
RealNetworks RealPlayer G2 at an affordable price.” Bulterman, described
by UK’s Internet Magazine as one of the Web’s 10 behind-the-sceens heroes,
says that the system’s ability to create adaptive presentations will open
up new value-added markets by allowing authors to tailor their content to
the needs and resources of their clients.

Commenting on the release, Len Jordan, senior vice-president, Media
Systems, RealNetworks, Inc. said: “GRiNS provides an intuitive and easy
complement to Realslideshow(TM) for users who want to exploit multiple
media types and advanced capabilities of both SMIL and RealSystem G2.”
Geoff Freed of CPB/WGBH National Center for Accessible Media added: “The
ability of GRiNS/SMIL to provide control of adaptive content for both
streaming media and the local GRiNS player will significantly lower the
barrier for creating presentations that are accessible to the widest
possible range of Web users.” Ivar Brinkman of Elsevier Science Publishers
noted: “The fact that GRiNS is available for Macintosh and UNIX as well as
Windows-98/NT allows Elsevier to work with all of our authors in evaluating
new approaches to showcase and enhance our printed publications.”

GRiNS/SMIL was developed by Oratrix Development BV, an Amsterdam-based
spin-off of CWI, the Dutch national center for mathematics and computer
science. Oratrix Development is winner of the McKinsey & Co. “New Venture”
award and has been selected by the Twinning Venture Capital Network in the
Netherlands. GRiNS/SMIL has been tested by over two thousand users
world-wide in beta form.
GRiNS/SMIL is available at http://www.oratrix.com/GRiNS/.

For more information contact Manja Strick van Linschoten at Oratrix
Development:

Email: Manja.Strickvl@oratrix.com
TEL: +31 20 679 5306
FAX: +31 20 679 5309