|
Newsletters
|
|
|
|
|
Wireless Developer Network - Daily News
Visit the WirelessDevNet Symbian DevZone
Today's News |
Yesterday's News |
Submit News |
News-"wireless" Top Stories! |
Around-The-Web
| Wireless DevZones!
SK Telecom and Thin Multimedia Successfully Launch World's First Multimedia Wireless Service to use Software-Only Decoder
URL(s): SK Telecom Thin Multimedia
SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 26, 2001--SK Telecom (NYSE:SKM) (www.sktelecom.com) one of the
world's leading wireless telecommunications operators, and Thin Multimedia (www.thinmultimedia.com), a leading
provider of wireless multimedia solutions, today launched n.TOP(TM) Multimedia, the world's first software-only
decoder-based multimedia wireless service. n.TOP(TM) Multimedia offers subscribers more than 200 content channels,
including animations, multimedia email, movies, music, and TV programs. n.TOP(TM) Multimedia is offered on both IS
95-A/B and CDMA 2000 1x networks.
"Thin Multimedia's technology is compelling because it enables regular mobile phones without additional DSP chips to
play multimedia content and still plays video with high quality. " said Dr. Sung Cheol Hong, Vice President, Wireless
Internet Division of SK Telecom. "Previous wireless multimedia services required mobile phones with chips dedicated to
play multimedia, and these phones' prices are beyond the reach of average consumers. We expect that it would take
some time until the multimedia chips become affordable. Much higher adoption is expected with inexpensive multimedia
mobile phones using Thin Multimedia's technology."
Thin Multimedia is powering SK Telecom's wireless service with a comprehensive set of solutions. SK Telecom
subscribers will use TCM-2 Decoder on mobile phones to play multimedia content, while TCM-2 Server/Encoder on the
backend simultaneously stream multimedia content to thousands of mobile phones. Content providers can readily convert
their existing multimedia line-up into the TCM-2 format using TCM-2 Creator. Thin Multimedia's technology not only
enables mobile phones to play multimedia content without additional hardware but also enables mobile phones with
cameras to capture live video and stream it to other mobile phones. In addition, a PC user can send live video from his
PC with a web camera to mobile phones with TCM-2 Decoder.
The core technology behind Thin Multimedia's products is TCM-2, a proprietary encoding/decoding algorithm that
requires significantly less processing on mobile phones than competing technologies that are usually variations of MPEG.
"Because MPEG is originally designed for PCs with much more processing power and no battery life concerns,
variations of MPEG still require excessive processing and battery usage on mobile phones" said Chuck Yoo, Founder
and CEO of Thin Multimedia. "Thin Multimedia started out with a whole new scheme designed for `thin' devices such as
mobile phones, PDAs and set-top boxes and has made significant progress since 1997. With our commitment to R & D,
we expect to make additional enhancements in efficient usage of processor, battery, video quality and error resilience."
TCM-2 Decoder is the first successfully developed software-only decoder in the world and has been under development
for sometime by Thin Multimedia and SK Telecom. Both companies plan to jointly pursue opportunities in other countries.
About SK Telecom
SK Telecom is the largest CDMA cellular service provider in the world with more than 13.4 million subscribers as of
June 2001, based on the accumulated expertise for over 16 years of its state-of-the-art technological know-how in the field
of wireless communications. It has diversified its business scope to IMT-2000, multimedia online service, International
Call, Handset manufacturing, and GMPCS. SK Telecom is listed on the London and New York Stock Exchange Markets
(NYSE:SKM). For more information on SK Telecom, visit the World Wide Web at http://www.sktelecom.com.
About Thin Multimedia
Thin Multimedia offers a comprehensive set of software-based wireless multimedia solutions including decoding,
encoding, authoring and streaming that offer excellent playback quality with minimal usage of processor and battery as
well as high error resilience. Thin Multimedia works with wireless operators, cell phone manufacturers, and content
providers to offer mobile consumers a variety of multimedia contents, including news and financial stories, sports
highlights, music videos, weather and traffic reports, and home or work security cameras, from any location. For more
information, please visit the company's website at http://www.thinmultimedia.com.
CONTACT: Company Contact:
Thin Multimedia:
Daniel Ko
(408) 309-8818
danko@thinmultimedia.com
or
Agency Contact:
TechWire International
Leo Pot
(831) 429-6288
information@ezwire.com
|
|
|
|
