Kontiki announced the fifth generation of its flagship software, giving consumer media companies and enterprises the industry's most advanced, fully-functioned and secure solution for delivering DVD-quality video across the Internet or enterprise. Demand for Kontiki's field-proven delivery system is increasing rapidly, as consumer media companies seek new ways to monetize their content and enterprises embrace new media-rich methods of effectively communicating with employees and customers.

Called Kontiki 5.0, the new, enhanced platform enables content providers and enterprises to securely publish, protect, deliver and track rich media content at a fraction of the cost of traditional distribution systems, while giving users on-demand access to rich media content. Kontiki is already deploying its platform at some of the world's largest media companies including America Online, Inc. and the BBC, in addition to a number of large enterprises including Avanade.

Just as enterprises have always been concerned with protecting and securing online video content distribution, consumer media companies are beginning to focus on the same issues as technology advancements and broadband access become more widespread and pervasive. With broadband adoption expected to reach 46 million households by 2008 and increasing consumer demand for rich media content to be delivered via the Internet, the need for secure solutions to deliver content to a wide range of users is real.

"With consumer spending for online content reaching into the billions of dollars last year and the demand for high-quality, online video soaring, consumer media companies are looking to leverage the Internet for new revenue streams and marketing vehicles. At the same time, enterprises are looking for cost-effective ways to distribute vital content to their clients and employees," said Todd Johnson, CEO of Kontiki. "Kontiki 5.0 allows consumer media companies to take advantage of opportunities now. With Kontiki 5.0, our customers can quickly and cost-effectively deliver the most compelling video-on-demand experiences available today."

The new Kontiki 5.0 platform features enhanced central management and controls to support legal and legitimate publishing activities, copyright protection through digital rights management (DRM), full-screen DVD-HDV quality and a highly-scalable and cost-effective delivery model. The platform is also fully customizable to support the extension of consumer branding.

"Kontiki has worked with the BBC on phase one of the trial for our integrated Media Player (iMP) and we are currently in the middle of phase two. Kontiki's product allows the BBC to trial the properties of a legal peer-to-peer distribution capability to cost-effectively make our programmes available to audiences whenever and however they want them," said Ashley Highfield, Director of New Media & Technology for the BBC.

Alex Blum, Vice President of Audience Products at America Online, Inc. commented, "AOL's continued efforts to lead in the general migration from text based experiences on the web to video based experiences continues through our successful trials of Kontiki's delivery platform for high-resolution video."

Kontiki 5.0 Delivery Management System

A new plateau for rich media delivery, the Kontiki 5.0 delivery management system is a comprehensive software solution that expands on the company's pioneering video delivery software. The enhanced platform combines:

-- Content security -- Allows only authorized users to receive and view content and employs MS DRM (Digital Rights Management) to prevent unauthorized or illegal copying or sharing of content with another individual or device. This assures the enterprise that sensitive video communications cannot be sent externally and guarantees consumer media companies that their copyrighted content cannot be compromised through illegal file sharing.

-- Content audit and tracking features -- Lets companies know that content has been delivered to a user's device, and provides the ability to view timely reports, such as most popular content items, when end-users viewed content and how long they viewed it. Consumer media companies can measure the effectiveness and popularity of specific content. Enterprises can measure content consumption by employee or by region. For example, an enterprise rolling out a sales training program can measure who has viewed the training content and how frequently they accessed the content, allowing measurement against sales performance.

-- Controlled publishing -- Only authorized users or groups can publish content for distribution. For example, unauthorized communications from a disgruntled employee or the publishing of content into the system from outside of the company is prevented.

-- Efficient P2P Delivery -- Maximizes the delivery and download speed of media content and manages bandwidth usage to reduce service provider costs. The peer-to-peer download process is transparent to the end user and does not impact the performance of the device.

-- Customization and Integration -- Kontiki 5.0 features a robust set of APIs enabling the enterprise and consumer media company to create fully customized and branded user interface.

-- DVD-HDV Quality -- Video quality is preserved, with full-screen, DVD or HDV quality.

Major Enhancements in Kontiki 5.0:

-- Consumer Services -- Kontiki 5.0's set of robust APIs enables consumer media companies to build powerful IPTV platforms for the consumer, offering services such as a TV-style program guide with search, season tickets and tags to popular content. It also allows content providers to build additional services into their offering such as ad-serving and payment systems.

-- Complete UI Customization and Branding -- Both the enterprise and content provider have the option to fully customize and brand the UI to create a rich interactive experience for the end user.

-- Fast Distribution From Behind the Firewall -- Kontiki 5.0's new UDP-based protocol allows content to be delivered from one device behind a firewall to another device behind a different firewall. This is a particularly powerful feature for content providers wanting to deliver authorized content to consumers in a more efficient way without worrying about firewall settings blocking authorized content or impacting the performance of the network.

-- Scalability -- Kontiki 5.0 exceeds its predecessor in the size of files it can distribute, now accommodating file sizes in the tens of terabytes. This supports even the largest of consumer facing deployments using the largest media files such as DVD images.

-- Application Integration -- Kontiki 5.0 is flexible enough to be deployed as a standalone application, as Windows based service, or as an ActiveX control, so it can be easily integrated as part of an enterprise or consumer portal or embedded within a custom media client application.

-- Support for Multiple Devices -- Content can be played on multiple devices in addition to PCs and laptops, such the Apple iPod and Windows Media Center devices.

Global firms like Avanade, a technology integrator specializing in Microsoft enterprise solutions, and professional services leader Ernst & Young, are benefiting from the Kontiki platform through secure content sharing and publishing, uninterrupted business operations, improved employee-to-client distribution of content, and optimized network bandwidth.

"Avanade required a secure solution that could co-exist with our existing network infrastructure," said Jeff Laird, manager of Avanade Learning & Knowledge Services operations for Avanade. "By deploying a complete content delivery solution from Kontiki, we can enjoy worry-free file distribution that is easy to maintain, while our employees concentrate on business matters versus technology issues."