'ANT PurePlay' digital-media management software launched for consumer electronics devices

Cambridge, UK, 19 August 2003

ANT Limited, the leading developer of user interface solutions for TV and consumer electronics (CE), launches ANT PurePlay, a TV application that enables consumers to view, play, and manage digital media files, including photos, audio and video. It is targeted as a value-added application for manufacturers of CE products, including TV and iDTV, personal video recorders (PVR), set-top boxes (STB), DVD players, and home-gateway products.

ANT PurePlay comprises a family of complementary digital media management (DMM) applications. The software can retrieve digital-media files from any local or networked storage, organise and manage them, and display them on TV, enabling family and friends to enjoy photo slide shows, music and audio collections, and video clips together in the living room.

"With ANT PurePlay in its portfolio, ANT once again demonstrates why it is the leading producer of software for consumer electronics devices in the home", said Simon Woodward, President and CEO of ANT Limited. "ANT PurePlay is built on ANT's considerable experience in this field, and benefits from the maturity of its existing portfolio and unrivalled skill in the development of low-footprint CE software that delivers a quality user experience."

The first member of the PurePlay family is ANT PurePlay Photo, which provides easy-to-use digital photo-management capabilities. The value of the digital camera market is fast outstripping that of the traditional camera market, with some regions experiencing annual growth rates above 200%. Families and individuals are amassing large collections of digital photos and other media types with no easy way of sharing them in the living room. ANT PurePlay Photo can be integrated into TVs, set-top boxes and other CE devices to provide the perfect solution to this ever-growing problem. Other ANT PurePlay family members include audio and video DMM applications, which have already been demonstrated in concept form.

"ANT PurePlay enhances ANT's media-rendering and user-interface software portfolio for new and existing customers," said Stephen Reeder, Director of Sales and Marketing, ANT Limited. "ANT is always looking for ways to provide innovative and valuable software solutions to CE manufacturers. ANT PurePlay is also a highly effective way to add differentiation and new functionality to CE products. We are tremendously excited by the potential that this software unlocks for CE manufacturers in their continuous goal of differentiation."

Adding ANT PurePlay technology provides manufacturers with a powerful way to add considerable customer value to their products for little additional cost or risk. It is designed from the ground up to make best use of the hardware available in TVs, set-top boxes, DVD players, PVRs, etc., keeping the overall cost low and providing the best CE experience to its customers. ANT PurePlay can be tailored to the exact requirements of the manufacturer, including configuration of available features, optimisation, input devices (remote controls) and memory card types. The user interface can also be configured to suit a client's brand, and to provide an integrated look-and-feel.

Over the coming months ANT will be announcing partnerships with key silicon vendors who have optimised ANT PurePlay for their silicon. These partnerships are key to reducing the time required to make ANT PurePlay available to manufacturers of CE devices, as well as reducing the risk from innovation.

About ANT Software Limited

ANT plc (www.antplc.com) is a leading provider of digital TV client and consumer electronic software solutions. ANT's unique client solutions allow robust and consistent delivery of digital-media, user interfaces, interactive services and applications to the TV and portable media devices. ANT enables service providers to efficiently create and deploy successful solutions to the market that deliver high value and clear differentiation.

ANT's products are pre-integrated with many industry-leading solutions and are based upon open standards, enabling low-risk, cost-effective roll-out of services, while ensuring flexible client hardware choice with efficient bill of materials. ANT software has been extensively deployed by customers throughout the world including Chunghwa Telecom, Foxconn, France Telecom, Humax, LG/Nortel, Philips, Sagem, Samsung, SaskTel, Telecom Italia and Thomson.

ANT plc's shares are listed on AIM, a London Stock Exchange regulated market, under the ticker ANTP (Reuters: ANTP.L, Bloomberg: ANTP.LN).

Trademarks

ANT, the ANT logo, Galio, Fresco and PurePlay are all trademarks or registered trademarks of ANT Software Limited. All other brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

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