Jim Parsons (NewTek Director of Strategic Marketing)
(913) 228-8000
Keith Goodman (Vice President, Sales and Marketing)
(303) 448-9700
Hollie Wendt (Communications Consultant)
(408) 688-1193
Steve Fritz (Sun Microsystems Computer Company)
(415) 786-8082
steve.fritz@sun.com
Siggraph, New Orleans, LA - NewTek, Inc. today announced that NewTek and Sun Microsystems Computer Company (SMCC) have finalized a development agreement that will bring the next generation of NewTek digital video tools to the Sun, Solaris and Ultra Computing environment. NewTek will utilize Sun's Java development language, and leverage its strengths in building easily portable tools and its ability to download applications across a network securely, to develop next generation Internet-based products. The target for these tools will be the large group of digital content creators and professionals in feature and broadcast video. According to Tim Jenison, chairman and founder of NewTek, "This development agreement provides us with the opportunity to create a new era of high-quality, low-cost, easy to use products for digital media creation that will benefit audiences from event videographers, to New York boardrooms, to Hollywood studios."
Java, the "Internet language," will play a major role in the creation of the NewTek product interface. The Java based interface will allow people to do collaborative video editing and production over the Internet. The potential that the Internet provides video producers as a production resource will allow for unprecedented flexibility. Producers will be able to communicate with clients from remote locations and get immediate feedback on creative direction. Input from artists and creative directors can happen simultaneously from locations throughout the world. Delays and expensive re-shoots and re-edits will be avoided.
Additionally, the ability of NewTek's LightWave 3D to output VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language) files for creating 3D objects for Internet web page creation, makes it a perfect complement to Sun's position in the Internet community as the leading provider of Internet servers.
Sun brings a large installed base in commercial markets, where visualization is a key component, to the relationship, as well as the Java development language. NewTek's choice of Java as a development language will take full advantage of the capabilities of the UltraSPARC workstation and Ultra 1 Creator 3D Graphics Accelerator. Java's write-once-run-everywhere capability, along with its easy accessibility, have propelled the software and Internet communities to embrace it as a de facto standard for writing applications for complex networks. "This agreement with NewTek will yield yet another explosion of Internet applications for creating, collaborating and communicating using digital medial tools. NewTek, who has been involved in the creation of productions such as Star Trek, Babylon 5, The Simpson's and GoldenEye, is embracing Java technology and Sun's Ultra Computing platform," said Gene Banman, vice president and general manager of desktop systems at Sun.
According to NewTek, technology sharing is another key ingredient of this development agreement and could include use of NewTek tools by Sun to create OEM and turnkey solutions, exploration of future technologies in video and related opportunities, and various co-marketing and sales activities. Sun Microsystems Computer Company is a world leader in the design, manufacture and sale of network computing systems and is a division of Sun Microsystems, Inc. Recognized for quality and innovation, the company's SPARC workstations and multiprocessing servers each hold the No. 1 UNIX market share position. These systems are used primarily by businesses, educational institutions and governments worldwide for technical, commercial, industrial, and softwaredevelopment.
NewTek, Inc. is the leader in providing full-featured video editing and special effects tools at a price that allows anyone to produce professional video graphics. The company's products are used worldwide on projects from home video to feature film and have won awards for television shows such as Babylon 5 and Star Trek.
NewTek headquarters are located in the middle of the Silicon Prairie
in Topeka, Kansas.
Contact NewTek at:
1200 SW Executive Drive,
Topeka, KS (913) 228-8000,
(913) 228-8099 (fax),
http://www.newtek.com.