Sony, GlowPoint Announce IVE - Instant Video Everywhere

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Sony, GlowPoint Announce IVE - Instant Video Everywhere

Sony in a continuing relationship with GlowPoint, announced earlier today the availability of the new IVE (pronounced "Ivy") or Instant Video Everywhere service. The announcement heralds the latest move in Sony's IP communications strategy, specifically focusing on video. In March, I had the chance to check out Sony's IPELA launch. Today's announcement had me excited as well. I plan to keep a close eye on what Sony and GlowPoint will do as they evolve their product line and make good on a rather interetsing roadmap over the course of the next little while. I urge you to do the same.

The release follows below.

Sony and GlowPoint Team Up on ''Instant Video Everywhere'' IP-Based Communication Service

PARK RIDGE, N.J. & HILLSIDE, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 1, 2005--Sony Electronics and GlowPoint, Inc. (NASDAQ: GLOW - News) today announced the availability of Sony's IVE or "Instant Video Everywhere" service powered by GlowPoint, the first comprehensive IP-based video communications solution that can be used any place where there is broadband access.

Sony's IVE service, powered by GlowPoint, enables users to conduct "face-to-face" video conversations with colleagues, friends and family as easily as using a telephone. The IVE (pronounced "ivy") service portfolio has been developed to extend across multiple Sony product lines, moving beyond the conference room and typical videoconferencing equipment to desktop or laptop computers and other video-enabled devices.

Sony's IVE Business service, available now, is the first offering in the IVE portfolio. It is designed to meet the needs of office-based business professionals.

Sony's new IVE Mobile service, scheduled to debut at Infocomm beginning June 8, is focused on video communications capabilities for telecommuters, home office workers and business travelers in the U.S. and around the world. IVE Mobile will offer exclusive, feature-rich capabilities including one-click access to a live IVE Video Operator. Advanced registration is immediately available at www.sonyive.com.

Additional IVE offerings include Sony's IVE Home service, targeted to deliver a broad range of consumer-based video communication solutions.

"We've created an engaging communications experience, allowing people to interact wherever they are," said Michael McCausland, vice president of visual communications at Sony Electronics. "Using the power of IP-based video, we have teamed up with GlowPoint to expand video communications beyond the conference room to where people actually conduct business - at their desks, in their home offices or on the road. Sony's new IVE service is a key element of our vision to transform communications by integrating and interconnecting people, locations, devices and content in real-time over unlimited distances with an unsurpassed level of quality."

While fully integrated for use with Sony's state-of-the-art IPELA(TM) visual communications product line, the IVE service is an open standards solution that is operable for all companies using IP-enabled videoconferencing equipment, regardless of product manufacturer.

"This is more than a video communications product and service," said David Trachtenberg, president and CEO of GlowPoint. "It is a video-enabled community that truly delivers on the promise of anytime, anywhere face-to-face communications. This is the first in a series of IVE solutions offered by Sony and powered by GlowPoint that will ultimately change the way people communicate in their jobs and their everyday lives - whether at work, in a home office, airport lounge, hotel room or coffee shop."

Sony's IVE service incorporates GlowPoint's "All You Can See" Unlimited Video Calling plans and patent-pending interactive video communications features, including access to live Sony "000" Video Operators and "Lisa," the IVE Video Call Assistant, as well as innovative applications such as Video Call Mailboxes and Direct-Dial Video Numbers. Customers of Sony's IVE service will also have access to exclusive Sony content.

For example, users can dial "S-O-N-Y" (7669) to reach the IVE Video Portal for instant access to video previews of feature films, special promotions for new Sony products, IVE service updates, video customer service and more. These features are integrated into the IVE service to create a consistent customer experience from wherever video communications are occurring.

IVE Mobile: Taking IP Video on the Road

Sony's IVE Mobile service is a software-based personal video solution for virtually "anywhere, anytime" communications over a broadband connection.

The service makes placing a video call from out of the office as easy and spontaneous as placing a cellular phone call. The architecture, designed and powered by GlowPoint, is based on Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), and creates an easy-to-use customer experience with embedded firewall traversal and a self-configuring installation process. The SIP-based device enables the solution to leverage other SIP-based products providing future integration opportunities with instant messaging and presence capabilities.

The personal video solution leverages the industry's first fully deployed production SIP to H.323 gateway that was recently installed in the GlowPoint core IP network. This technology enables any user of Sony's IVE Mobile SIP client to see or talk to virtually any other visual communications client using either traditional conference room H.323 or legacy ISDN (H.320) video systems, a landline, cellular or even a 3G phone.

"As a current user of videoconferencing, I thought it would be interesting to be one of the first users of IVE Mobile," stated Helene Dublisky, CIO of Infilaw, a Florida-based consortium of Independent Law Schools. "But I didn't anticipate just how much it would change the way I communicate using video. We are a geographically dispersed group with a broad range of technical skills. With IVE Mobile, we're able to easily initiate face-to-face communications with business associates and friends whenever and wherever we want."

Sony's IVE Mobile service will also be available as a bundled offering for IVE Business customers using Sony PCS-TL50 desktop videoconferencing systems. The combined solution will provide customers the ability to un-dock their laptop computer and, using innovative "Follow Me" video technology, be contacted at the same 10-digit direct dial video number they use at their desk while traveling away from the office.

The services are already in use at select customer sites across the U.S. and at Sony offices nationwide. The services are also available for demonstration at Sony interactive product showrooms in major U.S. cities.

Sony's IVE Business and IVE Mobile services will be demonstrated in Las Vegas from June 8 to June 10 during the Infocomm industry conference in a special IVE Cafe at booth 3084 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

More information about the entire suite of Sony's IVE services, powered by GlowPoint, including an interactive product tour and pricing information, is available at www.sonyive.com.



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Office communication needs.........

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