EXPO 2000 : Talk to Otto Schily while listening to Bloodhound Gang

With software from deuromedia, Luxembourg presents itself as the pivotal point of the future information society

Merzig, 02. November 2000 Over a million of the 18 million who visited EXPO experienced the communications media of the future in the Luxembourg Multimedia Pavilion. On 45 terminals deuromedia software showed all the audio-visual commu-nication options on one piece of equipment - Bloodhound Gang, chatting with the Minister for the Interior, or interactive information and clips on culture, sport or the news and children's' programmes.

Convergence is getting closer: No shortage of visitors

The predominantly young viewers forced their way mostly in droves in front of the terminals. However it wasn't just young visitors who were enthusiastic about what was on show. As well as Grand Duke Jean of Luxembourg, the Deputy Prime Min-ister Lydie Polfer and other members of the government, Birgit Breuel, the Finance Minister for Saarland and EU Commissioner Viviane Reding also visited the multi-media pavilion.

For example, visitors could talk about e-government online with Otto Schily and also download the latest videos at the same time. Likewise contributions from sport, chil-dren or news sectors were also selected. Information on click rates and the period of time the visitors stayed at the terminals show, that above all it is the merging of the media that fascinates the viewers. Because all transmission and publication formats were selected by the visitors, no matter whether they were traditional TV contents or Internet formats: videos, cartoons or sports trailers prepared by TV stations, multi-media applications, e.g. from cultural institutions and Internet gateways like chat fo-rums were at the top of the contents items selected.

"The interest aroused by the EXPO presentation confirm our vision: audio-visual communications of the future will be unlimited and worldwide," said Dieter Weber, CEO of deuromedia. "Everything, anywhere, and at any time - and all on one piece of equipment at that, whether on a PC screen, a TV screen or on the road - the in-terest in it is there ".

At EXPO the boundaries of traditional access technologies were overcome, through the use of the DVB standard: regardless of whether they are TV or radio data, video or Internet format, the contents are called up by one server. The software processes formats like MPEG1, MPEG2 or 4, MP3, AVI, MOV ASF, etc. and presents them in sharply defined full picture mode.

With software from deuromedia 'Luxembourg connects people'

'Luxembourg connects people' was the title of the country's multimedia clips. In it Luxembourg shows the significance of information, knowledge and "know-how". "The big challenge for the future lies in ensuring a widespread, simple, real time ac-cess to information and knowledge", explains Lydie Polfer, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister, when opening Luxembourg Day at EXPO. The merging of TV, Internet and video makes it possible to cut out education, information and entertainment individually. The handling of the information is important, regardless of the projection medium: the contents must be reduced down to one format, which can be shown on all media.

Rob de Poorter, Market Development Director explains: "We are creating a new world in which electronic services and TV offers merge. Our software is already an-swering the question now whether TV and Internet will converge".

Luxembourg is at the crossroads of European cultures, and today, as the location of a competitive media and communications industry, internationally plays the role of a broker and communicator in the information society. The European Satellite Com-pany (Société Européenne des Satellites) fills a prominent position in this. The op-erators of the ASTRA satellite network broadcast audio and TV programmes and multimedia services in Europe. As ASTRANET's software partner, deuromedia has already today provided commercial solutions in producing, transmitting and receiv-ing the contents of them.

About deuromedia - the viewer company

deuromedia - the viewer company is an international software and solution provider based at Merzig, in the heart of Europe. deuromedia supplies a proven sender-receiver concept for broadband transmission based on the ASTRA satellite infrastructure to enable users to ac-cess digital contents on PC or TV. deuromedia software solutions provide a seamless con-vergence of all digital data channels in combination with an individualised selection of infor-mation by the user. With "the viewer", the product portfolio offers a multimedia user interface, providing the end-user with an instrument to receive and experience TV, radio and Internet contents on PC or TV. deuromedia offers business customers its "viewpro" platform for workstations, the transmission tool "viewmotion" and the management software package "viewmanage", a system facilitating point-to-point or point-to-multipoint data transfers. The solutions offered by deuromedia - the viewer company have applications in the fields of in-fotainment, business TV, corporate TV, videoconferencing, point-of-information presence, e-commerce, teleworking and staff training, database exchanges, software updates/upgrades and distribution.

deuromedia - the viewer company was founded by Dieter Weber in 1996 and currently em-ploys 150 people worldwide in the development and marketing of software solutions. The Munich-based Technologieholding VC acquired an interest in the company in 1998. deu-romedia - the viewer company consists of four main divisions: "deuroconsult S.R.L.", which is responsible for development, "Platform Sales" for the marketing of transmission tools, "Business Development" in Merzig.

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