40 COMPANIES INCLUDING PROGRESSIVE NETWORKS AND NETSCAPE TO SUPPORT REAL TIME STREAMING PROTOCOL (RTSP)

RTSP IS A PROPOSED STANDARD FOR DELIVERY OF REAL-TIME MEDIA OVER THE INTERNET AND INTRANETS

SEATTLE (October 14, 1996) -- Progressive Networks and Netscape Communications Corporation (NASDQ: NSCP) today announced that 40 companies including Apple Computer, Autodesk/Kinetix, Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Silicon Graphics, Sun Microsystems, Macromedia, Narrative Communications, Precept Software and Voxware support the Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP), a proposed open standard for delivery of real-time media overthe Internet. RTSP is a communications protocol for control and delivery of real-time media. It defines the connection between streaming media client and server software, and provides a standard way for clients and servers from multiple vendors to stream multimedia content. Widespread support for this unified standard will help ensure interoperability and give application developers more flexibility in developing robust multimedia applications. The first draft of the protocol specification, RTSP 1.0, was submitted to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) on October 9, 1996.

The 40 companies supporting RTSP are: 3Com, Apple Computer, Adaptive Media, Adobe Systems, Autodesk/Kinetix, Bay Networks, Berkeley Integrated Audio Software, Borland International, CheckPoint Software Technologies, Cisco Systems, Corel, Digital Equipment Corporation, Dolby Laboratories, elemedia, FutureWave, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Informix Software, in:sync, Iterated Systems, Liquid Audio, LiveUpdate, Lucent Technologies, Macromedia, Narrative Communications, NeXT, NetManage, Netscape Communications, OLiVR, Precept Software, Progressive Networks, Raptor Systems, RADVision, SCO, Silicon Graphics, Sonic Foundry, Starlight Networks, Sun Microsystems, Voxware, and VXtreme.

"Until now, each vendor of Internet multimedia systems had a different approach, which has led to confusion among developers and end users. RTSP offers a strong framework for streaming-media applications and integrates well with advanced protocols that the Internet is moving to," said Jerry Michalski, managing editor of Release 1.0. "This, combined with the impressive group of industry-leading companies that support RTSP, should catalyze streaming media development onthe Web."

"RTSP will do for streaming multimedia what HTTP did for text and graphics publishing," said Rob Glaser, founder and CEO of Progressive Networks. "Currentlythere are millions of RealAudio users, listening to hundreds of thousand of hours of streaming RealAudio a week, but once you have a standard that allows forinteroperability, like RTSP, the development of real-time multimedia on the Web will explode."

"Netscape is continuing to enrich its software platform by incorporating new multimedia features built on open standards," said Mike Homer, senior vice president of marketing at Netscape. "Netscape client and server software will support the RTSP protocol, enabling customers to leverage interoperable multimedia software solutions from many vendors to improve communications and collaboration on corporate Intranets."

RTSP evolved from work done at Progressive Networks and Netscape. It incorporates aspects of the International Telecommunications Unions H 323 specificationand is designed to deliver rich multimedia experiences while helping minimize the overhead of multimedia delivery. RTSP will take advantage of Internet andIntranet infrastructure improvements, such as IP Multicast, RTP and RTCP.

Within the Open Standards Process, the affinity between H.323 and RTSP will make it easier for the industry to bring the worlds of telephony, conferencing andmultimedia broadcasting together.

Real Time Streaming Protocol:

• Provides for on-demand access of multimedia items such as stored real-time audio/video files, live real-time feeds, or stored non-real-time items.
• Allows interoperability between client-server multimedia products from multiple vendors. Allowing interoperability will give multimedia application developers more flexibility and choice.
• Can be implemented across multiple operating system platforms (Macintosh, Windows 95/NT, Windows 3.1 for clients; Macintosh, Windows NT, UNIX variants on servers). RTSP will allow great flexibility for vendors deploying multimedia applications.
• Is built on top of Internet standard protocols, including: UDP, TCP/IP, RTP, RTCP, SCP and IP Multicast.
• Provides for control and delivery of real-time media and associated events between a media server and large numbers of media clients.
• Addresses key concerns of Internet content providers and users: quality of service, efficiency of delivery, rights management, measurement, and provides an underpinning for developing the richest possible streaming multimedia applications.

Based in Seattle, Progressive Networks develops and markets software products and services designed to enable users of personal computers and other digital devices to send and receive real-time media using the today's infrastructure. Since the introduction of the RealAudio system in April of 1995, over 10 million Players have been distributed including 8 million from the RealAudio Web site (http://www.realaudio.com) with over 40,000 downloads daily.

Netscape Communications Corporation is a premier provider of open software for linking people and information over enterprise networks and the Internet. The company offers a full line of clients, servers, development tools and Netscape Communication applications to create a complete platform for next-generation, live online applications. Traded on NASDAQ under the symbol "NSCP," Netscape Communications Corporation is based in Mountain View, California.

Additional information on Netscape Communications Corporation is available on the Internet at http://home.netscape.com, by sending email to info@netscape.com, or by calling 415/937-2555 (corporate customers) or 415/937-3777 (individuals).

Netscape is a trademark of Netscape Communications Corporation. RealAudio and RealMedia are trademarks of Progressive Networks. All other product names aretrademarks of their respective companies.