RealNetworks Products Integrated into Sony’s new e Villa Entertainment Center

by Alan Sheckter, Smart TV & Sound news editor

RealNetworks announced June 12, an agreement with Sony to integrate RealPlayer into Sony’s new e Villa Network Entertainment Center enabling consumers to enjoy their favorite Internet media away from the PC.

As part of the agreement, the e Villa user interface will include an on-screen preset button for the Real.com Guide, providing one-click access to what RealNetworks said is the best music and entertainment programming on the Web. Sony’s new device will also integrate the Real.com Radio Tuner providing access to the more than 2,500 radio stations worldwide broadcasting on the Internet.

The eVilla is available now for $499 plus a monthly ISP Service charge of
$21.95, and features a 15-inch, high-resolution, portrait-view display and stereo speakers, e Villa allows simple-to-use access to new services, including the Internet experience to households without a PC, mutimedia sharing, and a Memory Stick Media Slot for saving and mobilizing digital data. For more info, visit http://www.evilla.com/html/index.html.

This RealNetworks news followed the recent announcement that Sony Computer Entertainment will embed RealPlayer 8 and other RealNetworks client technologies on SCEI’s PlayStation2 computer entertainment system and the PlayStation 2 Software Development Kit (SDK), available later this year.