Sun and Philips Broaden MPEG-4 Broadband and Wireless Alliance

by Alan Sheckter, Smart TV & Sound news editor

After collaborating for a year, Sun Microsystems and Philips Digital Networks’ MP4Net unit recently announced that they will work on promoting and marketing MPEG-4 products and technology into both the broadband and wireless marketplace.

Building a new open-standard replacement for existing proprietary streaming formats, the companies announced that together, they would greatly increase their focus on the development and promotion of the MPEG-4 standard for streaming audio, video and graphics.

The new ISO MPEG-4 standard, said Sun and Philips, will allow interactive, multimedia experiences to be streamed to PCs, new mobile phones and future home entertainment devices.

Further signaling the alliance between the two tech giants, Philips announced it will license Sun StorEdge Media Central server technology for use in future WebCine Server MPEG-4 offerings for the Solaris Operating Environment and Sun Cobalt servers.

Earlier this year, Sun and Philips became founding members of the
Internet Streaming Media Alliance, which is dedicated to
promoting the development and use of open standards, such as
MPEG-4, for IP-based media delivery.