First Live HDTV Over Internet Newscast Demonstrated at National Association of Broadcasters Convention

LAS VEGAS, NAB (Booth #L12107), April 10, 2000 - Broadcasters, telecommunication, and Internet experts celebrated today when the first live high definition television newscast produced over the Internet successfully reached television viewers in Seattle on KING 5's digital television channel. Attendees at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Convention in Las Vegas watched the live production in progress as four simultaneous HDTV streams were sent from Seattle over new high speed Internet networks to the Sony exhibition booth at the Convention Hall, switched on site for the live newscast, and streamed back over the Internet to Seattle for KING 5 viewers.

The demonstration required the use of high performance "Internet HDTV" software developed by a team of engineers at the University of Washington sponsored by the ResearchChannel. Internet HDTV software is compatible with both Sony HDCAM compression and HD switching technologies, as well as Internet protocols.

The first live long distance production over Internet networks was made possible using long-haul Internet transport from Enron Broadband Services and Internet backbone routers provided by Juniper Networks. Electric Lightwave Inc. provisioned the local loop from the KING 5 studios to the Pacific/Northwest Gigapop in Seattle.

"We've demonstrated a successful convergence at the pinnacle of the telecommunication and broadcast industries," said Amy Philipson, executive director of the ResearchChannel. "The quality and speed of this live production are unsurpassed, and we see this demonstration as a model and springboard for future collaborations and experiments."

The team of engineers from the broadcast, Internet, and telecommunications industries represents the new synergy that is pioneering the next generation of video/Internet technologies. For this demonstration, more than a billion bits per second of HDTV data flowed through Internet networks - without the use of ATM or video-only networking.

"High quality, next-generation video transmission using Internet technology is exactly the kind of application our new infrastructure supports," said E. Ted Seitz, Vice President of Wholesale for Enron Broadband Services. "The work that Sony and the University of Washington/Research Channel have been doing in this area proves the feasibility of applying unique Internet-based approaches to high-end multimedia distribution challenges."

At the demonstration, NAB attendees had the opportunity to see the convergence in action as HDTV streams arrived from Seattle in Sony's exhibition booth, were directed to commodity PCs where they were decoded and then fed into Sony's HD-Switcher for live production and compression for Internet travel back to Seattle for KING 5's live broadcast. According to Hugo Gaggioni, Vice President of Technology for Sony Electronics' Broadcast and Professional Company, "This demonstration is significant in that it shows that digital convergence can happen at the high-end of professional broadcast services and we also see a fast adoption towards consumer-level implementation." The joint demonstration will continue through the NAB Convention.

• Technical Overview

For more information about the technology used in this demonstration, see www.washington.edu/hdtv

Contacts:
ResearchChannel
1-877-616-7265, info@researchchannel.org

Dulcie Neiman, Sony Electronics Inc.
201-930-6981, Dulcie.Neiman@am.sony.com

Internet HDTV Project Participants:

Sony Electronics' Broadcast and Professional Company (BPC) provides advanced products and systems for a variety of professional and broadcast markets, including production, corporate, industrial, government, security, medical and education. BPC products, systems and applications are designed to facilitate the transition to digital technologies and the emerging broadband network era, while managing current assets. Sony BPC products and services include those for broadcast and professional acquisition, production, storage, data management, system integration, digital imaging, digital printing, large and small venue display and projection needs. BPC is a division of Sony Electronics Inc., a U.S. company that had record sales exceeding $11 billion for fiscal year 1999. For more information, visit www.sony.com/professional. For information regarding the nearest Sony authorized dealer or service location, call 1-800-686-SONY. Press releases and digital images are available online at www.sel.sony.com/news.

Enron Broadband Services is a leading provider of high quality, broadband Internet content and applications. The company's business model combines the power of the Enron Intelligent Network, Enron's Broadband Operating System, bandwidth trading and intermediation services, and high-bandwidth applications, to fundamentally improve the experience and functionality of the Internet. Enron introduces its Broadband Operating System to allow application developers to dynamically provision bandwidth on demand for the end-to-end quality of service necessary to deliver broadband content. Enron has also created a market for bandwidth that will allow network providers to scale to meet the demands that are required by increasingly complex applications. A wholly owned subsidiary of Enron Corp., Enron Broadband Services can be found on the Web at www.enron.net. Enron is one of the world's leading electricity, natural gas and communications companies. The company, which owns approximately $34 billion in energy and communications assets, produces electricity and natural gas, develops, constructs and operates energy facilities worldwide, delivers physical commodities and financial and risk management services to customers around the world, and is developing an intelligent network platform to facilitate online business. The stock is traded under the ticker symbol (NYSE:ENE)

Juniper Networks, Inc. is a leading provider of purpose-built systems that meet the scalability, performance, density, and compatibility requirements of rapidly evolving, optically enabled IP networks. The company's purpose-built systems provide new IP infrastructure solutions for the world's leading service providers. Juniper Networks service, manufacturing teams, and IP engineers work closely with customers to build and support customer networks. The company is headquartered in Mountain View, California. www.juniper.net

Pacific/Northwest Gigapop (P/NWGP) is the Northwest's Next Generation Internet applications cooperative, testbed, and point of presence. P/NWGP connects universities as well as research institutions and R&D enterprises throughout Washington, Alaska, Montana, Idaho and Oregon, to one another, to the next generation Internet backbones (including Internet2/Abilene and the High Speed Connectivity Consortium), federal research networks, and to super-high-performance commodity internets. For more information, see www.pnwgp.net

KING 5, the first television station to ever broadcast in the Northwest, made high definition history on October 29, 1998 with the live HD broadcast of the John Glenn space launch. On April 26, 1999 KING 5 broadcast the first regularly scheduled network program in HDTV, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, followed by an Evening Magazine special on April 29, 1999, which was shot entirely in high definition. On June 24, 1999 KING 5 News began broadcasting all newscasts in high definition from a studio redesigned specifically for the new technology. KING 5 continues its legacy of pioneering television by expanding on high definition efforts and exploring new digital technologies. KING 5 is a subsidiary of Belo. www.king5.com

Electric Lightwave Inc. (NASDAQ: ELIX) is a broadband integrated communications provider of Internet, data, voice and dedicated access services to communications-intensive businesses and the growing online business community. The company owns and operates high-speed fiber optic networks that interconnect major markets in the West and operates a nationally acclaimed Internet and data network. Headquartered in Vancouver, Wash., the company employs 1,167 and generated revenues of $187 million in 1999, up 85 percent from 1998. Additional information about Electric Lightwave is located on the Web at www.eli.net. The company is 82 percent owned by Citizens Utilities (NYSE:CZN, CZNPr).