"The combination of the Helix DNA client with the Ogg Vorbis audio format is a huge step forward for the open source community and the world at large," said Emmett Plant, CEO, Xiph.org Foundation. "With the release of Ogg Vorbis 1.0 last week, the ability to use RealNetworks technology to get our format into the hands of the masses presents a lot of potential. Even more important, the fact that RealNetworks is making an investment in Open Source outside of their corporate walls is a good sign for the future of Helix."
"With the launch of the Helix Community this week and our intention to contribute core encoder, server and client source code, we see a new frontier in media development for the open source community," said Brad Hefta-Gaub, vice president of development, Media Systems, RealNetworks, Inc. "Our work with Xiph.Org and Ogg Vorbis will not only benefit the Helix community, but will also benefit anyone using Ogg Vorbis by expanding the audience of enabled players to include the 285 million unique registered users of the RealOne Player and RealPlayer."
As part of the partnership, RealNetworks will sponsor the development of the Ogg Vorbis support in Helix, and the Xiph.org Foundation will begin immediate work on the Ogg Vorbis plug-ins. When the plug-ins are completed and have been tested at RealNetworks, they will be put on the RealNetworks AutoUpdate server, enabling RealOne Player and RealPlayer users to listen to Ogg Vorbis content.
ABOUT XIPH.ORG FOUNDATION
Xiph.org Foundation is a non-profit company dedicated to protecting the foundations of Internet multimedia from control by private interests by creating, producing and maintaining open multimedia standards. The Xiph.org Foundation can be found at www.xiph.org.
ABOUT THE HELIX COMMUNITY
The Helix Community is a community that offers corporations and independent developers access to the Helix Platform source code, Helix DNA. The Helix Community will enable companies, institutions and individual developers to enhance the Helix Platform and to build Helix-powered encoder, server and client products. In tandem, the Helix Platform and the Helix Community will provide the standard infrastructure to empower developers, IT companies and CE companies to drive the Internet media industry forward into the future. RealNetworks intends to make initial client source code — the Helix DNA Client — available to the Helix Community within 90 days. Server and encoder source code is expected by the end of the year. For more information on the Helix Community visit www.helixcommunity.org.
ABOUT HELIX
Helix is a platform and a community for the standardization and expansion of digital media. The Helix Platform consists of source code for creation, delivery and playback of digital media developed by RealNetworks over the past eight years, as well as a set of interfaces for building media-enabled applications. Helix Community members will be able to use this source code to build media-capable products with industry-leading technology and commonly used interfaces. The Helix Community offers source code of the Helix Platform under community and open source licenses. RealNetworks has also released a family of products built on top of the Helix Platform, including the Helix Universal Server.
ABOUT REALNETWORKS
RealNetworks, Inc. is the global leader in Internet media delivery. It develops and markets software products and services designed to enable users of personal computers and consumer electronic devices to send and receive audio, video and other multimedia services using the Web. Consumers can access and experience audio/video programming and download RealNetworks' consumer software on the Internet at http://www.real.com. RealNetworks' systems and corporate information is located on the Internet at http://www.realnetworks.com.
Source: Realnetworks