Beatnik, Inc. - Enhanced Audio Solutions

BEATNIK SEES FUTURE IN NEW ERA OF EMBEDDED MOBILE MULTIMEDIA

Beatnik Audio Engine provides audio playback and musical ringtones in wireless chipsets and reference designs

San Mateo, CA – July 6, 2005 -- Beatnik, Inc., the leading provider of structured audio software solutions for mobile devices, today announced a long-term commitment to embedding its audio functionality in semiconductor chipsets and reference designs for mobile phones. At a time when the company is enjoying year on year success, Beatnik is committing more resources to support the strategically important optimisation of the Beatnik Audio Engine (BAE) for integration at the core of wireless chipsets. Its embedded audio solution enables manufacturers to rapidly deploy mass market handsets based on standard audio formats, capable of supporting rich audio for polyphonic ringtones, games, downloadable music and multimedia messaging applications. Beatnik expects to be able to make further customer announcements in the embedded space soon.

As a result of the successful optimisation of the Beatnik Audio Engine for deployment in Texas Instrument’s wireless chipsets last year, Beatnik has been able to demonstrate the value to manufacturers of a development strategy based on using pre-integrated audio software delivered as a key component of the hardware platform. By adopting Beatnik’s technology in this way, phone companies are able to rapidly bring handsets to market with the most advanced audio capabilities available, based on validated hardware and software reference designs while also taking advantage of the large aggregate volumes involved to reduce device bill-of-materials costs.

"The technical, economic and commercial benefits to handset manufacturers in using our audio technology as a proven component of a chipset reference design are clear and well defined," said Jeremy Copp, Chief Sales Officer at Beatnik. "Establishing the embedded trend with Texas Instruments has shown us that manufacturers stand to gain from significant improvement in time to market as well as cost savings in the production of devices with the now mandatory in-built audio capabilities, without having to compromise on quality. Instead of having to go to a variety of different suppliers, they need only go to a single source for the best technology, integrated into a specially designed product."

Building on its current success as a champion of the embedded audio software solution, Beatnik expects to further consolidate its position in the mobile market by announcing more licencees during the second half of 2005.

"We are moving to a future where the most advanced multimedia features will be available on all handsets, not just those in the most expensive price bracket," continued Jeremy Copp, Chief Sales Officer at Beatnik. "The proven ability to integrate our audio technology into the ROM of mass-market chipsets demonstrates that this is very much an achievable reality within the next couple of years."

As a complete audio subsystem, the BAE incorporates a wavetable synthesiser, mixer, sample rate converter, digital audio player and support for MIDI, SP-MIDI, Mobile XMF, Mobile DLS, RMF, WAV, MP3, AAC and AMR-WB file formats. This gives users full control over all sounds produced by their mobile phone, allowing full audio personalisation. Beatnik has licensed its BAE technology to industry-leading wireless handset manufacturers including Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Siemens, Panasonic and Samsung as well as to Texas Instruments.

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About Beatnik, Inc.
Beatnik licenses scalable, standards-based structured audio software solutions for mobile devices which enable rich multimedia content delivery and an enhanced user experience for games and device interaction. Beatnik markets its core software technology and audio content development tools to mobile device manufacturers and a community of creative professionals. Incorporated in 1996, Beatnik was founded by musician and composer Thomas Dolby Robertson.