Sun and Philips Digital Networks' MP4Net business group just announced that they will broaden their alliance to focus on developing and promoting MPEG-4 for streaming audio, video, and graphics. As part of the co-marketing and technology exchange agreement, Philips will license Sun StorEdge Media Central server technology for inclusion in its future WebCine Server MPEG-4 offerings for the Solaris OS and Sun Cobalt servers. The two companies plan on joint promotion and marketing of MPEG-4 products and technology in both the broadband and wireless markets. The companies say they envision MPEG-4 will let interactive multimedia be streamed to personal computers, new mobile phones, and future home entertainment devices. Earlier this year, Sun and Philips became founding members of the Internet Streaming Media Alliance, which promotes the development and use of open standards like MPEG-4 for IP-based media delivery. At the IBC exhibition this week, Philips is demonstrating MPEG-4 interoperability with Sun and other ISMA members, and is showing WebCine server running on the Sun platform. The WebCine MPEG-4 app also runs on PCs running Windows 95, 98, 2000, NT, or Me and can be downloaded from Philips' website, along with sample content that can be downloaded or streamed.

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