Northpoint and Clearband Announce Video Deal

Broadband streaming media systems maker ClearBand (http://www.clearband.com) announced a wide-ranging deal with NorthPoint Communications to provide its DSL customers with TV-quality video.

In today's announcement by NorthPoint, it unveiled its "Blast" initiative which will use Clearband's streaming solution to stream broadcast-quality content to its customers.

ClearBand's current content partners (AtomFilms, CinemaNow, Vidnet, The NFL, CelebNewsLive and Extreme Interactive) will be featured in a broadband trial with live and on-demand video. In addition, ClearBand has licensed classic episodes of favorite TV shows to create the Oldies TV channel which features "The Lucy Show," "Dragnet," "Beverly Hillbillies" and "The Lone Ranger."

Clearband streaming systems only target the broadband market. The solution supports video capture from any source (i.e. satellite feed, VCR, camcorder) and is dynamically scaleable from 300 Kbps to 2.0 Mbps. When the company launched last year, it teamed with European ISP chello to broadcast NFL games to chello's subscribers.

"NorthPoint's subscriber trial demonstrates that streaming video over DSL is a viable broadcast option," said Joe Hawayek, chief operating officer of ClearBand. "This partnership underscores our commitment to enabling broadband service providers to effectively compete with traditional broadcasters."

ClearBand offers a multicast solution to serve a large number of viewers and to reduce bandwidth demands.

NorthPoint says they are currently conducting field trials in San Francisco and will begin initial commercial service by Summer 2000.