Pulse Tunes In

Pulse (www.pulse3d.com) announced on Friday that it had acquired Sonicopia ( www.sonicopia.com), an audio solution provider for an undisclosed amount. For Pulse, this rounds out its rich media and 3D offerings, with more interactive audio.

The acquisition includes Sonicopia's technology, engineering and production teams as well as exclusive use of its digital audio production facilities and access to its sound libraries.

Pulse said that the two companies will provide integrated solutions for interactive animation and sound. They have also already begun integrating Sonicopia's audio technology in Pulse's 5.0 product line. While the Pulse platform previously supported interactive audio for streaming to a Pulse Player window, Sonicopia's technology adds audio to all HTML elements outside of the Pulse Player as well.

Sonicopia's technology is similar to Beatnik, which also allows Web elements to be "sonified." Beatnik said it wanted to move into the wireless arena, after it made deals with Texas Instruments and Intel.

"From advertising and e-learning to e-commerce and service and support, there is a constant, steady growth in the use of rich media on the Web for solutions from the consumer to the enterprise," said Pulse chief executive officer Fred Angelopoulos. "Together, our businesses create a combination unmatched by other companies in the rich media market."

"The synergy of sound and vision is leveraged extensively in the media and advertising industries yet barely touched on the Web," said Dubey. "Pulse and Sonicopia both share the vision and passion for revolutionizing the Web experience and together will to provide rich media solutions that create ROI-building experiences for an ever growing host of marquee clients."