Edgar Online, GmbH today announced the Edgar Multi-Online Box providing consumer households with a simple, secure and entertaining multimedia solution for TV-based Internet information access and CD-ROM entertainment.

Focusing on personal-value online services such as Home Banking, Home Shopping and local CityGuides, Edgar combines the best of both worlds into a unique consumer experience: hybrid CD-ROM-based applications, video, voice output, animation, sound and data with up-to-the-hour information provided by key online content providers.

"We carefully optimized our customer proposition, business model and market approach by putting consumers before technology," said Patrick V. Thomas, founder and CEO of Edgar Online, GmbH. "Our goal was to design a solution fitting the consumer's expectation of how a TV-based appliance should behave instead of hopelessly trying to replicate a PC-style Internet experience on TV."

The goal to tame conventional PC technology while leveraging multiple economies of scale resulted in the EdSuite set of system-level software technologies and tools for OEM PC hardware manufacturers, content providers and entertainment software developers.

Minimizing online access and system reaction times while maximizing the entertainment value was key to the development of Edgar's Multi-Online Box. It integrates a CD-ROM drive, a modem as well as an ISO-7816 and electronic purse-compatible smartcard reader.

About Edgar Online

Edgar Online, GmbH based in Munich, Germany, was formed in 1996 to leverage PC technology for TV-centric consumer products. A privately owned, venture capital-financed company, Edgar Online delivers world-class products for the Internet TV, PC/TV and Home Entertainment marketplace.