July 29, 1996
Macromedia, Inc. (NASDAQ: MACR), the leading provider of cross-platform software tools for web publishing, multimedia and graphics, today unveiled and shipped the latest version of Shockwave™, bringing voice- to CD-quality streaming audio and up to 176:1 compression to the web for the first time. Shockwave now dramatically enhances the interactive multimedia web experience by providing instantaneous, breakthrough-quality audio to all web surfers. Web developers, traditionally limited by the bandwidth-intensive nature of digital audio, can now deliver streamed, compressed, up to CD-quality audio files using standard web servers such as Netscape SuiteSpot server suite or Microsoft Internet Information Server.
Today, dozens of leading web sites, including Warner Bros. Records, Capitol Records, CNN Interactive, MCI, 2-Lane Media, IUMA (Internet Underground Music Archive), M/B Interactive, Addicted to Noise, MNI Interactive, and Musicnet will rock the web with new, "shocked" audio at www.macromedia.com. Macromedia Shockwave has become the standard for multimedia and graphics on the internet and intranet, with exponential growth in the number of "shocked" sites. Shockwave is the World Wide Web's most popular plug-in with more than 6 million Shockwave viewers downloaded from Macromedia's web site and 10-20 million Shockwave enabled browsers expected by the end of the year. Shockwave will be available with Netscape PowerPack, Microsoft Internet Explorer and Windows 95, Internet ready Apple Macintosh computers, and the next version of America Online.
"Shockwave will continue to raise the bar for multimedia and graphics on the Web by driving the ability to use more dynamic elements like animation. Still fairly new, Shockwave has made impressive inroads in deployment since its introduction to the market last December," said Kathy Klotz, multimedia industry analyst at Dataquest. "Now, by making high-quality streamed sound available to anyone, even over a 14.4 modem, Macromedia's new Shockwave audio could catalyze significant changes in the way entertainers, record companies, news services and advertisers leverage the reach of the Web."
"Macromedia Shockwave has already transformed the face of the web from static text to interactive, dynamic multimedia," said Marc Andreessen, vice president of technology and co-founder of Netscape Communications Corporation. "The addition of streaming and compressed sound playing from servers such as Netscape's SuiteSpot servers suite is a technological breakthrough, bringing new opportunities for creative expression, and revolutionizing the way companies present themselves on the web."
Shockwave provides a new solution not offered by complementary web audio technologies. While such technologies require proprietary servers and are designed for live broadcast use, Shockwave focuses on audio fidelity, advanced compression and seamless streaming for standard web servers and network protocols. Further, Shockwave combines this breakthrough-quality audio with fully interactive multimedia to enable a new generation of on-line entertainment, advertising, and news.
"With the latest version of Shockwave, the limited bandwidth of today's modem is no longer a barrier for digital audio and interactive multimedia on the web," said Phil Schiller, vice president of product management at Macromedia. "Shockwave sets a new standard for the way record companies, radio stations, movie studios, TV networks, and even garage bands leverage the internet for online entertainment, marketing and advertising."
Developing for Shockwave
Shockwave is free to all web surfers. Developers can download the free Shockwave Audio
Xtras™ for Director 5.01 and SoundEdit™ 16 version 2 from Macromedia's web site. With
compression ratios from 11:1 to 176:1 for streaming of voice to CD-quality audio over
standard modems, developers can use the Shockwave Audio Xtras to compress sound in
existing Shockwave movies created in Director 5.01, or create new streamed, compressed
audio files in SoundEdit 16. For example, a five megabyte audio file can be compressed to
less than 30K. Cyber surfers need only click a play button on a World Wide Web page for
immediate playback of streamed, digital audio on the web.
Pricing/Availability
The new Shockwave plug-in is available for free from Macromedia's web site, at
www.macromedia.com, for Windows 95 and NT, Macintosh PowerPC and 68K. Windows
3.1 will be available in the coming weeks. Developers can download the free Shockwave
Audio Xtras for Director 5 and SoundEdit 16 today for Windows 95 and Power PC.
Shockwave is available with Netscape PowerPack and will be available later this summer and
fall with Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 and Windows 95, Internet ready Apple Macintosh
Computers, and the next version of America Online.
Director 5 and SoundEdit 16 are available as a part of the Director Multimedia Studio 2 for US $999, for Windows and Macintosh. The Studio also includes Macromedia xRes 2.0, Extreme 3D, and DECK II 2.5. SoundEdit 16 plus Deck II is also available standalone for U.S. $399.