Barcelona, 14 July 2003 – Visual Century has launched the new version of its ViA2 Platform solution for rich media asset management. ViA2 Platform version 1.5, distributed worldwide by Software AG, offers new features and capabilities focusing on flexibility, security and usability.

To the customizable and user-friendly features of the previous versions, ViA2 Platform V 1.5 adds workflow control capabilities and a web based interface for the ViA2 Platform-embedded content manager. The new version also has a separate user management and security application covering user authentication and access to functionalities and contents.

ViA2 Platform V. 1.5 enables the user to annotate video while it is being captured and analyzed, and optionally includes a Speech To Text plug-in developed by Visual Century using Philips Speech SDK. ViA2 Platform V. 1.5 indexes generated MPEG files to improve further positioning, and can analyze video files faster that the video itself. ViA2 Platform V. 1.5 also includes NTSC support as well as the ability to control VTR devices supporting Sony RS-232 or Sony RS-422 protocols and DV devices with a IEEE 1394 interface from the ingest application.

ViA2 Platform addresses the needs of very diverse companies that need to manage large amounts of video material or publish rich media content on the web. It runs over Software AG's Tamino XML Server, and is the perfect solution to easily locate, manage and integrate video with other types of documents.

About Visual Century

Visual Century is a technology company created in 2001 by a group of entrepreneurs with audiovisual and multimedia research backgrounds. Visual Century develops software products to index, analyze, store and access digital video, audio and images in asset management applications that include archiving, production, retrieval, browsing and navigation of rich media content. The Visual Century team is made up of highly qualified professionals that the quality, technology and innovation objectives of the company, and includes a fully dedicated research division. Visual Century products stand out because of their innovative vision of rich media content, and they are designed to facilitate the use, management and exploitation of video, audio and image content.