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Reality Digital Debuts Opus(TM), First Web-Services Platform for Monetizing User-Generated Content

Posted on: Monday, 25 September 2006, 09:00 CDT

Reality Digital, a leading digital media company, today officially

launched the first web-based services platform to monetize

user-generated content (UGC) within an online business environment.

Reality Digital Opus™ is a hosted, "white

label" solution that enables businesses to

quickly and affordably add a UGC and social network component to an

existing website or to create a new UGC site. Customers including Atom

Entertainment, Music Player Network and SPARQ Training have responded to

the growth in online video and social networking, and contracted with

Reality Digital to deploy Opus' proven,

transparent infrastructure model.

As a component-rich, enterprise platform, Opus includes: Opus AdCel™,

the new patent-pending advertising overlay module; Opus Dashboard™,

which provides administrative, screening and reporting tools for

monitoring and monetizing content; mobile upload functionality; and

other technologies for sharing, storing and managing digital content.

Opus supports and scales to the most rigorous and dynamic of web

communities or intensive video upload and sharing within a business

context in real time. Business customers benefit from Opus'

completely transparent offering, which allows site customization that

addresses individual needs, brands and vertical applications; end users

enjoy the full UGC and social networking functionality they expect

online. Reality Digital can launch the hosted platform in days,

decreasing time-to-market without significant infrastructure

investments; Opus' low-tiered pricing model

makes it easy to quickly realize new marketing tacks for building

customer relationships.

Video advertising is revolutionized with the new Opus AdCel capability,

a key component of the platform offering. Previously in beta, Opus AdCel

is available to customers today and enables businesses to monetize

content by associating specific elements of user-generated videos with

the most relevant brands and advertisements. The feature identifies

video via specific criteria, such as tags, words, phrases or clip

length, and overlays a cell or branding bug that is relevant to the

customer video. The result is a subtle, yet unavoidable, advertising

experience for the viewer.

"Most critical to the advertising and marketing methodologies emerging

in UGC today is the ability to support the monetization of videos

without alienating the user base," said Michael Inouye, research

analyst, In-Stat. "The integration of the social experience, video and

'subtle' advertising is a foundation for consumers to begin

internalizing a brand or product, and that is very compelling to a UGC

site. Approaches like Reality Digital's are most applicable to

businesses that must balance top-line growth and the health of their

online community."

AddictingClips™ (www.addictingclips.com)

from Atom Entertainment, Inc. is an online destination for uploading and

sharing video and animated content. Atom selected Reality Digital for

its advanced technology and business-to-business focus.

"Atom Entertainment explored many

infrastructure solutions for AddictingClips,"

said Scott Roesch, vice president and general manager of Atom's

video services. "We decided on the Opus

platform for its feature set, affordability and rapid time-to-market,

which helped us get AddictingClips up and scaling quickly in a matter of

months. Reality Digital's technology was

instrumental to our success."

Customer Music Player Network announced the installation of Opus in

conjunction with its vertical outlets, GuitarPlayerTV.com, BassPlayer.tv

and KeyboardMag.tv. Music Player valued Reality Digital's

offering for its ability to take an existing community of like-minded

individuals, i.e., musicians, and create an environment that fosters

sharing in relation to a common interest. By using Reality Digital Opus™

Music Player will be up and running with the UGC site (www.GuitarPlayerTV.com/MyGPTV)

in less than two weeks.

"Opus will become our real-time bulletin

board. Our subscribers and readers are about to have a much easier way

to connect with one another and will be able to share musical ideas and

techniques. We feel, ultimately, this will be the best way to encourage

collaboration on projects and leverage our brand as the epicenter of

that community," said Vicki Hartung, group

publisher, Music Player Network.

The online training community, SPARQ, focuses on innovations in

performance training. SPARQ Training (www.sparqtraining.com)

connects high-school athletes, trainers and coaches with content, forums

and features that are designed to help athletes improve their game and

get noticed. In the "Locker Room,"

users (athletes) upload their game performances and highlight reels to

showcase their abilities. An upcoming "Training

Room," will feature video training programs,

drills and content from SPARQ's 500+

certified trainer network. The integration of a community-rich content

and ratings section enables sparqtraining.com to create a more dynamic

space for athletes to connect with each other and with the trainers who

can help them maximize their performance.

"Reality Digital's

Opus technology has given athletes across the country the ability to

showcase their skills and performances. It revolutionizes the way our

network of trainers are able to provide valuable training programs and

drills, in video form, to passionate athletes around the world,"

said Ken Black, SPARQ vice president of Brand Marketing. "Video

is the most compelling way to showcase performances and demonstrate

training techniques, and Opus has created a simple and effective way for

us to help athletes and trainers tell their own personal stories."

"With over 15 years of digital asset

management experience for Fortune 500 companies, the team at Reality

Digital is in the best possible position to parlay our knowledge to

address the challenges of monetizing consumer produced video,"

said Cynthia Francis, chief executive officer, Reality Digital. "We

have devised a simple and profitable business model for companies to

leverage the explosive growth of user-generated video. This introduces

new opportunities to help foster deeper, more intimate relationships

between the business and their customers."

About Opus:

Reality Digital Opus™ Platform

The Reality Digital Opus platform is a Digital Media Management

Framework (DMMF) based on industry standards such as Microsoft COM and

ASP, AJAX, SOAP, XML, JavaScript, HTTP and SMTP. It is an N-tier

solution built upon Microsoft's .NET

Framework, Microsoft SQL Server and IIS 6. The architecture is separated

into multiple physical tiers that include the application interface,

business logic, asset repository and file type support.

About Reality Digital, Inc.

Reality Digital (www.realitydigital.com)

is a software development company that enables businesses to enhance

their online presence through the use of user-generated content (UGC)

and social networking. Comprised of an executive team with over 15 years

experience creating innovative video technologies for Fortune 500

companies, Reality Digital continues to leverage its knowledge and

expertise in the UGC space by allowing businesses to build and maintain

a constant dialogue with their customers.

Reality Digital Opus platform is a "white

label" service that allows verticals, such as

retail, real estate and entertainment to support UGC content through a

hosted service. Web sites can create their own UGC site quickly, easily

and cost effectively. Reality Digital's

customers include Atom Entertainment's

AddictingClips.com, SPARQTraining.com and others. For more information,

visit www.realitydigital.com.

Reality Digital Opus, Opus Dashboard and Opus AdCel are trademarks of

Reality Digital. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the

property of their respective owners.

Source: Business Wire

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