North Plains and thePlatform Preview End-To-End Digital Media Management & Publishing Solution

Enables Content Owners To Manage, Publish & Track Media Assets from Production To PC, Portable Device & Cell Phone Based Experiences

TORONTO, CANADA and SEATTLE, WA -- April 13, 2005 --Today North Plains Systems, providers of digital asset management (DAM) solutions, and thePlatform, providers of digital video publishing solutions, announced a technology partnership to enable seamless workflow integration across their products, North Plains Telescope™ Video Manager and thePlatform® Media Publishing System (MPS). Together, the companies will provide content owners the most complete end-to-end digital media asset management, aggregation, syndication, publishing and reporting solution available.

North Plains Systems’ TeleScope is the world's leading front-end digital asset management solution for the production and archiving of rich media content. thePlatform’s MPS, the most comprehensive digital media publishing solution, enables the next step in the process, and makes it easy for content owners, aggregators, and enterprises to deliver their digital audio and video anywhere, over any network to PCs, portable devices and cell phones.

"The combination of North Plains and thePlatform creates a powerful all-digital media supply chain for video programming. Together, they create a truly efficient and controlled manufacturing and delivery process for broadband content that begins with concept development and production and continues through to multi-channel publishing to any device," said Mukul Krishna Senior Industry Analyst/Program Leader - Digital Media, Frost and Sullivan. "The collaboration and tight integration of proven digital asset management technologies with broadband publishing systems will enable compelling revenue models for repurposing and personalizing broadcast assets over broadband and mobile."

Utilizing its flagship product, TeleScope, North Plains streamlines Web, broadcast, and cable video, as well as, video-on-demand production. Any digital or analog long-form video, storyboards, and other metadata are ingested by TeleScope and then stored, edited and transcoded into high-resolution formats for downstream processing. Now the North Plains TeleScope digital asset management solution is able to plug directly into thePlatform MPS.

"A unified video production and publishing solution based on Web services will allow our broadcast and entertainment customers to remain in the forefront of the growing broadband and mobile programming and syndication market," said
Hassan Kotob , CEO of North Plains. "The combination of TeleScope and the MPS provides content owners with the necessary production, security and automation efficiencies required to create programming for PCs, mobile phones and personal viewing devices derived from broadcast assets."

"The partnership between thePlatform and North Plains enables us to bring content owners the best in asset management with the best in digital media publishing" said Ian Blaine, co-founder, CEO of thePlatform, "thePlatform MPS is a natural extension to North Plains' solution, as our solution makes it simple to deliver digital media anywhere."

At NAB both thePlatform and North Plains will demonstrate a technical preview of how they are bringing together the best in mature asset management technology and digital media publishing. thePlatform will show the MPS in their booth SL3322, and in the Microsoft/Digital Media Theater SL 332. North Plains will demonstrate the Telescope in their booth SL455E and and in the Microsoft/Digital Media Theater SL 332.

About thePlatform
Headquartered in
Seattle , thePlatform is an industry-leading provider of digital media publishing solutions. The company’s flagship product, thePlatform Media Publishing System (MPS), is a comprehensive solution for media, entertainment and enterprise customers. With thePlatform MPS, customers can publish digital media anywhere – over any network, to any device. Leading customers include Bank of America, CNBC, Comcast, CourtTV, Microsoft, Scripps Networks, The Wall Street Journal Online, and the groundbreaking V CAST service from Verizon Wireless. Custom feature enhancements and seamless systems integration are a simple matter using thePlatform’s the Web services MPS-SDK. For more information or to download the software, visit www.theplatform.com.

About North Plains Systems Corp.
Founded in 1994, North Plains Systems Corp. is the leading provider of digital asset management solutions. Its pioneering technology, focus, and vision have been recognized through out the content management industry, including analyst Frost & Sullivan, with their 2005 Company of the Year award. Today, over 400 customers benefit from North Plains' expertise in delivering industry defining solutions for multi-channel publishing, broadcast automation, video enhanced learning, marketing automation and collaboration and brand management. Customers include Boeing, Feld Entertainment, Harcourt, HarperCollins Publishers, International Monetary Fund, Ogilvy and Mather, Publicis Groupe, Relizon, Thomson Learning, Viacom and Warner Bros. For further information please visit the North Plains website.