SILICON STUDIO REVEALS FUTURE OF ENTERTAINMENT AUTHORING

[Salley Field]

Contact:
Carl Furry, Silicon Studio 415-390-3365

SILICON STUDIO REVEALS FUTURE OF ENTERTAINMENT AUTHORING

New Architecture to Enable Multimastering of Original Digital Content;
Silicon Studio Live to Help Evolve Creative Community

HOLLYWOOD, Calif. (Nov. 8, 1994) -- At its Entertainment
Authoring Conference here, Silicon Studio, Inc. today unveiled
three programs that promise to define a new future for the
creation of entertainment, from motion pictures to new
interactive media. The company announced the Keystone initiative,
a new open environment for content creation, and Silicon Studio
LiveSM, a trend-setting new service and support structure for the
industry's emerging authoring community, including new Training
Studios in Los Angeles and London.

Silicon Studio also revealed a preview of its plans for
FireWalker, a set of tools that will allow filmmakers and other
entertainment authors to take original digital source materials
and use them to create interactive titles. Through a dramatically
new approach called Multimastering, these source materials can
not only be used for the initial project-such as a film or game
title-but can be redeployed to other interactive media, including
CD-ROM, location-based entertainment and interactive television
programming.

The Keystone Initiative Silicon Studio, with support from the
world's leading makers of animation and content creation
software, announced the technical specifications for the Keystone
initiative. The Keystone initiative will result in an open
environment for software tools that includes the definition of an
application framework. The Keystone initiative breaks new ground
by creating a common interface metaphor for 3D modeling and
environments, dramatically broadening the acceptance of
next-generation 3D technology in content creation.

Designed to significantly improve the ease-of-use among many of
today's content creation applications, the new framework defines
specifications for the following features: o Desktop integration
and user interface design, creating a consistent look and feel
among Keystone-compliant applications, making applications easier
to use. o Data interchange among third-party programs, allowing
users to drag and drop multimedia elements from one
Keystone-compliant application to another. o File compatibility,
allowing a file created in one Keystone-compliant application to
be read and edited in another. This specification is based on
Silicon Graphics' Movie Library, which will be extended to
support AVID's Open Media Framework(tm) (OMF) format, as well as
QuickTime(tm) and MPEG, and a subset of Silicon Graphics'
Inventor(tm) 3D file format.

Open to all developers, the Keystone initiative was jointly
defined by several leading software companies: Adobe Systems,
Alias Research, AVID Technologies, ELECTROGIG and Wavefront.

Application software conforming to the Keystone specification
will be labeled with a Silicon Studio seal of approval,
indicating that the software does "plug and play" within the
Keystone environment. Applications complying with the Keystone
specification will be demonstrated at the National Association of
Broadcasters conference in April 1995. Third-party software
products will begin shipping in the second half of 1995.

SILICON STUDIO LIVE
Silicon Studio also announced Silicon Studio Live, a new service
and support program that introduces the advantages of
collaborative service and support, high-speed networks, and
access to the company's Training Studios for training and
education.

The first available service of Silicon Studio Live is an on-line
World Wide Web server with free access to Silicon Studio product
information, technical papers, events information and company
updates. Silicon Studio Live members will be able to communicate
with colleagues, as well as exchange solutions, share ideas and
solve problems. Another available service is Sprint's Drums(tm)
high-speed network to enable creative professionals in different
geographic production facilities to erect "virtual studios" for
long distance, real-time collaboration.

With Silicon Studio Live, Silicon Studio will offer an escalating
array of service and support options, as well as tutorial and
training courses at its Training Studios worldwide. The two new
Training Studios in Los Angeles and London will join Silicon
Studio's established training partners throughout North America
and Europe to provide training and tutorials based on Silicon
Graphics' systems and third-party applications.

Designed not only as an educational center but also a showcase
for the latest advances in content creation techniques and
technology, the Training Studios are intended to provide a
gathering space for industry creatives and technologists. The new
centers will develop and publish a curriculum with scheduled
courses for beginning through advanced study.

The Training Studio in Los Angeles is expect to open in January
1995. The Training Studio in London is expected to open in the
first half of 1995.

FIREWALKERZ
Silicon Studio also revealed plans to develop a suite of tools
that will help entertainment companies revolutionize their
approach to creating interactive entertainment. A suite of
powerful software tools, code-named FireWalker, will allow
content producers to author interactive experiences and deliver
them through a particular medium, such as CD-ROM, location-based
entertainment or interactive television.

The key components of FireWalker, which will build upon the
framework of the Keystone initiative, include:

o Authoring software tools, which allow producers to author an
interactive title using digital media elements produced with
Keystone-compliant applications.

o Mastering software tools, which enable producers to optimize
titles created with FireWalker authoring tools and produce them
on various target platforms.

"This approach to authoring is the wave of the future," said
Michael Backes, co-founder of Rocket Science Games, Inc. "People
in the industry once talked about moving from computer platform
to computer platform. In the new age of Multimastering, we will
be moving from one media to the next."

The first FireWalker tools will be available in the first half of
1996.

Silicon Studio, Inc. delivers authoring and production solutions
based on Silicon Graphics systems to the entertainment and
interactive media industries. The company has headquarters in
Mountain View, Calif., with Training Studios in Los Angeles and
London opening in 1995. Silicon Studio is a wholly owned
subsidiary of Silicon Graphics, Inc.