Sonic And Verance Join Forces To Deliver DVD-Audio And EMD Watermarking

Integrated Solution Simplifies Watermarking Of DVD-Audio Content

Los Angeles, California (September 22, 2000) - Sonic Solutions (NASDAQ: SNIC) and Verance Corporation announced today at the Audio Engineering Society (AES) convention in Los Angeles a strategic relationship to advance the use and integration of the Verance watermarking technology in SonicStudio HD.

"With the addition of Verance watermarking technology, users will be assured that watermarking will be transparent to the listener, secure and survivable, even when the music content is altered or transmitted, and efficient both in terms of encoding and of watermark detection," stated David Leibowitz, Chariman at Verance Corporation. "Verance is pleased to work with Sonic Solutions, the premier provider of DVD-Audio mastering systems, to provide an integrated solution to our customers for mastering DVD-Audio content and SDMI Phase I content that complies with the industry standards."

Verance's technology is the DVD Forum's recommended format for DVD-Audio watermarking and has also been selected as the Phase 1 screening technology by SDMI (Secure Digital Music Delivery) for Internet audio distribution.

"When considering watermarking approaches for DVD-Audio titles and EMD, it was only natural for Sonic to team with Verance Technology," said Yuki Miyamoto, Senior Strategic Business Manager for New Technologies at Sonic. "Integrating Varance watermarking technology helps ensure that Sonic users are able to produce DVD-Audio titles even more efficiently."

Verance watermarking will be fully integrated into AutoSonic(tm), an option for SonicStudio HD. AutoSonic enables efficient batch processing of soundfiles either by distributed processors on a network or by a single SonicStudio HD workstation. By leveraging AutoSonic's server-based processing, users can implement an efficient production process that includes watermarking soundfiles, sample rate conversion, ATRAC-3 encoding for electronic music distribution as well as formatting for DVD-Audio titles.

"This is the best news I've heard since we first started evaluating audio watermark technologies," declared Ed Abbott, Audio Technologist and New Technologies Integration Engineer at Universal Mastering Studios. "And because the Sonic-Verance approach integrates perfectly into our already streamlined production workflow, we can expect a huge time savings, while continuing to use the industry's premiere DVD-Audio system. I expect this announcement will greatly relieve many concerned professionals in the music industry at large. The Verance watermark process simply could not be in better hands."

About SonicStudio HD
SonicStudio HD is Sonic's next-generation digital audio workstation featuring support for multi-channel sampling rates up to 192kHz, surround sound mixing and an ultra-fast editing interface. SonicStudio HD workstations can be expanded to include Sonic's full line of DVD-Audio authoring options including OneClick DVD(tm), a DVD-Audio workstation, and the DVD Creator 5.1 complete workstation.

About Verance Watermarking Technology
Verance audio watermarking solutions were adopted in 1999 as the global industry standards for copy control for DVD-Audio and for Phase One of digitally delivered music by the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI). Verance MusiCode system was honored by DISCOVER Magazine as the 1998 "Technology of the Year" in the Sound Category.

Verance digital audio Watermark delivers indelible, inaudible copyright management information. The Verance Watermark becomes an integral part of the audio component, always traveling with the music through compression, processing and format conversions and the Watermark can be detected from both analog and digital sources.

About Verance Corporation
San Diego-based Verance Corporation is a leader in the development and implementation of watermarking technology solutions focusing on the copyright management, royalty distribution, information and product distribution needs emerging from the confluence of the entertainment, media, and wireless telecommunications industries. Additional information about Verance Corporation can be found at www.verance.com, or contact Jo Jo Platt at (858) 626-2770 ext. 1012 or jplatt@verance.com.

About Sonic Solutions (NASDAQ: SNIC)
Based in Marin County, California, Sonic (http://www.sonic.com) is the leading manufacturer of solutions for DVD publishing. Sonic DVDit! (http://www.dvdit.com) is the first application for DVD authoring targeted at videographers and corporate video producers, and is bundled with major video editing, capture, encoding and media production systems. Sonic DVD Creator and DVD Fusion for Macintosh are the most widely-used systems for professional DVD publishing, and are installed worldwide at major studios, post production facilities and in corporate marketing departments. SonicStudio HD is the leading digital workstation for preparing audio for release on CD and the first for creating content for the new DVD-Audio format. Sonic is also a full voting member of the DVD Forum, the standards-setting body for the DVD format.

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