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May 31, 2007

North Plains Systems Experiences Significant Expansion Within Educational Sector as Use of Rich Media by Academia Continues to Grow

From: Market Wire (press release) - USA - May 31, 2007

Leading Universities and Educational Systems Turning to Best in Class Digital Asset Management System to Manage Growing Rich Media Assets

TORONTO--(Marketwire - May 31, 2007) - North Plains, the leading provider of digital asset management (DAM) software and solutions, continues to see strong demand from the world of academia as educational institutions of all levels turn to the TeleScope solution to manage growing rich media assets for educational, research and institutional needs. Leading educational institutions such as Gallaudet University, the Utah Education Network, and Bowling Green State University are adapting to evolutions within the educational system that rely more on digital media for educational services, research programs and archiving of libraries and historical information. As a result, there is an explosion of digital assets within education institutions and they are turning to TeleScope to help them stay ahead of the technology curve while meeting their security requirements.

Student bodies raised in the digital age are requiring educational institutions to focus more on technology enabled classrooms, library digitalization projects, increased usage of online course materials and e-learning repositories to maintain their competitive edge. These successful educational institutions are able to create and deliver powerful and interactive real-time learning objects by taking a fully integrated approach to the end-to-end lifecycle management of rich media collections, on-line curricula and course materials as those offered by TeleScope. TeleScope provides the essential foundation to support several e-learning initiatives such as:

-- Video-enhanced e-learning
-- Academic community management
-- Distance learning
-- Internet degree and certificate programs
-- Self-service portals for students, educators, staff, employees and
course designers
-- Collaborative curriculum development
-- Learning material management & re-use
-- Corporate training programs
-- Digital archive solutions

"With TeleScope, we can now digitally preserve and make accessible our university's extensive collection of original films and videos related to deafness," explains Richard Goodrow, Digital Media Systems Engineer, Academic Technology for Gallaudet University. "Using TeleScope, we can now leverage powerful digital workflows and enable the integration of these digital video collections into our curriculum of face-to-face, hybrid, and web-based courses. By taking advantage of TeleScope's comprehensive permissions model, our video library can be securely accessible by the Gallaudet community, with portions being accessible to K-12 teachers, University teacher education programs, scholars, and researchers from the world-wide community of people interested in deafness."
"We are seeing an accelerated adoption of our solutions by the educational community as they move to deliver a broad range of high quality, rich media learning materials to support courseware development and course enrichment initiatives," said Hassan Kotob, President & CEO of North Plains. "TeleScope is an ideal platform that has helped many leading institutions eliminate the 'digital asset silos' that can hamper their efforts to fully maximize the learning value of rich media products being used."

In a recently published report by international research and advisory firm IDC, the digital asset management market is expected to show a strong double-digit compound annual growth rate over the 2006-2010 period as organizations seek to manage, share, and monetize their rich media assets.

North Plains' flagship solution, TeleScope, is optimized to support multiple lines of business whose reach extends across dispersed geographies or business centers. TeleScope is designed to meet the global business challenges of educational institutions looking to create an end-to-end digital media supply chain that supports the creation, integration and repurpose of rich media and time-based information in mission critical applications.

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 throughout the industry and are evident in such innovative products such as TeleScope 8.3 and TeleScope Video Manager 2.0. With its agnostic approach to managing digital assets, over 450 customers benefit from North Plains' expertise in delivering industry defining solutions for video asset management, digital media management & distribution, centralization, workflow optimization, and virtual collaboration. Customers include AOL, Boeing, Bowling Green State University, Gallaudet University, Harcourt, HarperCollins Publishers, Microsoft, Ogilvy and Mather, Playboy, Publicis Groupe, Publishers Clearing House, Rodale Inc, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Thomson Learning, The Utah Education Network, Viacom, and Warner Bros. For further information please visit www.northplains.com.

© 2007 Marketwire, Incorporated.