Press Release

Canon NU-700n PTZ Camera System Delivers Broadcast Quality Video to the Web


EarthCam Relies on Canon Quality For its Worldwide Online Video Audience

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New York, August 2, 2005 -- LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y. — With more than 180,000 daily visitors and 300 million page views per month, EarthCam specializes in providing Webcam technology and managed services to a wide variety of industries and users. EarthCam cameras provide live video over IP of everything from construction sites and highway traffic to foreign tourist attractions and Times Square billboards. And for many of its most mission-critical installations, EarthCam has chosen the Canon NU-700N Network Controllable Pan/Tilt/Zoom camera system to deliver reliable, high-quality video images.

“Canon’s NU-700N is one of our top sellers because the image quality is outstanding and it’s dependable,” explains EarthCam CEO and Founder Brian Cury. “The Canon NU-700N is just an excellent camera because the quality of the Canon optics married with the Canon three-chip color camera creates unsurpassed image quality for relatively low cost that really delivers image excellence over the Web.”

The Canon NU-700N combines a quarter-inch three-CCD Canon video camera with Canon’s exceptional built-in 20X optical zoom lens and 5X digital zoom for a powerful 100X zoom range. The NU-700N is contained within a rugged outdoor housing that includes a rain wiper. When connected to a camera server, such as Canon’s VB150 Network Camera Server, the system can be connected to the Internet or a LAN via a non-proprietary protocol control panel or a PC, enabling control of camera functions (including camera pan, tilt, zoom, and focus) from anywhere with network access.

EarthCam integrates the NU-700N into its own proprietary Webcasting software and hardware system known as MediaCaster, which encodes the NU-700N’s broadcast-quality video and streams it over the Internet. According to EarthCam, they exploit every bit of Canon’s NU-700N’s zoom range in order to capture images across great distances, which is especially useful for such applications as Web tourism and observation of construction sites.

"With our Statue of Liberty Cam, we need superior optics because our camera is in Brooklyn and it’s zoomed across New York Harbor watching the Statue of Liberty," Cury notes. "In Tokyo, meanwhile, we have a client that’s monitoring their 2,200-acre automobile facility in Texas. To see the quality and visual details of that job site they also need to be able to zoom great distances."

The NU-700N’s durable housing and rain wiper were essential features for its 24/7 performance, Cury notes. “The NU-700N not only delivered what the existing CCTV cameras were doing, but also enhanced the look of the video thanks to the Canon three-chip technology. We are extremely impressed.”

EarthCam’s canvas is the Internet, and its cameras are its brush. “Being able to control, manage, and operate a network camera over the Internet is a tremendous tool in itself,” Cury explains. “We currently use four Canon NU-700N’s in New York’s Times Square; people from all over the world can experience beautiful scenic shots of that location and visit it virtually from their computers. And not only is the NU-700N used for virtual tourism, it also has business applications for broadcasters, real-estate developers, and companies operating prominent Times Square billboards.”

"For many of our clients Webcam monitoring is not a question of budget, but of dependability and quality," Cury concludes. "That’s why we spec the Canon NU-700N. EarthCam is going to continue to grow its services and products, and we’re depending on Canon to deliver excellent camera products that are going to help our company continue its leadership role in providing video over IP and related network solutions and software."

About EarthCam, Inc.
EarthCam is the recognized leader in providing live streaming video Webcam software and technology solutions to businesses. Commencing in 1996, EarthCam began developing the proprietary software, network infrastructure, and technical expertise that now allows it to deliver millions of live images to thousands of users each day. EarthCam provides complete infrastructure services to manage, host, and maintain live streaming video camera systems for its corporate clients. Clients include the US Department of Defense, Skanska, Turner Construction, Bechtel Corp., Disney, Coca-Cola, Ford, Sprint, Toyota, Panasonic, Yahoo!, Northrop Grumman, New York City Department of Transportation, Boeing, NASA, Parsons Brinckerhoff, Bovis Lend Lease, Lockheed Martin, City of Chicago, GSA, Army Corps of Engineers, and Office of Homeland Security. Visit EarthCam at: www.earthcam.net.

About Canon U.S.A., Inc.
Canon U.S.A., Inc. delivers consumer, business-to-business, and industrial imaging solutions. The Company is listed as one of Fortune's Most Admired Companies in America and is rated #35 on the BusinessWeek list of “Top 100 Brands.” Its parent company Canon Inc. (NYSE:CAJ) is a top patent holder of technology, ranking third overall in the U.S. in 2004, with global revenues of $33.3 billion. For more information, visit www.usa.canon.com.

All referenced product names, and other marks, are trademarks of their respective owners.

For more information, please call Canon Broadcast and Communications Division at 1-800-321-4388 or visit www.canonbroadcast.com.

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