ARLC Arel Communications & Software Ltd. (MM)

Arel Anyware(TM) Plug-in Technology Provides Multi-Point Video with Wideband Audio for Microsoft Office Live Meeting, for an Enhanced Conferencing and Collaboration Experience Arel Communications and Software (NASDAQ: ARLC), technology leader in universal voice, video and Web communication for interactive conferencing, collaboration and training applications, today announced it is launching a new high-quality video and audio solution for integration with Live Meeting, Microsoft's Web conferencing service. The new solution, the Arel Anyware plug-in, will enhance Live Meeting with multi-point video and wideband audio for an enriched user experience at any bandwidth. Live Meeting is Microsoft's innovative hosted Web conferencing service that enables information workers to communicate and collaborate with anyone, anywhere, with just a PC and an Internet connection. With its media-rich interactivity and the capability to show and share documents and applications, Live Meeting helps users worldwide minimize costs and streamline communications with colleagues, customers and suppliers. The Arel Anyware plug-in gives users the ability to conduct high-quality, multi-point video and audio conferences from within the Live Meeting framework. Users can quickly and efficiently join a video- and audio- enabled meeting through a brief installation and registration process within Live Meeting's custom panel. A webcam is required for full-featured video operability. The Arel Anyware plug-in provides high-quality multi-point video and wideband audio capabilities in conjunction with Microsoft Office Live Meeting as well as Microsoft Office Communicator 2005 and Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005. Arel's technology is designed to adapt to low-bandwidth Internet connections while simultaneously retaining up to 16 video windows in a single session at any bandwidth threshold. In addition, Arel Anyware works in secure corporate network environments or over the Internet. Users will be able to join (through Live Meeting) or initiate (through Communicator) a multi-point video and audio conferencing session, from within their company's existing corporate network (Intranet) and the Internet, seamlessly traversing the most secure firewall and proxies. "We're pleased to be working with Arel to deliver rich multi-point voice and video to our Live Meeting customers." said Marc Sanders, senior product manager, Real-Time Collaboration Group, Microsoft. "The Arel Anyware plug-in builds on the valuable features of Live Meeting, allowing participants to communicate at low bandwidths with high quality video and audio, delivering an enhanced Web conferencing experience. Arel provides another excellent example of the vibrant ecosystem of partners developing high-value business solutions on the Microsoft Collaboration platform." "The integration of Arel's industry-proven technologies into Microsoft Office Live Meeting is a testament to both companies' commitment to make the desktop the natural end-point for communication and productivity enhancement across the enterprise," said Andrew W. Davis, managing partner at Wainhouse Research. "Arel's flexible and modular software architecture has the advantage of integrating easily with Microsoft Office Live Meeting, providing a significant advancement with high-quality, low-bandwidth video for desktop conferencing and collaboration." "Arel Anyware is a powerful conferencing and collaboration tool that replicates the in-person meeting experience and makes high-quality face-to-face global communication possible," said Philippe Szwarc, CEO of Arel. "We are very excited to be working with Microsoft and look forward to continuing to redefine and enhance the conferencing and collaboration experience for global enterprise customers and consumers." The Arel Anyware plug-in will be available for purchase as on an on-premise or a hosted solution through Arel's sales representatives. More information on Arel Anyware is available at www.ArelAnyware.com. The Arel solution will be displayed August 29 - September 1, 2005 at VoiceCon(R) in San Diego in the Microsoft booth (booth #713) and will be available to the general public in September. About the Technology Arel Anyware plug-in Unique Features and Advantages: -- Quick and easy installation -- Fully integrated into the Live Meeting interface -- Supports multiple layouts -- Up to 16 video screens displayed in a single meeting -- Flexible video bandwidth -- Control of video size and quality -- On-the-fly bandwidth allocation for audio and video -- Up to 32 full-duplex audio connections -- Wideband audio provides "near FM" quality -- Low bandwidth utilization -- Easily traverses firewalls and proxies About Arel Communications and Software: Arel Communications and Software is a leader in conferencing and collaboration solutions. Arel is focused on enhancing communications, facilitating workgroup collaboration and driving productivity in the enterprise. By providing a comprehensive application suite, Arel Spotlight(TM), for leveraging enterprise networks for rich-media communications, Arel replicates in-person meetings in the online environment. Combining voice, video and data conferencing in one easy-to-use Web-based solution, Arel fosters interactive communications that significantly improve work environments today. Arel's solution impacts key business processes such as corporate and marketing communications, distance learning, product development, customer relationship management, and supply chain management. Allowing geographically dispersed users to work together in groups, attend webinars and panel discussions, participate in training courses, and have one-on-one meetings with customers or colleagues, from virtually anywhere, Arel Spotlight is a powerful tool for critical business communications. For more information, visit www.arelcom.com. This press release contains forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, general business conditions in the industry, changes in demand for products, the timing and amount or cancellation of orders and other risks detailed from time to time in Arel Communications and Software's filings with the Security Exchange Commission. All trademarks recognized.