Phoenix Suns and iStreamPlanet Team up to Launch PlanetOrange.net

Suns social network features Microsoft Silverlight

INDIANAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Phoenix Suns launched a new social network for their fans, PlanetOrange.net, on Friday. The NBA franchise worked directly with iStreamPlanet Co. to develop the site, which features iStreamPlanet’s new iStream Player, based on Microsoft Silverlight technology as a main component to the site and KickApps’ white label, hosted social media platform’s social networking and user-generated content functionality

Fans – a.k.a. “Citizens” of Planet Orange – have the ability to create their own personal profiles, upload user generated content such as photos, video and artwork, and exchange opinions with other Suns fans through message boards and blogs.

“Our fans want more than just the latest news and information on the Suns,” said Jeramie McPeek, Suns Vice President of Interactive Services. “They want to be able to interact with each other, voice their opinions and help us create exciting new content. Our Planet Orange network is a whole new world for our fans to express their passion for Suns basketball.”

Launching the site with the new iStream Player based on Silverlight technology will ensure that fans of the Phoenix Suns worldwide will have consistent and immersive experience while watching content in any browser and on any platform.

“iStreamPlanet prides itself on providing the best possible solution to its customers, whether built in-house or through a partner,” said Mio Babic, President and CEO of iStreamPlanet Co. “By integrating our iStream Player based on the Microsoft Silverlight technology with KickApps’ social media platform, and Limelight Network’s CDN for reliable and scalable content delivery, we have the perfect example of working with industry leading partners to provide a best of breed solution. We are pleased to be in the middle of such a momentous new offering.”

“We are very pleased to see that iStreamPlanet is using Silverlight to provide Phoenix Suns fans with the kind of cross-platform, rich interactive experience that Silverlight is created for,” said Sean Alexander, Director of Silverlight at Microsoft Corp.

The Phoenix Suns welcomed more than 4.2 million unique users to their award-winning web site, Suns.com, during the 2006-07 NBA season, with fans visiting from more than 200 countries.

About iStreamPlanet

iStreamPlanet specializes in managed webcasts and streaming media applications. Applications are sold through the iStreamPlanet Media Suite which include: iStream Presenter, a rich media presentation platform, iStream Player, a fully branded and customizable media player built on Silverlight technology from Microsoft with playlist capability and content management system, iStream DRM, a digital rights management service for content protection and conditional access, and PayCast, a media management platform for offering content on paid and subscription basis.

iStreamPlanet customers include Caterpillar, Microsoft, American Express, San Disk, Texas Instruments, AT&T Blue Room, WebEx, CES and others. iStreamPlanet has also partnered with America’s leading technology service provider for the convention markets, Smart City, to provide managed streaming media services and webcasting to over fifty venues including twenty-six of the largest convention centers nationwide and Disneyland and Disney World Resort Properties.

About KickApps

Selected by BusinessWeek readers as Best of the Web 2008, KickApps provides brands, enterprises and web publishers with solutions that enable social, interactive, dynamic, distributed and data-informed web experiences. KickApps solutions consist of a suite of hosted social and media applications and services that are used by some of the world’s largest websites and brands to grow & engage their online audiences and foster deeper relationships with customers. Clients include: Budget Travel, H&R Block, U2, CW Television, Guinness World Records, Special Olympics, HBO, Cinemax, Cox Television, the Phoenix Suns, the New York Knicks, the New York Rangers and thousands of other sites. For more information, visit www.kickapps.com and www.kickdeveloper.com.

KickApps Public Relations