WINTER PARK, FLORIDA, USA - March 11, 2008 - Highwinds Network Group, Inc., a multi-platform IP services and content distribution provider, today announced it is partnering with Digital Rapids Corporation and Knack Networks to create advanced IPTV solutions for the vast market of professional media companies worldwide -- including traditional cable and direct-to-home distribution companies, broadcasters, film and television studios and producers, as well as new-generation Internet media companies. The solutions handle both live and on-demand channels of video delivery direct to the home or office utilizing Highwinds' RollingThunder™ network.

Highwinds will collaborate with Digital Rapids and Knack Networks to develop and market complete, end-to-end, fully managed video distribution solutions that leverage the three companies' expertise in their respective domains. The turnkey offerings resulting from the companies' partnership will integrate:

• Highwinds' content delivery network (CDN) infrastructure and associated technologies, including its industry-leading real-time analytics facility.
• Digital Rapids' highly scalable hardware and software solutions for media capture, encoding, transcoding, protection, streaming and delivery.
• Knack Networks' universal interface platform which enables professional media companies to source, store, protect, monetize, manage and distribute IPTV programming from the vast array of traditional and emerging channels, while insulating them from the complexities and risks of changing technology.

Highwinds will showcase its content delivery solutions tapping Digital Rapids and Knack Networks technologies in its exhibit -- Booth #107 -- at IPTV World Forum, March 12-14 in London. Beta site implementations of these offerings will begin at Highwinds and Knack Networks customer sites in April.

Highwinds also announced today it has closed a $55 million round of equity financing led by General Catalyst Partners and Alta Communications. The financing will fund the infrastructure build-out of Highwinds' RollingThunder network, including a content delivery network offering which the company is unveiling at IPTV World Forum.

Highwinds' StrikeTracker dashboard provides important real-time analytics capability
An important value-add in the integrated solutions from Highwinds, Digital Rapids and Knack Networks is provided by the real-time analytics technology in Highwinds' StrikeTracker™ user console. The StrikeTracker dashboard graphically displays all pertinent information for tracking content -- delivery rates, number of hits on specific files, etc. Geographic tracking of requests allows users to drill down into geographic regions and find out how their content is doing in different areas of the world. Typically, within 30 seconds of the first delivery of a file or media stream, the dashboard will begin to show usage data in its graphs.

"Highwinds' unique real-time analytics and reporting capabilities are a driving factor in our partnership with them," said Brick Eksten, president of Digital Rapids Corporation. "The metrics from the Highwinds dashboard support our goal of providing media companies with comprehensive end-to-end global broadcasting workflows, enabling a more complete solution for our customers"

As a Highwinds reseller partner integrating Digital Rapids solutions, Knack Networks will have an advanced 'industrial scale' content delivery network for reaching its professional media customers. The first phase of Knack's network will be deployed in 12 major market areas in the Americas, with the capacity to deliver standard resolution live television to up to 250,000 simultaneous viewers. This will be supported by two IPTV headends from Digital Rapids providing a capacity to ingest 600 live television channels, and by Highwinds' 800 Gbps RollingThunder network and direct peering connections to over 700 ISPs and service networks in North America and Europe. Knack's content delivery will be monitored 24/7 by two Highwinds Network Operation Centers.

"Leveraging Digital Rapids and Highwinds technologies, we have engineered a future ready network specifically designed for distribution of live television and high resolution media," said Stuart Ross, chairman of Knack Networks. "Our platform can meet the most rigorous transport and distribution requirements that professional media companies have for both broadcast and broadband standards."

"The synergies of this partnership will deliver IPTV solutions whose performance and scalability are unmatched in the industry," said Mark Hayes, VP of Marketing and Business Development at Highwinds. "What's more, the tight integration we are creating with Digital Rapids and Knack Networks will support instant account provisioning, giving professional media companies the agility to get up and running with their video content distribution in minutes, not days or weeks."

Highwinds' technology leadership
Highwinds is a multi-platform IP services and content distribution provider. The Highwinds RollingThunder network was purpose-built in 2007 for a modern, high-change, media object hosting environment. The RollingThunder network currently comprises 21 POPs spanning two continents, a large private peering infrastructure, and an 800 Gbps IP network and high-capacity backbone consisting of multiple redundant 10 Gbps links.

Internet content delivery is a core service that runs on the RollingThunder network. The Highwinds CDN includes nearly half a terabit of CDN server capacity distributed geographically in North America and Europe and has worldwide delivery capabilities. Highwinds' CDN serves content in all the leading industry formats -- Windows Media Server, Adobe Flash Streaming Server, and HTTP downloads.

About Highwinds Network Group, Inc.
Highwinds has been a leader in the development of content replication and delivery software and services since 2002. This experience has led to a number of technology innovations in network management, distributed file system technology and advanced content routing methods. The Highwinds CDN leverages best-in-class hardware and software to quickly and successfully move content at a global level. The company's high-performance RollingThunder™ network and user-friendly StrikeTracker™ content management and reporting dashboard enable clients to deploy and manage content, file downloads and streaming media. Highwinds is headquartered in Winter Park, Fla., and maintains data centers in 13 North American and European cities. For more information, please visit www.highwinds.com.

About Digital Rapids Corporation
Digital Rapids is a leading developer of professional hardware and software solutions for video ingest, encoding, transcoding, protection, streaming and delivery. Digital Rapids offers solutions that scale from individual applications to enterprise and global workflows, with the proven expertise to help its customers maximize their productivity and the value of their content in the evolving digital media market. Digital Rapids products integrate seamlessly into new and existing post production, broadcast, institutional and media distribution environments, dramatically increasing the volume and quality of media produced while lowering overall costs. Digital Rapids Corporation is headquartered in Ontario, Canada, with sales offices in the United States, the UK and Australia. For more information about Digital Rapids, please visit www.digital-rapids.com.

About Knack Networks
Knack Networks is a solutions provider for professional media companies utilizing a complete set of fully managed application and network services to provide a turnkey multi-channel, IPTV transmission platform. Knack Networks offers comprehensive solutions ranging from multi-source ingest and acquisition, media library and storage, metadata search and services, content monetization, digital rights management, and media distribution and syndication. Knack Networks' media logistics services integrate with existing applications, post production, and master control operations, automating and enhancing the workflows and media value. Knack Networks is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, with sales offices in Toronto, Canada, and maintains teleport operations in four international cities. For more information on Knack Networks, please visit www.knacknetworks.com.