Sonic Foundry Announces Winners of Fifth Annual Rich Media Impact Awards

MADISON, Wis., April 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Sonic Foundry, Inc. (Nasdaq:
SOFO), the recognized market leader for rich media webcasting and knowledge
management, today announced the winners of the fifth annual Rich Media Impact
Awards at a special awards dinner during UNLEASH 2009, the third annual
Mediasite conference. New this year are two awards that recognize prolific use
of webcasting and enhanced student experience through rich media.

The RMIA were launched in 2005 to showcase excellence in the practical and
creative integration of the Mediasite webcasting platform in education,
business, health and government. The awards honor organizations that have
demonstrated measurable improvements in accessibility, cost savings,
efficiency and productivity.

"With the RMIA we give special recognition to the successes of our customers
who have pushed the boundaries of rich media with work that demonstrates
creativity, innovation, cost savings and excellence across diverse
organizations," said Rob Lipps, executive vice president of Sonic Foundry. "We
look forward to supporting these achievements and sharing with them in their
commitment to bridge time and distance and share knowledge not only throughout
their organizations, but around the world."

An on-demand webcast catalog of finalist presentations, as well as honorable
mention submissions and honorees from past years, is available at
www.sonicfoundry.com/finalists2009. Winners were announced at a special awards
dinner Tuesday, April 28 in Madison, Wisconsin during UNLEASH 2009, the
company's third annual Mediasite User Conference
(www.sonicfoundry.com/unleash2009). An on-demand webcast the awards ceremony
is available at www.sonicfoundry.com/awards.

2009 Rich Media Impact Award Winners

NEW Prolific Use Award: recognizes an organization that has dramatically
scaled its rich media program to achieve a broad deployment across its
enterprise or record number of presentations, views or audiences. The 2009
winner is Fox School of Business at Temple University, which uses Mediasite to
power its TUCAPTURE initiative. Used by every Fox undergraduate program, every
Fox academic department and expected at every TU campus and overseas,
TUCAPTURE records more than 300 hours of online lectures per day.

NEW Student Impact Award: recognizes an individual student, as well as his/her
college or university, whose educational experience has been enhanced through
rich media. The 2009 winner is Jenna Lombardo, a student at Northwestern
University Prosthetics-Orthotics Center. According to Jenna, Mediasite has
improved her educational experience by providing unique online learning
opportunities and the opportunity for time-shifting that is not possible in a
traditional classroom setting.

Enterprise Award: recognizes an organization who improved its business
outcomes through rich media communication. The 2009 winner is Russell
Investments, a global investment company that uses Mediasite to share
knowledge inside the organization. To efficiently deliver messages from
experts to its workforce, Russell creates webcasts that combine a question and
answer format with multiple cameras and live switching. The result is both
engaging and informative to the end user.

Excellence in Education Award: recognizes a higher education institution that
enhanced learning and outreach through rich media. The 2009 winner is Penn
State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, which operates a robust campus-wide
educational environment with Mediasite as its core component. Used by all
departments for academic, clinical, outreach and in-service education,
Mediasite has changed the educational landscape of the campus. As testament to
this claim, the Institution has built a library of over 3,700 presentations,
and recently achieved the mark of 101,000 total Mediasite views per year.

Facility Design Award: recognizes a Mediasite customer and/or professional AV
design or consulting firm that created innovative rich media rooms and
facilities. The 2009 winner is Ashland University Instructional Technology
Support Group. The University has doubled the amount of online presentations
it creates each year. IT's answer to streamlining the process was to create a
technology enhanced observation classroom, with full Mediasite RL recorder
integration, permanent mic installation, auto camera tracking of presenters,
and SMART board functionality recording into Mediasite.

Global Reach Award: recognizes any successful initiative that connected the
international community through rich media. The 2009 winner is Florida State
University GEOSET. The Global Educational Outreach (GEO) initiative uses new
technology to provide outstanding Science, Engineering and Technology (SET)
teaching material. GEOSET aims to create a global network of participating
sites who deliver valuable downloadable teaching material created by the best
science and technology experts and educators via Mediasite.

Government Award: recognizes a local, state or federal government initiative
that implemented rich media for training and outreach. The 2009 winner is The
Center for Rural Development. During an initiative to bring live Abraham
Lincoln's 200th birthday celebration presentations to students in southern and
eastern Kentucky, heavy snow and frigid temperatures closed schools and
postponed scheduled performances. The Center used Mediasite to record Lincoln
presenters and stream to schools across the region.

Healthcare Award: recognizes an organization that implemented rich media to
benefit health and wellness. The 2009 winner is Ontario Hospital Association.
OHA is a provincial non-profit organization that serves 159 member hospitals
across the province of Ontario. OHA uses Mediasite to foster communication and
professional development with all hospitals across the province.

Rapid ROI Award: recognizes an organization that used rich media to quickly
achieve a measurable ROI in its training, communications or outreach
initiatives. The 2009 winner is The Schallert Group. The group's business
training and Destination University curriculum reaches small business owners
in over 100 cities in the United States, reducing their experts need to travel
by over a third.

Scholastic Achievement Award: recognizes a school district or other
organization serving the K-12 educational community that harnessed the power
of rich media to improve communication, learning and outreach. The 2009 winner
is Memphis City Schools, which uses Mediasite to train its employees and
provide timely support and communication to parents and community members.

Finalists will also be showcased on the Sonic Foundry website and in
advertising in the June/July issue of Streaming Media Magazine as well as
other publications throughout the year.

Since its introduction in 2003, Sonic Foundry's Mediasite has set the standard
as a transformational communication medium for delivering critical information
and sharing knowledge. The patented Mediasite webcasting and content
management system quickly and cost-effectively automates the capture,
management, delivery and search of rich media presentations that combine
audio, video and accompanying graphics for live or on-demand viewing.

For the complete list of past RMIA winners visit
http://www.sonicfoundry.com/resources/impact-awards/past-winners/.

About Sonic Foundry(R), Inc.
Sonic Foundry (Nasdaq: SOFO, www.sonicfoundry.com) is the global leader for
rich media webcasting and knowledge management, providing enterprise
communication solutions for more than 1,500 customers in education, business
and government. Powered by Mediasite, the patented webcasting platform which
automates the capture, management, delivery and search of lectures, online
training and briefings, Sonic Foundry empowers people to transform the way
they communicate. Through the Mediasite platform and its Events Services
group, the company helps customers connect a dynamic, evolving world of shared
knowledge and envisions a future where learners and workers around the globe
use webcasting to bridge time and distance, accelerate research and improve
performance.

Product and service names mentioned herein are the trademarks of Sonic
Foundry, Inc. or their respective owners.

Certain statements contained in this news release regarding matters that are
not historical facts may be forward-looking statements. Because such
forward-looking statements include risks and uncertainties, actual results may
differ materially from those expressed in or implied by such forward-looking
statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially
include, but are not limited to, uncertainties pertaining to continued market
acceptance for Sonic Foundry's products, its ability to succeed in capturing
significant revenues from media services and/or systems, the effect of new
competitors in its market, integration of acquired business and other risk
factors identified from time to time in its filings with the Securities and
Exchange Commission.

SOURCE Sonic Foundry, Inc.

Tammy Kramer of Sonic Foundry, Inc., +1-608-237-8592, tammyk@sonicfoundry.com