Frank Cugini of Synergy Soup & Andy Hedberg of The Production Department, show off the Lead Crystal Award from The New York Times.

THE NEW YORK TIMES PRESENTS TAKINSITES.COM AND IT'S UNIQUE INTERNET AUDIO TECHNOLOGY WITH IT'S MOST DISTINCTIVE AWARD.

Talkinsites.com's innovative web audio technology is recognized as one of 2002's most innovative web advertising solutions.

DATELINE: Lansing, October 31, 2002

The 2002 New York Times Ad Innovation Awards were developed to honor innovative advertising solutions. Recently they named Talkinsites.com as one of its Top 25 Finalists in the 2002 professional category. The New York Times received entries from across the country seeking innovation in web advertising. Talkinsites.com's unique web audio solution caught the attention of the judges - out of all of the entries received nation wide, Talkinsites.com was awarded the distinction of a Top Finalist.

Talkinsites.com is the brainchild of two Industry leaders. Synergy Soup Interactive has been a cornerstone of web development in mid-Michigan since 1994 and The Production Department has been a message on hold leader for over 15 years. The two joined forces in 2001 to expand an idea developed by Frank Cugini (CEO) and Synergy Soup as a unique audio solution for one of its clients.

The Talkinsites.com team from Synergy Soup and The Production Department. Rollover to see our excitment!

"We developed the first 'talking site' for a client that had Real Media audio samples on their site but hardly any visitors actually clicked on the links to hear the audio. We could tell from the site statistics that those that actually heard the samples were ordering more often. Our challenge was to create a solution that didn't require the user to click - in other words - "Auto-Play" but still maintain the quality of the original audio.," describes Cugini.

Andrew Hedberg, CEO of The Production Department said, "We've developed a breakthrough compression technique that enables the visitors to our client sites to hear as well as see…and amazingly our audio files load faster than most graphics." He added, "Our proprietary compression technique allows us to create 15 to 30 second audio files that are less than 50 kbytes in size and auto play in most browsers. What's really exciting is our audio files are smaller than most web image files and actually start playing before they are completely loaded."

Cugini added, "Our solutions touch multiple senses of each and every visitor to your web site - instantly! …Not just their eyes but also their ears. The bottom line is that with TalkinSites.com we help our clients excite their visitors emotions which sells their products and services."

TalkinSites.com combines the technical expertise and years of experience of two of mid Michigan's leaders in their industries. The Production Department has been providing professional on-hold messaging services for over 15 years and Synergy Soup has been developing unique web technology solutions for nearly 8 years and web graphics since 1991. The Production Department provides the creative scripting, the professional voice talent and the audio production. Synergy Soup converts and compresses the audio files with their unique audio compression technique and adds them to client sites.