Deadline to nominate is February 29 and winners will be announced at UNLEASH 2012

MADISON, Wis., Jan. 13, 2012 — (PRNewswire) — Sonic Foundry, Inc. (NASDAQ: SOFO), the trusted market leader for enterprise webcasting and lecture capture, today announced its official call for nominations for the eighth annual Rich Media Impact Awards (RMIA), an honor that recognizes excellence in the practical and creative integration of Mediasite in business, education, health and government.

All RMIA finalists in attendance at UNLEASH 2012 will have the chance to win a Mediasite RL Recorder during a drawing at the event. Also, Sonic Foundry will continue to award Student Impact Scholarships, wherein two student finalists will be named, along with the universities they attend. The student runner-up will receive a $1,500 scholarship. The winner will receive a $2,500 scholarship and that student's university will also receive a Mediasite RL Recorder.

Between now and February 29 individuals can visit the UNLEASH 2012 website to submit nominations for their award-worthy projects. Finalists will be notified on March 26, and winners will be announced at a special ceremony webcast live at UNLEASH 2012, the Mediasite User Conference, taking place May 7-9 at the Monona Terrace in Madison, Wisconsin.

"The Sam M. Walton College of Business was thrilled to be awarded a 2011 Rich Media Impact Award in the 'Prolific Use' category," said Jim Goodlander, associate director of technology at the college. "We've used Mediasite to deliver dissertations live for faculty members that were traveling, to create training and orientation videos for new staff and faculty, to deliver a few classes across the globe to our partner college in New Delhi, India, and much more. Having this award is a constant reminder of the benefits of webcasting and motivates us to continue communicating to the masses in new and innovative ways."

Watch the RMIA submission Sam M. Walton College of Business made last year about how it uses Mediasite here.

The call for speakers is also open to submit a speaking proposal. The deadline for submission is February 3. Speakers' UNLEASH conference pass, a $595 value, is free.

The Rich Media Impact Awards, introduced in 2005, have strengthened the Mediasite user community by inspiring innovation and honoring more than 100 programs from around the world. The 2011 RMIA finalists can be found here.

Sonic Foundry is inviting nominations for individuals or groups who have done inspiring work in any of the following categories:

• Enterprise Award: recognizes a company who improved its business outcomes through rich media communication.
• Excellence in Education Award: recognizes a higher education institution that enhanced learning and outreach through rich media.
• Facility Design Award: recognizes a professional AV design or consulting firm that created innovative rich media rooms and facilities.
• Global Reach Award: recognizes any successful initiative that connected the international community through rich media.
• Government Award: recognizes a local, state or federal government initiative that implemented rich media for training and outreach.
• Healthcare Award: recognizes an organization that implemented rich media to benefit health and wellness.
• 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.
• Rapid ROI Award: recognizes an organization that used rich media to quickly achieve a measurable ROI in its training, communications or outreach initiatives.
• 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. 
• Student Impact Award: recognizes an individual student, as well as his/her college or university, whose educational experience has been enhanced through rich media.

About Sonic Foundry®, Inc.
Sonic Foundry (NASDAQ: SOFO, www.sonicfoundry.com) is the trusted market leader for enterprise webcasting and lecture capture, providing video communication solutions for education, business and government. Powered by the patented Mediasite webcasting platform and Mediasite Events group, the company empowers people to transform the way they communicate online, using video webcasts 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.

Contact:

Sonic Foundry, Inc. Tammy Jackson Phone: +1-608-237-8592 Email Contact Web: http://www.sonicfoundry.com