Justin and ALL:
I thought i would post these links to help explain why i am still in
SGI. i believe the on demand vidio streaming explosion is almost
upon us.
comments?
acorn.com
CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND, 1997 OCT 10 (NB) -- By Steve Gold. Acorn has
announced its is teaming up with Silicon Graphics [NYSE:SGI] to
develop a video streaming technology for links between SG's
WebForcer MediaBase servers and the soon-to-ship Acorn set-top box
systems.
The aim of the technology linkup is to allow Acorn's set-top box
units to be much more than fast Internet access systems for TVs, but
to allow them to provide users with video on demand services,
subject to available bandwidth.
The move is an interesting one, Newsbytes notes, as unconfirmed
reports are surfacing that British Telecom (BT), which is prohibited
by the British government from broadcasting, is looking seriously at
offering fast Internet access to subscribers using ADSL (asymmetric
digital subscriber line) links across standard copper cabling, with
the sweetener of "narrowcasted" (i.e. broadcast to one household)
video on demand services. These same rumors suggest that a major
contract may be in the offing between BT and Acorn.
The official line about today's announcement is that Acorn will be
targeting the SG-enhanced technology at the original equipment
manufacturer (OEM) marketplace, which will offer consumers video-on-
demand services in the corporate, training, education and consumer
markets.
Plans call for Silicon Graphics to work closely with Acorn to
deliver customized systems. Officials claim that the system is
ideally suited for situations such as training classes or corporate
presentations where hundreds of high-quality simultaneous video
streams may need to be stopped and started intermittently.
Acorn set-top boxes can operate either in full interactive mode to
support video on demand style movie playback, or in feed mode to
support the presentation of real-time video from TV channel
encoders, cameras and other types of MPEG (Motion Picture
Entertainment Group) sources.
"The integration of Silicon Graphics high-performance WebForce
MediaBase servers and Acorn's set-top box hardware and software is a
perfect fit," said Marc Trimuschat, a spokesperson for Silicon
Graphics.
Newsbytes notes that the technology under development by Acorn and
Silicon Graphics is based on the Real Time Streaming Protocols
(RTSP) standard originally developed by Progressive Networks and
Netscape Communications. RTSP is an open standard for streaming
audio and video which enables efficient, secure and scalable
delivery of audio and video content via Internet protocols (IP).
"This is the first time that anyone has implemented RTSP to deliver
high resolution MPEG2 interactive video using these protocols, which
were originally developed for low bandwidth modem connections,"
explained Kevin Coleman, Acorn's head of corporate communications.
Acorn's Web pages are at acorn.co.uk . |
