BillyG,
When the video bits start flying it will be very interesting.................Really be interesting to see what DIVI/HLIT will come up with...........
The BIG dog wants IP video........
Cisco's Corporate Spin On Internet Video
By Fred Dawson, Inter@ctive Week
November 15, 1999 12:00 AM ET
Internet video may not be ready for prime time in the mass market, but Cisco Systems believes it has a way to knock down the remaining barriers to widescale use of Internet Protocol video streaming and videoconferencing in the business world.
Cisco (www.cisco.com) now has two initiatives in the works with various partners to develop some of the missing technology pieces needed to deliver high-quality Internet Protocol-based video over enterprise networks, as well as private IP networks run by application service providers (ASPs).
"Unlike public networks, corporate networks are fully managed with sufficient bandwidth to support delivery of high-quality video to every desktop," notes Heather Rose, group manager for product marketing at Cisco's video Internet services unit. "At the same time, streaming and conferencing technology has matured to the point where companies see they can derive real benefits from use of video."
In coming weeks, Cisco will bring out two products aimed at delivering IP-based streaming video and videoconferencing over enterprise networks. For streaming video, Cisco will release a new version of its IP/TV server software. For videoconferencing, the company is set to come out with a new IP/VC line, based on videoconferencing technology developed by RADVision.
"We are driving business adoption of IP-based video by investing in products and technologies that make it as sharp and reliable as a TV image," says Jack Bradley, general manager at Cisco's video Internet services unit.
For video streaming, Cisco is releasing Version 3.0 of its IP/TV server software, which is built on the Windows Media Technologies platform from Microsoft. Cisco also is introducing a line of broadcast servers under the IP/TV 3400 banner.
The streaming software, which supports the Motion Picture Experts Group 1, 2 and 4 standards and multicasting, makes use of the high bandwidth capacities of private enterprise networks, where video can be delivered at speeds well above 500 kilobits per second, Rose says.
Although streaming based on Windows Media Technologies is built to navigate less robust public networks, IP/TV taps into the latest Internet Engineering Task Force standards such as IP Multicast, Real-Time Streaming Protocol and Real-Time Transport Protocol to add a higher level of quality-of-service management.
"The IP/TV protocols tend to work best with managed routers and switches, whereas the protocols Microsoft uses assume that the routers and switches across the public Internet aren't going to be cooperating with each other in a particular streaming session," Rose explains. "By building on Windows Media we're able to control both the Microsoft server and our server, allowing the user to pull up whichever server and client options are most appropriate for the media being streamed."
The broadcast server hardware allows the corporate network operator or an ASP to create a distributed network for video streaming, thereby avoiding the potential congestion that comes with handling video from a single point in the network, Rose says. "The system automatically locates the server that's the best access point for any given user," she adds.
Cisco demonstrated its IP/TV technology as part of last month's United Nations NetAid event. The company worked with the University of Oregon to multicast the 14-hour event, carried to more than 150 universities around the world via Internet2. Students at the University of Oregon watched broadcast-quality concert images from their dormitory rooms or campus cybercaf‚s using Cisco IP/TV client software.
Call for conferences
Cisco's move into the IP videoconferencing realm stems from customer demand for help at the network system level to ensure reliable performance in IP-based videoconferences, Rose says. "We got into this because customers really want to use this technology if the performance quality they're looking for is there," she says.
Cisco is using technology developed by RADVision to establish a gateway interface between the IP-based H.323 standard from International Telecommunication Union and the ITU's older H.320 standard for non-IP videoconferencing systems. The IP/VC product group also includes gatekeeper and proxy software for managing sessions and quality of service, and a multipoint control unit that allows participants in multiple locations to join a videoconference with full, real-time interactivity as well as data collaboration under the T.120 standard.
More evidence that CSCO is moving toward the CUBE/DIVI/HLIT area. Will they want to buy HLIT? Can HLIT/DIVI develop IP video products too? Any help out there on this topic......
Radvision link
radvision.com
RDV hype here.............
Financial Times Telecoms World Names RADVision One of the "Hot 5" Companies Shaking Up the Industry
RADVision's market-leading building blocks for voice and video over IP position company at the center of the IP communications revolution
Mahwah, New Jersey, October 13, 1999 - RADVision, Inc., the leading technology provider of award-winning, industry-standard "building blocks" for voice, video, and data convergence, was selected as one of the "Hot 5" technology companies featured in an article highlighting the top movers and shakers in the telecommunications industry.
"RADVision is sitting at the center of the IP revolution," says RADVision's Michelle Blank, Vice President of Global Marketing, attending TELECOMS 99, the prestigious international event in Geneva known as the Olympics of the telecommunications industry.
If TELECOM is the industry Olympics, RADVision's Financial Times accolade is likened to being named a medal-winner in its category. The honor is well deserved. A technology innovator that has been racking up awards since its founding in 1993, RADVision was an original member of the ITU committee defining the H.323 standard and has continued to drive the standards for interoperable conferencing solutions by developing hardware and software building blocks for IP telephony and multimedia communication.
"RADVision was the first in developing and demonstrating commercially viable technology for establishing real-time voice and video calls on IP networks," says Blank. "We are the engine inside most products and services on the market today for IP telephony and converged voice, video and data communications networks."
Working with a long list of industry giants including Siemens, Hewlett Packard, Bosch, Nortel, Cisco and Alcatel, as well as innovative smaller companies, RADVision is hosting a "Passport to Interoperability" tour program at TELECOM 99. The Passport tour not only highlights RADVision's impressive interoperability, but demonstrates the commercial viability of RADVision technology in a wide range of IP-centric communications solutions.
About RADVision
RADVision is the recognized global technology leader for industry standard "building blocks" needed for enabling voice and video calls on packet networks like the Internet. Virtually all of the builders of voice or video over IP solutions for Internet Protocol (IP) networks rely on RADVision technology and products. The company offers a comprehensive suite of multi-protocol developer toolkits for IP telephony and multimedia conferencing, and a family of enterprise networking products that can be used to build a total enterprise IP based multimedia PBX (Private Branch Exchange). As a pioneer and market leader in the area of IP communications, the company participated in defining the H.323 standard and continues to work closely with the ITU and other industry consortia on the evolution and specification of a broad spectrum of IP telephony protocols for voice and video communication. RADVision, together with its industry leading partners, is driving the IP communications revolution by delivering compelling new enhanced applications, services and functionality for converged networks.
radvision.com
SO the BIG dog wants more optics companies, bought COCOM for DVB, and want video over IP. They will buy HLIT?
Or compete with them. Keep those HLIT shares everyone.
JINI in the home?
Focus On: Jini makes storage smarter
By James E. Gaskin, Inter@ctive Week
November 1, 1999 12:00 AM ET
If devices enabled with Sun Microsystems' Jini technology do take off, users will start generating plenty of Jini network data as it gets designed into products. In that case, Seagate Technology will be ready with Jini-enabled intelligent network storage devices.
Home networking between intelligent devices drives up demand for hard disk storage, according to Nigel Macleod, vice president of advanced concepts labs at Seagate (www. seagate.com). "Digital storage in the home will be hard drive-based," he says, "and Jini gives enough intelligence to provide a generalized vehicle to make that happen."
As digital recording methods start to appear in video components such as set-top boxes and VCRs, home hard drive use will explode. Much of this will depend on wireless technologies, Macleod notes, because "99 percent of people will not rewire their house.
"The key to Jini success is infrastructure and applications," he says. Seagate engineers believe the home network architecture will revolve around a system containing disk drives, and running a Java Virtual Machine and Jini on such disk drives will build the infrastructure more quickly.
"Our hard drive can capture three video streams at once," Macleod says, assuming a pipeline of that size will exist in homes in the near future. "Other consumer devices have much lower bandwidth," he adds, making the device doing the video capture the logical choice of the home network controller.
zdnet.com |
