Interesting Article that probably best defines RNWK's real role in the future of Video Streaming on the Internet
Scott Adams
Inter@ctive Week
February 23, 1998
Streaming Market Shaken, Stirred
By Connie Guglielmo
There is a dream that one day consumers will be able to traverse the World Wide Web and effortlessly view audio, video and multimedia content. For content creators, that dream includes industry-standard file formats and transmission standards for distributing their content. And while everyone's dreaming, it doesn't hurt to throw in a wish that the underlying technology is open, cross-platform and embraced by key developers.
This month, those dreams moved a step closer to reality with increased talk about two standards that aim to make the Web a viable broadcast medium: the International Standards Organization's Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG)-4 and the Internet Engineering Task Force's Internet Protocol (IP) Multicast Initiative (www.ipmulticast.com).
Though both standards have seemingly garnered widespread industry support, analysts say it will take at least a year or two for the technologies to evolve and for the politics surrounding their adoption to play out.
IP Multicasting, for instance, which seeks to overcome bandwidth limitations by allowing the broadcast of a single data stream to thousands of users simultaneously, is just starting to gain momentum after two years of talk.
Meanwhile, the ISO (www.iso.org) says it is moving forward on MPEG-4 as a common digital media format for handling the storage and distribution of broadcast-quality audio and video, as well as for streaming media over the Web. That news comes at a time when consumers have had to contend with a variety of proprietary formats and players for viewing streaming audio and video, a process by which content is viewed as it is received instead of waiting until the entire file is downloaded to the desktop.
While RealNetworks Inc. (www.real.com) is the pioneer in this field, and its proprietary RealAudio and RealVideo have become de facto standards for streaming media on the Web, Microsoft Corp. (www.microsoft.com) has been moving into the market, acquiring or investing in streaming media players over the past two years -- including a $60 million investment in RealNetworks last year that allowed it to license version 4.0 of the RealNetworks server and player technology for use in the NetShow server.
In exchange, RealNetworks said it will support the Advanced Streaming Format (ASF) file format that Microsoft, along with Intel Corp. and corporate streaming leader Starlight Networks Inc., has been promoting.
But Microsoft's plan to make ASF an industry standard suffered a setback when the ISO said it will instead use Apple Computer Inc.'s QuickTime file format, a cross-platform multimedia format introduced in 1991, as the starting point for MPEG-4.
That decision -- endorsed by Microsoft rivals IBM Corp., Netscape Communications Corp., Oracle Corp., Silicon Graphics Inc. and Sun Microsystems Inc. -- gives struggling Apple (www.apple.com) a leg up in its bid to become the technology provider of choice for content creators.
The ISO's decision means the more than 81,000 Web sites running QuickTime today are assured their content will continue to play when MPEG-4 hits the streets, says Richard Dougherty, director of digital media research at The Envisioneering Group.
"ASF is not mature enough, and there's not enough source code out there to make it interesting enough to developers. And it's hard to catch up with QuickTime, which has been out in the market for six to seven years," Dougherty says. "But it gives companies like RealNetworks, which has been a tools company, the opportunity to focus on becoming a broadcasting service provider that people turn to when they want to make sure their video or audio is delivered reliably."
"It's a little too early to tell how MPEG-4 will play out and whether it's additive or subtractive in terms of our technology," says Phil Barrett, senior vice president of media systems at RealNetworks.
Microsoft, meanwhile, expects the new MPEG-4 standard to include parts of ASF. But it will continue to evolve and promote ASF, says David Britton, group product manager for platform marketing at Microsoft.
And where does that leave consumers? Still dreaming, says Ralph Rogers, principal analyst for multimedia at Dataquest Inc. "Whenever you propose anything as an industry standard, it's going to take some time."
Dueling Standards
These are the two standards for smoothing the way for Web audio and video:
The Proposed Standard: MPEG-4
The Goal: MPEG-4 wants to create a common digital media file format for authoring and distributing audio, video and multimedia content, including real-time video and audio streaming over the Internet. MPEG-4 is being built around Apple Computer Inc.'s QuickTime file format, a cross-platform multimedia file format already widely used by content creators.
Supporters: The proposed standard is being developed under the International Standards Organization's Motion Picture Experts Group with help from Apple, IBM Corp., Microsoft Corp., Netscape Communications Corp., Oracle Corp., Silicon Graphics Inc. and Sun Microsystems Inc.
The Proposed Standard: Internet Protocol (IP) Multicast Initiative
The Goal: Unlike today's bandwidth-intensive one-to-one broadcasting model -- where individual audio-video streams are sent out to every person wishing to view the content -- IP Multicast supports simultaneous distribution of a single data stream to thousands, and possibly millions, of tuned-in users.
Supporters: IP Multicast is an industry-standard technology supported by the Internet Engineering Task Force. Led by Stardust Technologies Inc., the IP Multicast Initiative is a multivendor effort to get companies to adopt the protocol. Supporters include 3Com Corp., @Home Network Corp., Cisco Systems Inc., MCI Communications Corp., Microsoft Corp., RealNetworks Inc. and UUnet Technologies Inc. |
