Here is an older article but I think many may have missed it:
March 17, 1997, TechWeb News
Aim for PC standards using vertical blanking intervals --WavePhore widens Intel tie By Loring Wirbel
Phoenix - WavePhore Inc., a specialist in codec technologies for data
broadcast over TV using vertical blanking intervals (VBI), is expanding its collaborative efforts with Intel Corp. The companies plan to establish VBI-ready PC standards, which Intel calls Intercast and WavePhore calls WaveTop.
In the next few weeks, WavePhore plans to announce a range of OEM,
semiconductor and software alliances to drive VBI system standards. The announcements are to precede a special seminar that WavePhore will
present with Intel at the National Association of Broadcasters in April.
WavePhore stresses that VBI broadcast represents a different consumer
segment than two-way Internet access, and is actually a better source for one-way "push" technologies from content sources such as PointCast and BackWeb than the two-way Web networks on which those services now reside. WaveTop and Intercast both will support streaming video and audio, as well as packetized data.
"Our system is totally transparent to the transport protocol-we can easily carry TCP/IP or even UDP traffic," said Patrick Gilbert, vice president of business development at WavePhore. "But we don't like to talk about bandwidth of our systems per se, because we see ourselves as complementary to traditional wireline Internet access systems, not competitive with them."
WavePhore has undergone several changes in tactical focus, though not
strategic goals, since it was founded in 1990. Its original intent was to use proprietary codec technologies for point-to-multipoint distribution of data over broadcast channels. The company acquired BleuMont Telecom Inc. (Montreal) in January 1995 to gain access to industry-standard VBI codec software, which the company believed would have faster market acceptance than internal TVT1/4 algorithms. At the end of 1995, WavePhore also acquired Mainstream Data Inc. (Salt Lake City), a company with 10 years of experience delivering broadcast data services over FM and satellite infrastructures.
In between the two acquisitions, WavePhore signed its first agreement with Intel, which called for the joint development of Intercast technologies. The deal also gave Intel an option to purchase up to 250,000 common shares of WavePhore stock by May of 1997.
WavePhore went public in 1994, when its revenues were still based solely on licensing. In fiscal 1996, the company racked up $19 million in revenue, with net losses of $8.6 million, representing primarily the costs of research and development.
Three-way split
The company split into three components at the end of last year. WavePhore Networks and WavePhore Newscast use technologies and sales channels that have been largely developed from the Mainstream Data acquisition. The networks division provides business-to-business broadcast data delivery as a service provider, while Newscast delivers real-time business news to 52,000 business users.
The technologies of BleuMont and the original WavePhore development
group were combined in creating the WavePhore Consumer Group, which
was responsible for launching WaveTop.
Last week, simultaneous with WaveTop's official rollout, WavePhore and
Intel released a hardware developer's kit that can be used to create boards and hardware modules compatible with the Intercast and WaveTop
standards.
The broadcast consumer service which WavePhore will offer for residential users is embedded in the TV broadcast signals of PBS National Datacast Inc.'s 264 member PBS stations, and to Canadian Broadcast Co. affiliates through an association with PBS. Current VBI technologies can send data in this channel at speeds up to 60 kbits/second, which will later be expandable to 100 and perhaps 300 kbits/s.
Gilbert said that desktop systems aiming at Intercast and WaveTop compatibility must be based on a Pentium of at least 75-MHz clock speed, and a system with a Peripheral Component Interconnect bus. WavePhore is working with special board developers that will offer the codecs in an ISA bus environment, but "this requires a radically different technology," he added. "WaveTop and Intercast systems essentially require PCI." The WavePhore algorithms do not require-and currently cannot utilize-MMX extensions to Pentium instruction sets, however.
Even as it seeks partnerships among hardware and software developers,
WavePhore's consumer group is launching a variety of broadcast services under the WaveTop logo. These include: RadioTop, an FM-like radio service over TV; SoftTop, a software-update service; OnlineTop, a way to bypass Internet connections to receive large files from commercial online services; ActiveTop, which provides streaming information to desktop applications; NewsTop, a multimedia news service; KidsTop, aimed at children; GuideTop, an electronic program guide; and MyTop, a custom cache-management and information-preferences service.
To date, WavePhore has not taken hits for being a provider of both content and underlying technology. As the company seeks partnerships in the content field, Gilbert said he wants to screen out "push" technologies that are "less than compelling."
Multiple fronts
On the OEM and component front, WavePhore has to operate on multiple
tiers. For example, motherboard-level solutions will require the use of graphic chips with pass-through VBI modes, currently offered by Philips Components Inc. and the Brooktree division of Rockwell Semiconductor Systems. WavePhore currently is working to provide drivers to these IC suppliers, as well as to identify other possible graphic and video semiconductor specialists who would want to work with the company, Gilbert said.
"We think we are creating a new market segment here," he said. "We are
complementary to wireline Internet access services, and we do not position ourselves against DSS-based services such as DirectPC. This is a low-cost, mass-market way to bring broadcast data to the PC."
And what of the original TVT1/4 algorithms? Gilbert said the company may launch them for power users of one-way broadcast data, in the same way that certain digital access technologies are offered to power Internet users. But WavePhore also will monitor trends in advanced TV and HDTV worlds, as broadcast compression algorithms may be made obsolete as new spectrum is offered to the broadcast industry.
Copyright 1997 CMP Media Inc.
GO WAVO!... A no brainer until Windows 98 is released and perhaps beyond!
Regards, Jeff |
