Not trite to say that the digital imaging market is emerging faster than it it commonly given credit in the popular media.
Consider the following from PC Week Oct 12, 1998:
(much of this is about the "downstream" use of video imaging but
note how CNN is packaging their service in this context. I also found of interest the decided corporate use twist to the application.)
Streaming: Here today, better tomorrow
Changes in software, infrastructure will improve video transmission quality
By Kristina B. Sullivan, PC Week Online
October 12, 1998
The President's grand jury testimony gave hundreds of thousands of users last month a chance to see live broadcast video, warts
and all, over the Internet. Video quality in the Clinton Webcast was poor, but help is on the way in the form of improved software
that, combined with infrastructure enhancements, will boost reception.
The quality issue is the same no matter what video player is currently used--the sound is good, but the video is choppy. The major hurdle, software developers agree, is available bandwidth.
"As bandwidth improves, we will be able to continually increase
utility," said Matt Thomas, senior product manager for GEO Interactive, maker of Emblaze VideoPro streaming Web media software, in Woodland Hills, Calif. "Web video will become more like what you see on CD-ROM with a bigger screen and better quality."
Enhancements to the Internet's infrastructure and the use of alternatives such as cable modems will drastically improve video quality. Right now, software developers are working to improve video quality by boosting compression rates, adding caching and automating delivery speeds.
Microsoft Corp. and RealNetworks Inc., for example, recently added
dynamic rate adjustment to their products, allowing support for multiple transmission rates from a single encoded video stream. "RealVideo G2 natively creates a single file with a lot of different bit rates that will scale to your connection rate," said Philip Rosedale, vice president of media systems for RealNetworks, in Seattle. The player can adjust from 28.8K bps to 1M bps, as the connection warrants.
Microsoft's Media Player, which will replace the company's NetShow
brand, also includes intelligent streaming. "The end user does not have to select a data rate; Media Player automatically senses that it is a 28.8 [K-bps] modem or a T-1 line," said Gary Schare, product manager for Windows media technologies at Microsoft, in Bellevue, Wash. If the data rate of a connection drops, Media Player lowers the frame rate without interrupting the video stream, Schare said.
Video quality in Media Player has also been improved through new
compression techniques and the codec algorithm, he said. "The codec
doubled the quality. We can now get double the frame rate at the same
data rate," he said. The new version supports up to 2M bps for live
encoding and up to 8M bps for video-on-demand systems.
In RealVideo G2, the player is enhanced to support a frame rate of 30
frames per second, compared with a maximum rate of 15 frames per
second in RealVideo 5.0. Another feature added to improve video
quality is frame rate up-sampling. "When playback is occurring, the
player enhances the frame rate on the stream and makes the video
smoother," RealNetworks' Rosedale said.
RealSystem G2 also integrates Intel Corp.'s Streaming Web Video
software. "With Intel's technology, we can encode at a higher rate
than before. In the second beta, we increased the maximum bit rate for the codec to 1M bps," he said. Previously, the RealSystem codec
supported up to 500K bps. According to RealNetworks, 125,000
copies of the new RealVideo G2 beta are downloaded every day. A
final version of the product is expected to ship before year's end.
Another capability expected to boost video quality is streaming media
caching. Inktomi Corp. is working with RealNetworks to integrate the
streaming capabilities of RealSystem G2 with its Traffic Server network cache, a platform used by Internet service providers to boost the Internet infrastructure.
Serving a broad audience
With its online broadcasts, CNN offers customers Media Player,
RealVideo and QuickTime solutions and expects the latest versions to
enhance image quality. "Our philosophy is to serve the broadest possible audience and not require someone to get another plug-in," said Jeff Garrard, senior executive editor for cnn.com, in Atlanta. "Both G2 and Media Player have a lot of potential for making it easier for us to produce streaming video." CNN offers real-time audio simulcasts of five networks, live video for breaking news, Headline News video on demand, and "Larry King Live" and "Crossfire" in real time.
One reason for low video quality is the rate at which suppliers distribute video clips. In the aftermath of the release of the president's testimony, any companies, including CNN, which provides video feeds through InterVU Inc.'s distributed multimedia servers, limited transmissions to 28.8K bps to guarantee access to a greater number of viewers. But on-demand video typically gives users a choice of 28.8K-bps, 56K-bps or T-1 rates.
If the president's broadcast testimony was a measure of the popularity of video plug-ins, RealVideo, part of RealNetworks' RealSystem line, was the winner. Top news organizations, including the British Broadcasting Corp., the Associated Press, USA Today, The Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times and America Online offered users access to the live video only via RealVideo. Others, including ZDTV, CBS and CNN,
provided video access with both Microsoft's Media Player and RealVideo. MSNBC supported only Media Player.
GEO Interactive's Emblaze VideoPro takes a unique approach to
providing streaming media over the Internet. Rather than requiring a
media player plug-in, sites with the Java-based Emblaze VideoPro
automatically download a 41KB file to the client machine. "Anyone who
comes into a site with Emblaze can see video; it is transparent," GEO's Thomas said.
Xing Technology Corp. is taking aim at the high-speed Internet access
market. "We are focused on ADSL [asymmetric digital subscriber line],
cable modem and satellite delivery," said Hassan Miah, president and
CEO of Xing, in San Luis Obispo, Calif. "Once you get up to 500K
bps, you have full-motion, full-screen video." Xing's StreamWorks
supports MPEG-1, and an MPEG-2 version will ship in volume by
year's end.
Developers of streaming media solutions for intranets are focused on
making their products more intuitive.
"The fundamental issue at this point for us is not quality--that's just a function of bandwidth," said Jim Long, founder and chairman of Starlight Networks Inc., in Mountain View, Calif. Starlight, maker of the Star line of streaming media applications, will merge with PictureTel Corp. this month.
"In Starlight's case, the challenge is to make the stuff automated so that the human resources department can do a companywide briefing on a
401(k) plan without getting MIS involved," Long said. Starlight customers include General Motors Acceptance Corp. and The Quaker Oats Co., both of which are using streaming media to provide
corporate presentations and in-house training.
Similarly, Adaptive Media Inc., maker of the Envision line of streaming media tools, have adequate bandwidth on a LAN for high-quality video. "The kinds of applications we deal with are not small video clips, but things like just-in-time training that require detailed information," said Michael Pliner, CEO and president of Adaptive Media, in Sunnyvale, Calif. "For our customers, if they don't have TV quality, they can't do the application."
Envision is scalable from 150K bps to 1.5M bps, providing MPEG-1
video at 30 frames per second. For high quality, 500K bps is required,
Pliner said.
New deployments ahead
Corporate communications and on-demand video are emerging as key
applications for streaming media. "Streaming media technology is being deployed inside of companies for corporate communications and sales force training," said Katherine Parker, new media business development manager for Sun Microsystems Inc., in Palo Alto, Calif.
Earlier this year, Sun and RealNetworks announced that the
RealNetworks product line had been optimized for the Solaris operating
system. "When an audience hears their executive speak to them, there is a higher retention level than just reading an e-mail," Parker said.
Another growing application for streaming media is news delivery.
"Real-time information delivery is one application for big financial
institutions," said Cris Banfield, product manager for media systems at RealNetworks. "In some cases, institutions are streaming information to broker's desktops as news breaks." Applications such as these that run over a WAN could find themselves with the same limitations as streaming video over the Internet.
"If you are on a LAN and run a video clip at 56K bps, it has no impact
on the network," said Steve Joyce, vice president of marketing for
Ganymede Software Inc., in Research Triangle Park, N.C., whose
Chariot performance monitoring tool can be used to measure the effect
of streaming media. "But if you are running it on an intranet over a T-1 line to a remote office, it could take all of the remote access line."
Contributing Editor Kristina B. Sullivan can be reached at
kristina_ sullivan@zd.com.
Ed Perry |
