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To: DiViT who wrote (37679)	12/7/1998 3:18:00 PM
From: BillyG	Respond to of 50808

Microsoft Backs New Technology For Internet Video By Martin Wolk Reuters SEATTLE (Dec. 7) - A small Boston-area technology firm has received a powerful endorsement from Microsoft Corp. on technology aimed at boosting the Internet's ability to deliver television-quality video. InfoLibria Inc. of Waltham, Mass., Monday will announce its MediaMall device, an item that combines hardware and software to deliver multimedia content over the Internet, chief executive officer Ian Yates said. The product, aimed at Internet service provides and large corporate networks, will be tested early next year and available in late summer 1999, he said. ''This makes the Internet the mass medium that people have promised it would become over time,'' Yates said. Initially the device, about the size of a desktop computer, will be integrated with Microsoft's Windows Media Technologies. Microsoft and InfoLibria will collaborate on joint marketing and technology programs to deploy the architecture in a non-exclusive arrangement, according to Yates and a Microsoft executive. Microsoft has been locked in a battle with rival RealNetworks Inc. for the market on software to deliver and receive multimedia content over the Internet. But Yates said even Internet customers with high-speed access often can get no better than postage stamp-sized video images because of the Internet ''logjam.'' InfoLibria officials believe they can solve that problem by storing the multimedia content just a hop or two away from the user -- at the Internet service provider, for example. Users would still need a high-speed access device such as a cable modem, special phone line or corporate network connection. RealNetworks offers a similar solution for users within a corporate network, but not on the wider Internet, said Seema Williams, an analyst at Forrester Research. ''With this, Microsoft gets not exactly a leg up but certainly a catch-up opportunity,'' she said. MediaMall will include InfoLibria's DynaCache network appliance, which will go on sale shortly priced at $40,000 to $120,000, a company spokeswoman said. Pricing has not been determined for MediaMall. The product is designed to operate with existing browsers and Internet server software, and thus it ultimately could be compatible with RealNetworks products as well, Yates said. InfoLibria was founded last year and has 32 employees, company officials said.