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No it's PressPlay thats Universal. Palm and ARM use LQID also.. even have Handleman under their wings.
As Stated
Merger Creates Multimedia Distribution Powerhouse
www.liquidaudio.com
There is truth to 'chasing the solution'
And we are here
emit...
Sent ` well if liquidating the company wouldn't i'd be suprised. DP Furlows - jeeeezzz
I hope they merge because Aliance is RedDotNet and big in video, but selling the company could atract interest by ' ?
Doesn't MTVi use LQID - wait wait Aliance want's em they're
a comprable benifactor :)
emit...
The answer appears to be 'no' - unless an app like ptsc/oplayo could do a stream song via Flash or Director Shockwave.
''The cost of streaming can range from free to hundreds of thousands of dollars depending on how many of the above items you will need to purchase. For example, if you are already running an NT server and have a dedicated T1 line, you can use Windows Media for no extra cost. Some vendors provide free introductory-level streaming solutions such as Real Networks. If you have administrative access privilege to your web server, you can install the free Basic RealServer G2. Alternatively, if you are a multimedia producer and own a copy of Macromedia Director or Flash, you can export Shockwave files and stream them from your regular web server for free.''
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/sound/chapter/ch05.html
emit...
OT - Hey all... If a person wanted to stream music from a web-sit, say for new bands, is there a streaming application out there that will do this for an individual pc/web-site owner or are they mostly server-side.
emit...
hanuman - read under Fugitsu ten
Patent pending according to RP via Wolfpack at CES
http://www.investorshub.com/boards/read_msg.asp?message_id=245427
emit...
Ubiquitous in the long run could have dictated our not getting tied in with one large equity partner – what would a company need to secure this ability… Start its own line.
Note that it’s been stated by mgmt that Universal referred us to DataPlay – I consider our NREs and our current DP designs a very innovative accomplishment regardless of DPs lack of financing now… Also note Vivindi Universal has given us an exclusive promotion opportunity with MP3.com – This kinda makes me wonder who those long-term institutional investors are that were disclosed yesterday.
I admit with the INTC/SBLU PVP, omittance from the Divx Certified partners, which is reminiscent of the TI third party developers we were left out of, the recent iRiver FM record at BB, and soon to be four subscription services allowing portables, we certainly have reason to be concerned. But who would sell at these levels with a possible ‘Write-Back’ patent announcement coming.
We’re most certainly confused per MOS’s role with secure music, but IMO someone with a complete understanding of its capability may be using MP3/players as a go-between for the ‘big picture’ which could be the facilitation between portable audio, video and digital radio - convergence.
Seems we’re waiting on the proliferation/acceptance of Broadband & WLAN
You have to remember PacketVideo’s first major PR also – With Universal.
Emit…
Maybe we'll cache this Oplayo... eom
BMG streams video to mobile
09/09/2002
BMG has achieved a world first, launching a music video over streaming mobile media.
It has launched the latest video of Finnish rock band Kemopetrol over wireless streamed video, viewable on the Nokia 7650 handset.
BMG plans to launch wireless videos for several of its artists in the coming months, using enabling technology from Oplayo.
“We’re convinced the mobile format is the best way to dispel the myth that music on any format except CD is free,” said Blair Schoof, BMG Europe head of new media. “The billion relations are in place and people are happy to pay.”
BMG plans to announce its first major international artist to launch mobile video content shortly. “With the Nokia 7650 on sale in the UK we can reach the mass market,” said Kimmo Valtonen, marketing manager for BMG Finland. “BY Christmas this will be huge; fans will pay for video on demand.”
Oplayo has developed video compression technology that enables the delivery of high-quality, colour video over GPRS networks. It’s in talks with global content owners, including record labels and publishers, to make mobile video, touted as the killer app for 3G, a reality now.
Source: New Media Age
www.newmediazero.com
Meet the Press: Philip Bourchier O'Ferrall, VP of Oplayo
8/14/2002 Author: Peggy Salz, European Correspondent,
Although the threat competing technologies such as WLAN pose to 3G have been wildly overstated, the fact that such topics have gotten the amount of press coverage they have is proof of just how nervous operators and other companies in the mobile space really are. They know deep down inside that the mobile experience needs to be richer and they also know they can’t afford to wait until 3G arrives. They need a strong business proposition that will get users hooked on mobile data – but many haven’t got a clue
Profile:
One suggestion: go back to the basics. Before all the hype clouded our common sense mobile gurus and experts set down the criteria for successful services. The list has changed a bit, but the general direction is clear: Services much be personal, immediate and simple. Most recently, with the excitement around digital camera handsets, providers have a new element to consider: visual stimulus. Increasingly, operators are taking on the roles of broadcasters. First they were radio broadcast stations, delivering audio content to our phones. Now users are past the “Golden Days” of radio and they want their MTV (mobile television).
Granted the speeds are a barrier, but that shouldn’t stop companies from experimenting with technologies such as MMS and video streaming – and from making the most of GPRS. Keep in mind: Users are bound to grow bored of audio and text services – and they will want a richer mobile experience. Mobile companies would be wise to use the current lull in the industry to perfect their rich media offerings so they can be ready to rumble when the bell rings for the next round.
Even if the operators appear to be in a deep slumber, the content companies are wide-awake. Convinced that content is indeed king, they are striking some interesting deals – and partnering with technology companies to push ahead. After all, if the analogy between operators and broadcast companies holds true, then it logically follows that content companies will eventually be the stars of the show. Ask yourself: Do you watch BBC or CNN for the name brand, or for the content? It’s most likely the latter.
Some mobile companies sense a huge business opportunity in helping content companies to deliver richer content – regardless of the operator. Case in point is Oplayo, a Finnish streaming technology company whose backers include Nokia Ventures. Founded in 1999 the company began with a focus on technology and on serving the fixed market. Consequently, sales were minimal, and the company remained in the shadows until it made the wise decision to target large content providers and enterprises anxious to harness the mobile channel to communicate with customers and business partners.
But the real boost came just last month when Oplayo announced an agreement with Mobile Entertainment Corporation, a pan-European provider of premium entertainment content to mobile service carriers and operators. MEC obviously has the content– and Oplayo completes the picture with its video compression technology, which has been engineered in-house to provide enhanced video entertainment content to 2.5G GPRS mobile phone users. The deal between Oplayo and MEC marks the first time a content aggregator has taken the lead over mobile manufacturers, mobile operators, and content providers to enable the provision of color video to mobile phones.
"With Oplayo's technology and new color handsets like the Nokia 7650, MEC can launch new and exciting mobile video channels and video-on-demand today, and not have to wait for the launch of 3G networks to do so,” commented Tim Hammond, MEC chief executive officer. “The deal will enable us to attract immediately a broad customer base who use existing wireless networks.”
Priorities:
The agreement also puts Oplayo one giant step closer to its ultimate goal, Philip Bourchier O'Ferrall, Oplayo VP told M4M. “Our aim is to become the preferred supplier for easy-to-use streaming video by 2005.” While there are other companies in the compression space, Oplayo’s proprietary technology does not require the user to install separate media players on the devices. “Oplayo’s plug-in-free technology enables the user to view video content with virtually any Java-enabled wireless device,” O’Ferrall notes. “The video opens instantly.”
The key differentiator is Oplayo's Motion Vector Quantization (MVQ) technology, a technology that is well suited for delivering videos via email and to wireless devices. Put simply, Oplayo’s patented MVQ technology is a high-end video compression and transfer technology, which enables extremely light video decoding, and requires an incredibly low processing power at the receiving end. Because MVQ technology is plug-in-free, this means the viewers do not need to download any separate media players or plug-ins first, but can start viewing the streamed video immediately. The instant viewing is made possible by the very light Java applet that comes over the Web in the same package with the streamed video itself. The MVQ technology was originally developed by VTT, the Finnish Technical Research Center. Oplayo has acquired a licence for MVQ technology from VTT, building its product around the core, and developing new functionality and features to it.
Oplayo offers a “revolutionary approach” to streaming because it goes beyond technology to focus on the companies that use the technology as well.” O’Ferrall, who is a broadcast industry veteran specialized in media asset management strategies on behalf of clients including CNN, NBC, BBC, C4, C5 and Disney, joined Oplayo to help fine-tune the company’s technology-centric business model. To date Oplayo’s system is in use on the fixed Internet properties at some of the world’s leading companies including Universal Studios, Nestle, Pfizer, CNN, NBC and General Motors. “We’re focusing on building continued success with our clients as they move their content to mobile devices.”
Oplayo expects to announce some additional customer wins shortly. “We’ve already signed up labels and magazines, but can’t give the details just now.” One client, a major magazine, plans to stream content to readers using MMS, O’Ferrall explained. “We’ve also signed two deals in Japan that have to do with delivering streaming video alerts.” While the details are sketchy and still confidential, the focus is most likely going to be on delivering the equivalent of a celebrity video answering service combined with premiere content.
The business model is simple. “Mobile video streaming takes MMS to the next stage,” O’Ferrall says. “You can MMS a consumer with a teaser image and then ask the user if he wants more. If the response is ‘yes,’ then you can stream the video clip to the handset.” This can also create the basis for m-commerce transactions. “If the user likes the clip and want to buy the DVD or CD, then if would make sense to offer him the opportunity to purchase it as well.”
Progress:
While Oplayo could, if it wanted to, rise up the value chain and muscle in on the action, it prefers to “provide the technology platform and let others build on it,” O’Ferrall says. “We don’t want to compete with the companies and content providers in this space, we want them to come together on our platform.”
Oplayo is also putting a greater emphasis on the enterprise sector. “Our technology provides new opportunities in corporate communications, for instance in delivering investor briefings via email, or delivering video news clips and rich media content to corporate intranets over the Internet, from outside the company firewalls.” From the corporate customer’s point of view, the benefits of Oplayo technology are fast deployment, light decoding and a single format. “This makes the technology especially attractive for narrowband use in a wireless environment.”
One enterprise customer, a pharmaceutical company that prefers to remain anonymous, is using Oplayo technology in a pilot to deliver streaming video and color product images to a closed user community of doctors and medical professionals. This application has given O’Ferrall a new idea. “I could imagine more offers where the video content is embedded in the phone. Companies could give them to their customers as part of the deal.”
Oplayo ha also recently announced its mobile streaming platform that will be used for the GPRS streaming campaign set to be launched by The London Model Search. The company is using the technology as a key part of its search for a “new face of 2003.” Current sponsors of the competition include: Premier Model Management, a leading modelling agency; NYLON, a New York based globally distributed Fashion magazine; Another Magazine, a London-based global fashion magazine; TBA, a TV broadcaster; Archers Aqua, a beverage manufacturer; and Mobile-ent, a maker of mobile phone content.
Developments such as these are allowing Oplayo to play the role of an integrator/aggregator/enabler, according to O’Ferrall. “We want to be at the forefront of this market and demonstrate to the customer that he can build his business on technology (GSM & GPRS) that is already out there.” Oplayo believes that, market growth within the next three years will be “phenomenal.” In 2004, the number of streaming video users in the world will be approximately 50 million.
www.oplayo.com
emit...
Analyst forecasts IT spending recovery in 2003
IT spending will bounce back next year, according to analyst firm IDC.
Speaking at its European IT Forum in Monaco, John Gantz, IDC's chief research officer, claimed: "The rebound of the IT market is coming."
Despite the tough current market conditions the lowest point has been reached, and there will be modest growth over the rest of 2002, the analyst claimed.
Next year would see "a return to normal growth patterns, but not aggressive growth", Gantz said. IDC's worst-case scenario predicted at least four per cent growth in European IT spending in 2003.
Gantz said the slowdown in IT spending was part of the industry's usual business cycle, where new technology creates "a new paradigm", followed by a slump in the market.
But, he said, following the slowdown exploitation of new technology would begin "with technology and business innovations and changing market share".
The new market will see architectural changes in everything from servers and storage to telecom infrastructures, IT services, software and e-business, Gantz added.
Technology users should form partnerships with systems integrators and cut costs by outsourcing all but non-strategic areas of IT, according to IDC.
Outsourcing models would evolve to focus on managed services and utility computing models.
The internet, business integration, mobile, security and globalisation will be driving forces of the rebound. "Mobile and wireless is set to be the driving force on the computing landscape for the next decade," said Gantz. Wireless lan equipment sales will grow by 22 per cent a year until 2006.
IDC predicted there would be 20 million European broadband home users by the end of next year, with "transaction-intense" websites growing five-fold in the next four years to 10 million in 2006.
But Gantz warned that investments in security are being outpaced by the value of transactions they are protecting.
No longer a "minor tactical function", security had to become a "major strategic investment", he said.
Although there had been 1,000 per cent growth worldwide since 1999, security spending had yet to double on 1999 levels and would benefit from a higher profile, Gantz said.
Mukesh Gupta, managing director of specialist security distributor EUR92plus, suggested firms are recognising the value of security investment.
"It is not possible to be too secure, so it is not possible to overinvest in security. Fortunately most enterprises have now learnt that it is not enough to be reactive to the last incident. They must be proactive in their approach and stay ahead of the latest threats," he said.
Now... Why didn't Rio think of that.
And FM record, and Write-back, and VoicNav, etc.,,,
emit...
Nice exclusive announcement...
Moving in the right direction to garner favor
emit...
Evolution Previews 2003 Line-up
Raleigh, NC, September 20, 2002 - In keeping with its "Evolution Through Technology™" credo, Evolution Technologies, Inc. (www.nowevolution.com)) has taken the wraps off a few of the products scheduled for announcement at CES in Las Vegas in January, 2003.
"We plan to introduce the third generation of the much acclaimed Neckphone™, our wireless MP3 player," states Brad Deifer, President and CEO. "Ever since Maxim Magazine declared the first generation product "Top Gear" (August, 2001), and Men's Journal called it "The Best: … MP3 Player" (September, 2001), we have been working on making the best even better," he goes on.
With the growing success of hard drive based players in the market, Evolution Technologies, Inc. will announce its contribution. "Evolution believes it will be the highest capacity for the lowest price with the highest technology seen in this type of product. Unique software, capabilities and features will set this product off from anyone in this segment." says Howard Blumberg, Vice President of Marketing.
Also scheduled for introduction is the PED™. This product will store and playback full length movies videos as well as music and be priced well below anything in the category.
Affordable, lightweight, small size and the largest feature-set in the business … these are the hallmarks of the Next Generation of the 'Evolution Through Technology'.
Subj:
Date: 9/23/2002 3:02:42 PM Central Daylight Time
From: robert@atcsd.com
To: AlertID@aol.com
File: Unknown (1529 bytes) DL Time (50667 bps): < 1 minute
Sent from the Internet (Details)
Thank you for your e-mail, Tim. We expect to update our shareholders on our
intellectual property at our shareholders meeting in November.
Best regards,
Robert Putnam
Senior Vice President
e.Digital Corporation
13114 Evening Creek Dr. S.
San Diego, CA 92128
http://www.edig.com
Phone: (858) 679-3168
Fax: (858) 486-3922
robert@edig.com
The Samsung YEPP is d2d - Are we... ?
http://www.rioport.com/D2D/1,4278,,00.html
Hope an anouncement pending on this.
emit...
Subj: PLP -
Date: 9/21/2002 11:08:14 AM Central Daylight Time
From: Alert ID
To: robert@edig.com
Dear Robert:
What is the status of our Patent attempts per to e.Digital's 'Write-Back' buffering ability for recording music - Post-Listen-Playback.
Noting you said it was pending at last years CES.
Respectfully,
Tim Scott
This is from edig's partners page - Couple this with the response from Handleman to my email and we could have the reason for the Oddysey 300 holdup...
I'v given-up on a major CE co branding us - but a PCmnfg or a label or an individual/group of Artist maybe.
Liquid Audio
e.Digital Corporation has an agreement to license Liquid Audio's secure portable player platform (SP3) for use in its secure Internet music player design which features e.Digital's MicroOS™ operating system, DSP technology from Texas Instruments and Lucent Technologies’ ePAC music codec. SP3 is a comprehensive software solution for building interoperable, secure, portable music devices. SP3-based devices deliver an improved consumer experience and support the playback of music in many leading formats. The design will be provided to OEM manufacturers as the basis of their branded, secure music players.
emit...
Patent pending according to RP via Wolfpack
http://www.investorshub.com/boards/read_msg.asp?message_id=245427
emit...
Sure does, and IMVHO - is. eom
Hmmm... A label branded player maybe :)
-----Original Message-----
From: AlertID@aol.com [mailto:AlertID@aol.com]
Sent: Wednesday, September 18, 2002 1:57 PM
To: Mize, Greg
Subject: mFinity Kiosks -
Dear Handleman:
I noted that in your March 14 PR with LiquidAudio it states that downloading digital music is possible stating, ''Liquid Audio's RIFFS enables merchants to integrate digital music downloads into their Web sites and sell them alongside physical goods.''
Have you noted that LiquidAudio recently started allowing customers to download to handheld devices, so has PressPlay via Universal and Sony...
My Question is: .... Do you forsee in the near future your mFinity Kiosks systems allowing customers at retail stores to purchase secure music directly onto handheld personal jukebox type players that support digital-rights-mgmt. ?
Respectfully,
Tim
Subj: RE: mFinity Kiosks -
Date: 9/20/2002 7:19:58 AM Central Daylight Time
From: Greg.Mize@handleman.com
To: AlertID@aol.com
Sent from the Internet (Details)
Depends on the timing of product being made available from the music companies.
Seems I remember a link/article between Handleman and DataPlay.
Searching their PRs we see JC Penny and a Wal-Mart link to the UK -
Reason being - since LQID is doing portables - why not Kiosks-it via retail.
Maybe in 03
emit...
How far away are we now -
Handleman Selects Liquid Audio's Retail Integration and Fulfillment System To Enable Retail Customers to Promote and Sell Digital Downloads
TROY, Mich. and REDWOOD CITY, Calif., March 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Handleman Company (NYSE: HDL - news), one of the world's largest category managers and distributors of music, and Liquid Audio, Inc. (Nasdaq: LQID - news), a leading provider of software and services for Internet music delivery, announced that Handleman has selected Liquid Audio as its digital music service provider. Using Liquid Audio's Retail Integration and Fulfillment System (RIFFS), Handleman Online, the e-commerce subsidiary of Handleman Company, will re-syndicate the Liquid(TM) Catalog of more than 150,000 digital music downloads, making the content available to Handleman's network of retail customers.
(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/19990915/LQIDLOGO )
Handleman Online will leverage Liquid Audio's RIFFS to transparently integrate digital music into its mFinity(TM) (formerly Click2TheMusic) Web store product. Through mFinity, Handleman Online's retail customers will be able to offer consumers for-sale downloads from Liquid Audio's growing catalog with CD-quality sound, online lyrics, liner notes, and album art -- in multiple formats.
``We are excited to work together with Liquid Audio to provide these services to Handleman Online's customers,'' said David Vasile, vice president and general manager of Handleman Online. ``We believe the addition of Liquid Audio's RIFFS to our mFinity product will allow us to offer Handleman's retail customers with a unique and compelling offering for both physical and digital products.''
``The integration of Liquid Audio's for-sale digital downloads into Handleman's suite of online retail services through RIFFS will extend our distribution network into a targeted new retail channel that reaches a large audience of music consumers,'' said Paul Melnychuck, vice president of Sales and Business Development of Liquid Audio. ``Our digital music delivery solution will provide the software, services and secure music catalog to enable Handleman's retail clients to transparently integrate digital music into their retail Web sites.''
Liquid Audio's RIFFS enables merchants to integrate digital music downloads into their Web sites and sell them alongside physical goods. The Liquid Audio solution provides the music catalog, e-commerce integration, CD-quality sound and sales reporting to fuel music downloads on more than 1,000 Internet music sites. Liquid Audio also provides security features, including digital rights management (DRM), watermarking and encryption to enable merchants to sell and consumers to securely buy legitimate music online. The company's multi-format software supports the digital delivery of music in many leading formats and codecs including Liquid Audio, MP3, Sony ATRAC3, Dolby Digital, AAC, and Windows Media.
Handleman's Application Service Provider (ASP) product, mFinity, provides retailers with a complete and comprehensive solution for selling entertainment-related products online. mFinity provides retailers with a world class entertainment retailing Web site, a comprehensive suite of merchandising and support services, over 55,000 music titles, eFulfillment to the customer's home or to retail stores and leading edge one-to-one marketing capabilities called Virtual Category Management. mFinity can be integrated transparently into a retailer's existing Web site or can be offered as a stand alone online storefront.
Handleman Online
Handleman Online is a subsidiary of Handleman Company. Handleman Online provides both traditional and online retailers with a wide array of e-commerce related products and services. Handleman eFulfillment Services offers customers with outsourced inventory management and shipment of over 55,000 entertainment related products to consumer's homes or to their local stores. mFinity is an outsourced online Web store solution branded for each retailer that can either be offered as a stand-alone Web store or transparently integrated into their current online retail environment. In addition, Handleman offers its kiosk products top enhance in-store shopping with preview capabilities as well as allowing consumers to purchase from a deeper catalog of music titles.
About Liquid Audio
Liquid Audio, Inc. is a leading provider of software and services for the digital delivery of music over the Internet. The Liquid Audio solution gives musicians, record labels, Web sites and music retailers the ability to publish, syndicate and securely sell recorded music online with copy protection and copyright management. Using the Liquid(TM) Player software, available for free download at www.liquidaudio.com, music fans can preview and purchase downloadable music from more than 1,000 affiliate Web sites in the Liquid Music Network(SM). Traded on Nasdaq under the symbol LQID, Liquid Audio is located in Redwood City, Calif.
NOTE: Liquid, Liquid Audio and the Liquid Audio logo are trademarks of Liquid Audio, Inc.
For more information about Liquid Audio products and services call 888-liquid-0 or visit http://www.liquidaudio.com .
Information in this press release contains forward-looking statements that are not historical facts and involve risk and uncertainties. Actual results, events and performance could differ materially from those contemplated by these forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, conditions in the music industry, customer requirements, continuation of satisfactory relationships with existing customers and suppliers, effects of electronic commerce, relationships with lenders, pricing and competitive pressures, certain global and regional economic conditions, and other factors discussed in this press release and those detailed from time to time in the both Handleman Company's and Liquid Audio's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Handleman Company and Liquid Audio undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this press release.
SOURCE: Liquid Audio, Inc.
Reiteration - Wireless Web comes to Starbucks
Some 1,200 shops to offer wireless Internet access
With the use of a wireless internet card, Starbucks customers can surf the Web while enjoying a cup of coffee in locations in major U.S. cities.
Aug. 21 — As easy as ordering a latte, Starbucks customers can now check e-mail, surf the Web, watch streaming video or download multi-media presentations at some Starbucks coffee stores.
THE SEATTLE-BASED COFFEE SHOP operator on Wednesday launched customers into cyberspace at some 1,200 of its coffee shops via a new wireless Internet access system it is now offering to enhance its services.
Starbucks has surrounded the shops with a local area network supplied by partners T-Mobile, the wireless division of Germany’s Deutsche Telekom AG, and computer maker Hewlett-Packard Co., the three companies said in a joint statement.
The three companies aim to open up a total of 2,000 cafes with the wireless Internet access in the United States as well as Europe, including Berlin and London, by the end of the year.
The network uses the WiFi communications standard that allows computers with the correct equipment within a short distance of the network hub to log into the Internet
debuts new consumer software
Corporations and many homes have rushed to build wireless networks using WiFi, the common name for the wireless 802.11b standard, but the promise of networks in public places has been slow to develop.
Hewlett-Packard is offering free software, so that notebook computers and handhelds with wireless antennas can sniff out the coffee shop networks, at www.starbucks.com/hotspot.
T-Mobile International will act as the Internet Service Provider for a fee, but will give free 24-hour trials to first-time users.
“This service is a natural extension of the Starbucks coffeehouse experience, which has always been about making connections with the people and information that are important to us over a cup of coffee,” said Howard Schultz, Starbucks chairman and chief global strategist. “Mobile professionals across the globe have been waiting for just such an offering: high-speed wireless Internet access in a familiar and widely available location that keeps them connected while on the road, or between the home and office. It’s the right service offered in the right environment.”
With today’s announcement, the service is now available at Starbucks stores in Atlanta; Austin, TX; Boston; Connecticut; Denver; Dallas-Ft-Worth; Houston; New York; New Jersey; Philadelphia; Portland, OR; the San Francisco Bay area; and the Seattle-Puget Sound region. Additionally, stores in southern California, including Los Angeles; Chicago; Maryland; Pittsburgh; Virginia; and Washington DC, are scheduled to be enabled before the end of the calendar year.
Wonder if e.Digital is looking into VPNs - Seems attuned to DRMs
This is what StarBucks is doing -
September 17, 2002 / News Archives
WLAN: The Next Disruptive Technology
By Seng Li Peng
Some, such as research firm IDC, have called wireless local area network (WLAN) as the "Next Disruptive Technology". According to IDC, revenues from wireless LAN sales in Asia (excluding Japan) will reach US$350 million by 2005, up from US$45 million in 2000, with a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 51 percent.
This is not pure hype as many vendors including Gemtek Systems Inc., a company that designs and builds wireless infrastructure for Public Access providers, have observed that "organizations all over the world are increasingly looking at implementing WLAN," says Bonnie Cheong, its vice president of communications.
"In Asia, Japan and Korea have the highest WLAN adoption rate. While Japan is often at the forefront of new technologies, Korea sees WLAN as the easiest way to bring the last mile of broadband into the home," she adds.
The benefits associated with WLAN, designed to co-exist with wired networks rather than to replace them, are abundant. One of which is it eliminates the labor costs associated with cabling and maintenance. The other is "ease of use" and it "allows users to be connected anytime and anyway ... enabling a true mobile workforce," Cheong says.
She adds that the WLAN connection in her office is also faster than her ADSL connection at home. "This is one of the key success factors for WLAN while another is that it enables multiple users to simultaneously share the same medium."
Key Weaknesses
While it is a fact that WLAN adoption is on the rise, there are inhibiting factors that limit its adoption. These include "shrinking IT budgets, unfamiliarity of WLAN technology, lack of 'killer applications' and security threats, just to name a few," Cheong states.
Security threats are one of the top barriers for some corporations. As the current generation of WLANs is predominantly based on the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11b, the authentication mechanism is based on the knowledge of a shared pre-installed key. "Unfortunately, pre-shared authentication keys are not a robust security mechanism and are susceptible to security attacks," says Mohan Atreya, technical consultant, Systems Engineering, Developer Solutions Group, RSA Security.
He adds: "Despite that an encryption mechanism called WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) has been defined for use in IEEE 802.11b-enabled WLANs, the secret key used for encrypting the session can be easily retrieved by sniffing a number of encrypted packets sent over air."
Generally, WLAN, whether or not it is based on 802.11 standards, is an easier target for a hacker when compared to wired ones. Data on most handheld devices are not encrypted and information can be stolen during the transmission process.
"While buildings provide a physical first line of defense for wired networks, the signals transported by WLAN pass right through the walls and are transmitted into the public places such as the car parks or streets, making it vulnerable to attacks," Atreya comments.
To make matters worse, some organizations view WLAN as secondary to the wired LAN and therefore have not put in place the stronger security needed, he adds.
What Can Be Done
One method of securing WLAN access is to run a Virtue Private Network (VPN) application that creates an encrypted tunnel over the WLAN, Atreya suggests. "This will protect the network traffic from eavesdroppers. Unfortunately, many small, handheld computers and devices attached to WLANs are not able to function as VPN clients due usually to the non-availability of ready VPN clients on many non-standard operating systems."
Another setback of VPN is that it may lower the performance of the wireless networks. In addition, VPN requires users to manually re-authenticate and set up a new VPN tunnel every time they roam between access points. This can prove cumbersome and users may avoid and ignore the VPN policies, Atreya explains.
Under such circumstances, users may look to Encrypted File Protection, a solution that entails simple encryption process with a password, as an alternative. This is a common method used to encrypt sensitive information on corporate laptops and can be extended to handheld devices and PDAs accessing the WLANs. Another way of protecting information from being 'stolen' is not to provide sensitive information in the offline mode, Atreya advices.
But whenever possible, "companies need to put security policies in place that require road warriors to use VPN clients and two-factor authentication when connecting to enterprise network form public hotspots. Without strong authentication, there is no way to distinguish between legitimate users and intruders who have stolen their laptops or handhelds," says Atreya.
Currently, RSA Security, together with Cisco and Microsoft, are working together on the new Protected Extensible Authentication Protocol (PEAP) to tackle the roaming and authentication issues on WLAN. This protocol will enable roaming users to authenticate themselves via different mechanisms, including RSA SecurID tokens, smart cards, x.509 digital certificates and even passwords.
September 13, 2002 / Briefs Archives
Video-On-Demand On Its Way To Apartments In Japan
By asia.internet.com staff
One of the largest apartment chains in Japan, Leopalace21 Corporation, will be implementing the first nationwide commercial DVD-quality video-on-demand (VOD) service offerings that include Hollywood movies, local movies and Japanese animation programs, on an optical fiber network in Asia to more than 100,000 subscribers.
The nationwide broadband IP network infrastructure, including the VOD server equipment from nCUBE Corporation, will be provided by NTT Communications Corporation.
Leopalace21, who owns more than 200,000 apartment rooms throughout Japan in more than 7,000 buildings, will be rolling out the service in October this year. Full deployment of the service is scheduled to be completed by the second half of 2003.
Hope we get some help... lol oh boy
Bonnaroo Music Sharing Village powered by Gateway
The fine people of Gateway have supplied us the equipment and the artists of Bonnaroo supplied their music, to enable you to create custom sampler CDs where you select the tracks! Blank media by Verbatim will be provided at the Village and artist signings will be scheduled throughout the festival. There will also be live performances from the festival for download on Wednesday the 26th at www.gateway.com/bonnaroo. NOTE: Please support the musicians performing this weekend and the privilege of taping a sampler by purchasing the official releases that are available in the Bonnaroo Sam Goody Store. Music Sharing Village Cyber Café powered by Gateway
With the help of Gateway we have created a Cyber Cafe with computers to send and check e-mail, and take pictures of yourself to send to your friends who weren't fortunate enough to be here. Your favorite beverages are also available.
http://www.bonnaroo.com/bn_friends.htm
'Powered by Gateway' servers only via someother host utilizing Gateway's affiliate program for hits/sales, or actually by Gateway itself ? hmmm
EDGAR Online (www.edgar-online.com) Powered By Gateway Sponsorship Makes Gateway Exclusive Hardware Provider To Leading Financial Web Site
NORWALK, Conn., February 23, 1998. EDGAR Online (www.edgar-online.com) today announced that Gateway 2000, Inc. (NYSE: GTW), a leading global direct marketer of PC products, will be the exclusive computer hardware provider for its World Wide Web site.
http://www.edgar-online.com/investor/news/022398.asp
emit..
Source: Computerwire.com
TI Promises Single-Chip Phones in 2004
Texas Instruments Inc said it expects to produce a single-chip wireless handset by 2004, and will offer handset makers a two-chip solution as early as net year.
The single-chip phone has become a holy grail of the communications industry, which currently requires four processors and a host of auxiliary components to build a modern phone, but TI believes it now has a clear lead, and is only likely to be challenged by Intel Corp, which it claims is up to three years behind it in the development race.
Single-chip phones will be cheaper to build, smaller, and far more power-efficient than today's handsets, and are considered a prerequisite for phone manufacturers to begin to truly exploit the broadband wireless communications systems that are now beginning to be installed.
However, phones, with the amalgam of analog and digital function, are difficult devices to design on to a single piece of silicon, and it has taken a major and risky development effort by TI to begin to crack the many problems that single-chip phones present.
To date, this effort has focused on the development of TI's OMAP DSP range, which currently handles the division of tasks in mobile phones between digital and analog domains. However, next year, TI will condense these two domains into two chips, one for running the baseband radio functions, and another for handling the digital processing of radio frequency conversion. Ultimately, the analog and digital domains will be integrated on a single part.
Announcing TI's plans, company CEO Thomas Engibous, said that TI is now outstripping potential competitors such as Qualcomm Inc and Motorola Inc, and has a clear lead over Intel, which is working on an "internet-on-a-chip" design with Analog Devices Inc that is not likely to see the light of day before 2007.
Source: vnunet.com
Windows Media 9 attracts the fat cats
Big guns go gooey over guaranteed copy protection
With Windows Media Player 9 (WM9) it's not users but broadcasters, Hollywood, and the music studios which are being offered a tempting bait - guaranteed copy protection - and they're all but hooked.
Bill Gates's vision means that users will not be able to make an illegal copy of something which is intellectual property.
MP3s will have copy protection and, more importantly, one in which Windows Media formats are the only digital games in town.
The bonus is that it's a genuine technology breakthrough: better video compression and a huge leap in the ability of studio customers to adapt WM9 Series to their own purposes with a powerful software development kit.
Intellectual property owners are keen. One Microsoft partner, Tandberg TV, will offer its big broadcast customers a choice between MPEG and Windows Media all down the line, from the head-end equipment through to the players and even set-top boxes.
Tandberg engineers believe that WM9 is a significant advance. "You can do things with this, like broadcast-quality TV over ADSL, which you couldn't very easily do with MPEG 2," said Tim Sheppard, strategic development director at Tandberg TV.
Not only is the Microsoft standard nearly ready for final release, while rival MPEG-4 standards aren't even close, it will be pervasive.
"[Microsoft] is doing a massive push into the consumer space; not just the PC, but other devices such as set-top boxes, DVD boxes, game players and so on, all of which will appear with WM9 capability," said Sheppard.
"This means that the broadcaster doesn't have to fund so much. It becomes possible to go for the standard Windows package and assume that playback will be there. Broadcasters won't have to fund the set-top box the way ITV Digital had to."
Erik Huggers, Microsoft's European group manager for the Windows Media division, claimed that the response from broadcast companies had been very enthusiastic, and not just because of the quality of the codecs or the player, but because of the focus on digital rights management.
He said that Microsoft will show "how this fits into the standards space" at the IBC show in Amsterdam in two weeks' time.
For the PC user, the main changes will be in Windows Media Player which is going to be compared with rivals like Real, Quicktime and iTunes, which have comparable feature sets, making the 'tick-list' easy to compile.
WM9 Series will be lacking only one significant feature: the ability to produce MP3 files.
Officially, this is because the MP3 'ripper' software carries a licence fee which Microsoft doesn't want to pay, leaving it down to the end user to retrieve from a remote site.
But the real agenda is that MP3 can't be copy-protected in the same way as WM formats.
Already there are CD players which will play Red Book CDs as well as WM and MP3 files. Microsoft is promoting this heavily to makers of both audio and video players.
These will all be able to check that the media is legitimately licensed, and will refuse to play media which can't be validated.
If MeTV is dependant on MS Media 9/Corona to impliment quality programming I can understand this hold-up... TTN's website could work in-conjunction and be holding off till these factors are resolved since MS M9 just come out beta last Wednesday....
Who Knows -
emit...
e.Digital
- Beware -
Content/s Under Pressure
emit....
gernb - Absolutly...
I'll be rethinking this investment if we're not involved with this.
emit...
Subj: PressPlay compatable devices -
Date: 8/20/2002 12:34:47 PM Central Daylight Time
From: Alert ID
To: robert@edig.com
Dear e.Digital:
Wouldn't it make sense to get us on this list of compatible devices for PressPlay.
In general, portable devices that support secure WMA format can be used to transfer pressplay tracks that have the transfer icon in the Options column. The following portable music players have been tested and are determined to be compatible with pressplay:
http://www.pressplay.com/compatible_devices.html
emit...
Repost - Microsoft taking aim at home entertainment ...
James Coates
Published July 28, 2002
Bill Gates has his eye on your television set. He thinks your TV should stop being just a video machine and become a computer. Care to guess which operating system Bill wants your television set to use?
Look at it this way. There are a bit more than 100 million households in the United States. About 48 million of these homes have a computer. By contrast, virtually the entire 100 million households have one color television set and more than half of them have at least two TVs.
With computer sales to American homes now flatter than they ever have been, Gates set his sights on the far larger video market.
In the past couple of weeks Microsoft Corp. put many of the finishing touches on a coming fall campaign to join forces with consumer electronics outfits and PC-makers to flood the stores with the first generation of hybrid devices that Microsoft code named its "Freestyle" project.
The Freestyle collaborators include a global triumvirate of the giant makers of both computers and home entertainment products: Hewlett-Packard Co., Japan's NEC Corp. and Korea's Samsung Electronics Co.
They're about to unleash a flood of television sets, DVD players and home music systems that have full-blown Pentium computers running the next generation of Windows XP built into their innards.
Called the Windows XP Media Center Edition, the new look for the operating system now on 90 percent of the world's desktop computers will be based on a user employing an infrared remote clicker box instead of a keyboard. One will use the clicker to move a cursor arrow across a device's screen and click open the Start menu.
Start will open the way to a rather stunning upgrade to Microsoft's already robust Media Player software called Media Player 9.0, a program that handles everything from playing conventional music CDs to running high fidelity multichannel DVD movies and displaying streaming video feeds of the latest Hollywood movies over broadband connections.
Sources at the Microsoft Network tell me that Microsoft plans to offer this high-speed content through telecom giant Verizon.
The idea is to sell homes not only Microsoft-powered NEC and Samsung TV receivers and music players running Windows XP, but to sign them up for subscriptions to MSN (about $25 per month) to download and play--in real time--movies, music, games and other goodies.
Look for an unveiling in early September when Gates plans an extravaganza release of Media Player 9.
It's all part of a master plan that Gates hatched shortly after stepping down as Microsoft's chief executive officer and taking instead the title of chief software architect.
As word of the Freestyle project emerged from Microsoft's corporate campus in Redmond, Wash., it became dramatically obvious why Gates ordered his company to charge American consumers $200 for the Microsoft X-Box game machine that some analysts suspect cost the company $250 to make.
Just as many hackers, like MIT's Andrew Shane "Bunnie" Huang, who have dismantled the carefully encrypted X-Boxes suspected, these seeming toys are full blown Intel-architecture personal computers as well as games. With the new Windows XP Media Center operating system, they already have a major foot in the door as the company focuses its huge resources on home entertainment .
It's a move clearly being made with all of the cunning and ruthless singularity of purpose that has been Gates' style from the beginning.
If it weren't so important to the future of the American economy it would almost be amusing watching Gates and his masters of manipulation at Microsoft scramble to find something beyond desktop computers.
And what a scramble it is as Gates struggles with the unhappy fact that he no longer is at the helm of a revolution.
Even without today's gear-grinding economic slowdown, the home computer business would have lost much of the momentum that propelled it through the roaring '90s.
Those homes that were likely to buy a computer now have done so, and the great boom as folks rushed to get online is over. Home PC sales have become a replacement industry rather than a revolution.
Computers are a mature industry. Just like toasters and sewing machines and automobiles. Watching computer hardware and software sales has become almost as dull as watching paint dry.
Nobody knows this better than Gates. Just about anybody who ever worked for him or interviewed him will tell you that nothing makes the world's richest man bristle as does telling him that his company exists merely to sell upgrades to past glories.
"We are not an upgrade company and we never will be an upgrade company," Gates shouted at this writer back in 1996.
But as far as computers go, that's exactly what Microsoft has become. It is the world's largest PC software upgrade company by a mile and a yard. And there's nothing wrong with being in the upgrade game, either.
Before Microsoft takes over the look and feel of our television sets, I wish someone would just tell Gates to chill out and remember that Ford Motor Co. does quite nicely selling upgrades. So does General Motors.
Chicago Tribune
Sure looks like Corona's going to be a big contender to Divx -
Due this Fall - Wonder if Divx will play on it / off it somehow.
emit...
It applies to MeTV in regards to streaming and downloading.
emit...
Crush story
Everyone seems to be enamored with MPEG-4. But other technologies can squeeze your video too.
Paul G Schreier, Contributing Editor -- CommVerge, 8/1/2002
Digital video holds huge possibilities as a convergence application. Unfortunately, the adjective "huge" can also be applied to raw digital video files. Over the years, the ingenious work of compression wizards has resulted in tools that crunch those files down to manageable size. That's why today's consumers can, for instance, store a feature film (plus extras and several soundtracks) on a DVD or view adequate video images over the decidedly video-hostile Web.
But get ready, because compression technologies about to explode on the scene will make it possible to play digital video everywhere, even on PDAs and cell phones. Among these emerging formats, MPEG-4 has created by far the most buzz. However, it has also created a lot of confusion. Though MPEG-4 is promising and is gaining momentum, the standard everybody loves to hype is not the only game in town.
When examining technologies in use today and looking to the future, it's important to separate Internet-based video from non-PC applications. Today, virtually every DVD player or set-top box uses an MPEG-2 decoder. Meanwhile, a large number of chip vendors make MPEG-2 chips, which vary widely in how they implement the scheme, trading off among key parameters such as file size, video quality, and processing power.
Online extras:
A many-splendored thing: An expanded explanation of MPEG-4
One-stop licensing: The MPEG-4 brouhaha
On the PC side, in contrast, the vast majority of the streaming video coming over the Internet today uses proprietary compression schemes. The leading contenders are RealNetworks with its RealVideo format, QuickTime from Apple Computer (long ago made available under Windows as well), and Microsoft with its Windows Media Player, which works with Microsoft's own ASF (advanced streaming format) and AVI (audio/video interleaved) formats.
Both the Microsoft and Real players can work with a variety of formats, and can even download additional codecs to deal with new ones. Often this process is transparent to the end user, who doesn't know or care--as long as the streaming video works.
Such accomplishments notwithstanding, there are limits to what today's codecs can accomplish. Unless you're satisfied with matchbook-sized display windows and stuttering videos, you'll likely agree that we need a better way to move video. And you'll feel even more strongly about the issue if you're among those who hope that video will one day flow to handheld devices over relatively low-bandwidth cellular links.
MPEG-4 has been widely hyped as the standard that's supposed to save us, thanks to stronger compression and nifty features like the ability to send streams of different quality levels out from a single stored file. "MPEG-4 creates the basis for all future developments in digital video," predicts Ben Waggoner, president of digital-video consulting firm Interframe Media and author of the upcoming book, Compression for Great Digital Video: Power Tips, Techniques and Common Sense .
That may very well be correct, but it's still to early to tell; we're only starting to get our first taste of MPEG-4. In June, Apple released a public preview of QuickTime 6, the first generally available MPEG-4 player. So we can soon expect to see individuals and companies making MPEG-4-encoded video available for streaming.
But hang on, you might say, isn't MPEG-4 video already available? After all, many companies have been talking about their MPEG-4 products for some time now. However, until recently, true MPEG-4 video hasn't been available, Waggoner notes.
What about the hugely popular DivX format, which has a large user base and is touted as "MPEG-4-based?" Waggoner has conducted interoperability tests with a large number of players, including some prerelease versions, and found that DivX files won't run on MPEG-4 players.
"Although it leverages some MPEG-4 technology, DivX does not make a true MPEG-4-compatible file," Waggoner says. "It creates an AVI file using MPEG-4 video and MPEG-3 audio." Even the FAQ file at www.divx.com admits the incompatibility: "While we test the DivX Player on a wide variety of third-party MPEG-4 files, we cannot claim full compatibility with all MPEG-4 files due to the wide breadth of the MPEG-4 standard. (We do claim compatibility with MPEG-4 files created with the DivX codec.)"
"MPEG-4 creates the basis for all future developments in digital video."
--Ben Waggoner, Interframe Media
Even so, DivX has become the format of choice for sharing lengthy video files, such as feature films, on the Internet. In fact, it has reached a status almost equivalent to that of MP3 for audio. One reason is that its compression can pack a typical feature film onto a single CD-R disk. Another plus is that it's free for personal usage. DivX estimates that 50 million users worldwide have its software on their systems.
PC-based video players that work with DivX files are readily available, but unless your graphics card has a TV port, you're stuck on the small screen. The only alternative is to convert the movie to a VCD or SVCD format, burn a CD-R, and play that disc on a conventional DVD player (although hackers have reportedly discovered how to modify Microsoft XBox consoles to play DivX videos). In an effort to expand its core technology into other areas, such as net appliances, DivX is working with Texas Instruments to develop a DivX-enabled DSP that supports DivX playback at full video frame rate and frame size.
Mixed vibrations
Returning to MPEG-4, even though true MPEG-4 video content is just starting to appear, there's plenty of buzz about that codec--and just as many questions. Will its additions and improvements be enough to attract attention from developers and users?
"In the profiles people are working with today, MPEG-4 doesn't add any new functionality to the video world," Waggoner says, referring to the standard's usage profiles, which define subsets of features tailored for various applications (see the sidebar, "A many-splendored thing"). "Later, though, developers will be able to add interactivity to their content. Next year you can expect to see lots of interesting functionality emerge."
A few more specifics come from Didier LeGall, vice president for home media products at LSI Logic. "The MPEG-4 Simple Profile isn't really a breakthrough compared to MPEG-2," he says. "Instead, it's roughly equivalent. A more advanced solution is coming in other formats. For instance, the Advanced Simple Profile offers at least a 15 percent compression advantage compared with MPEG-2."
If 15 percent doesn't sound overwhelming, don't despair. There's another promising format out there, which isn't currently part of MPEG-4 but will likely become so down the road. "The technology of the future is based on the work of the H.26L project of the ITU [International Telecommunications Union]," LeGall says. "This breakthrough achieves a 45 to 50 percent gain in compression efficiency compared with MPEG-2."
This is a case where the technology and the associated groups are evolving so rapidly that it can be difficult to tell the players without a scorecard. H.26L began its life in 1977 under the auspices of the ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group. Today, it appears to be far superior to MPEG-4 as presently defined. Most of the performance gains come from improved motion estimation.
"To have a format broadly accepted, you must freeze the format at some time. And once MPEG-4 Part 10 becomes widely available, the competitive advantage of proprietary codecs will go away."
--Rob Koenen, MPEG-4 Industry Forum
Studies by UBVideo, which is working to implement this technology on a Texas Instruments DSP, show that compared with MPEG-4's Simple Profile, H.26L permits an average reduction of 50 percent in bit rate for a similar degree of encoder optimization. At the same time, it offers consistently high video quality at all bit rates. Furthermore, it can operate in a low-delay mode to adapt to real-time communications applications and is also error-resilient, with the ability to deal with packet loss and bit errors.
The scheme shows such promise that the ITU has joined with another standards body, ISO/IEC (International Organization for Standards/International Electrotechnical Commission), to coordinate activity on video coding. The new working party is called the Joint Video Team (JVT), and its work will likely produce two key results. The first is a new ITU-T Recommendation, which, if it follows standard naming conventions, will become H.264. The second is an addition to the MPEG-4 standard, likely to carry the name MPEG-4 Part 10. For now, H.26L, H.264, and MPEG-4 Part 10 all refer to the same work.
As for a timeline, Rob Koenen, president of the MPEG-4 Industry Forum (M4IF), predicts that the standard, including H.26L, should be frozen by the end of this year. We should see software shortly thereafter, with hardware following later, he adds.
However, warns Doug McIntyre, CEO of compression-technology supplier On2 Technologies, "H.26L won't be commercially viable for a couple of years. Yes, it will be possible to compress video to a high degree, but the rate today is a frame per minute. It's good technology, but it has not yet been optimized and it will need a couple of years before it sees productization."
LSI Logic's LeGall, agrees--somewhat. "Yes, some vendors of proprietary codecs point out that H.26L runs very slowly on PCs and it's impractical today," he says. "But in two years it will work in real time and compete strongly with those suppliers."
Bucking the standard
While considerable work is taking place on the MPEG-4 front, proprietary codecs continue to attract considerable usage. "Proprietary codecs are still somewhat better," admits the M4IF's Koenen. "Their developers can release new versions every half year, taking advantage of the latest research. But to have a format broadly accepted, you must freeze the format at some time. Consider the example of MP3 for audio, whose adoption has been great for the overall market. Once MPEG-4 Part 10 becomes widely available, the competitive advantage of proprietary codecs will go away."
"Every two weeks there's a press release on a new breakthrough in a proprietary codec--or is it a breakthrough in marketing only?"
--Didier LeGall, LSI Logic
LeGall echos that sentiment. "Every two weeks there's a press release on a new breakthrough in a proprietary codec," he says. "Or is it a breakthrough in marketing only? You've got an international standard, and then Microsoft, and you want to compete against that pair with a proprietary codec? Good luck."
LeGall's mention of Microsoft brings us to Corona, the code name for an enhanced media toolset and codec slated for release by the end of this year. Unsurprisingly--considering Microsoft's history--Corona won't play MPEG-4 files and instead will use proprietary technology. Microsoft is making some aggressive claims about Corona's video quality and capabilities, many of which have yet to be borne out in practice. Nonetheless, the technology can't be ignored. "It looks very promising," Waggoner says, "and this year I believe it should perform better than MPEG-4."
In addition, most industry observers believe that Microsoft will ultimately incorporate some level of support for MPEG-4 when the company can no longer ignore the large amount of video content that the standardized codec will attract.
That's a common tack for vendors of proprietary codecs to take. "We all believe that our codecs are far superior to MPEG-4, but we must also ensure interoperability," says Dave Cotter, group products manager in the media-systems division at RealNetworks. "How do we do so? By creating standards in the delivery protocols. In fact, we at RealNetworks agree that the delivery system is the future; design engineers don't really have to worry where the codec train is going."
RealNetworks and Microsoft are not going to go away, says On2's McIntyre. "So any codecs that interoperate with these players have a better chance of survival," he says. "I'd be betting on a distribution system--not on which codec works in it. Those two companies will always try to push the best codecs or use their considerable engineering staffs to write good ones."
Given these comments, it's interesting that On2 hasn't made its own latest codec technology compatible with Windows Media Player. "Support for Apple and RealNetworks is good enough," McIntyre says. "As of yet, there's no commercial reason to move to Windows Media Player. We believe that 90 percent of all PCs have both RealPlayer and Windows Media Player installed, and as long as we run on one of them, I'm fine."
In the hand
The idea of being able to upgrade or enhance a media player with multiple codecs is easy to envision in the PC world. But the concept doesn't transfer quite as well to closed devices, where codec code is burned into memory. Certainly, MPEG-4 won't be limited to streaming applications on PCs any more than is MPEG-2, which today is incorporated into virtually every DVD player.
"I'd be betting on a distribution system--not on which codec works in it."
--Doug McIntyre, On2 Technologies
"The key that will drive this market consists of the MPEG-4 chips being developed," comments Kent Libbey, vice president of marketing at iVast, a vendor of MPEG-4 software. "Chips made the MPEG-2 market what it is today, because DVDs, PVRs [personal video recorders], and satellite boxes all use them." iVast supplies the codec technology behind e-Box, an effort among seven companies, including Sharp and Pioneer, to bring MPEG-4 to set-top boxes. Cable provider Comcast is also collaborating and will be the first to test the system on its release next year.
A market shakeout in the number of codecs, led by MPEG-4, will also help chip vendors. "We don't want to deploy 50 codecs," says LSI Logic's LeGall. "We do about a dozen now, and each must be a value proposition." The company's DoMiNo architecture supports a range of codecs, including DV (for camcorders), MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and MPEG-4 Simple Profile. In the future the family will also support the Advanced Simple Profile as well as Part 10 and even Microsoft's Corona. "We're not sure that just one format will be a winner, and we look at solutions that accommodate multiple formats," LeGall says.
That sounds like good advice for any player eyeing the digital-video space.
Author information
Contributing Editor Paul G Schreier (pgschreier@amitechmarketing.com) is waiting for the compression algorithm that can efficiently compact weeks of research into a 3000-word feature article.
A many-splendored thing
If you've seen the term MPEG-4 thrown around in seemingly incompatible contexts, don't be surprised. Rather than a single, universally applicable standard, MPEG-4 is best understood as a multimedia framework that addresses the needs of a wide variety of applications--including but not limited to studio editing, interactive broadcasts, Internet streaming, and playback on wireless devices.
Today, MPEG-4 is broken down into eight separate major parts (ISO/IEC-14496-x), two of which address visual and audio functions. However, because the standard is object based, it extends far beyond those two areas to support interactive multimedia, which will play an important role in the future.
You may hear that MPEG-4 and Apple's QuickTime are the same, but that's not really the case. The MPEG-4 group selected the QuickTime file format to start with, so MPEG-4 software does share a deep level of compatibility with QuickTime. However, the standard has evolved in scope and functionality, so the two are no longer directly compatible.
While the MPEG-4 standard includes hundreds of features, no application will need all of them. Depending on the target application--be it digital cinema or cell-phone video--only a subset of capabilities will be invoked. To help developers of encoders and decoders work under some common assumptions, the standards group has defined a number of profiles (which define features from a qualitative aspect) and levels (which nail down specific performance requirements for these features).
The formal specification lists 19 different Visual Profiles, "only a few of which will actually be used," says Rob Koenen, president of the MPEG-4 Industry Forum.
Here are some details on the profiles you're most likely to encounter in the wild:
Simple Profile: Provides a technology baseline upon which the other profiles build, and is suited for use on mobile or other low-power devices.
Advanced Simple Profile: Adds enhancements for better visual quality, such as global-motion compensation and quarter-pixel motion estimation (Simple uses half-pixel motion estimation).
Simple Scalable Profile: Allows a server to modify the bit rate depending on demands on image quality, frame rate, or resolution. Useful for applications that provide services at more than one level of quality due to bandwidth or decoder limitations.
Fine Granularity Scalable (FGS): Will allow for extremely high quality video.
Core Profile: Adds support for coding of arbitrary-shaped and temporally scalable objects. Useful for applications such as those providing relatively simple content-interactivity (Internet multimedia applications).
Core Scalable Profile: Adds variable frame rates and resolutions.
Main Profile: Supports interlaced video and appears to be a candidate to support interactive HDTV. To the Core Visual Profile, adds support for coding of interlaced, semi-transparent, and sprite objects. Useful for interactive and entertainment-quality broadcast and DVD applications.
The profiles spell out some generic functions and requirements, but also leave plenty of room for interpretation, such as how intensively the underlying technology will operate. But developers need to nail down more specifics for implementation. This is where the levels come into play.
In any given profile, each level dictates a least-common-denominator with regard to key operating specs, such as the maximum frame rate, data rate, resolution, and number of objects. With levels, a developer can make certain assumptions about the ultimate system.
For example, within the Simple Profile, Level 0 targets the wireless industry, where screen sizes are small and processing power is low. The level allows a maximum frame rate of 15 frames/sec, limits luminance pixel resolutions, supports 99 macroblocks (16-by-16-pixel areas), and caps overall screen size at 176 by 144 pixels. Other levels don't dictate a max image size, but they can specify the number of macroblocks. For example, Level 1 allows 99 macroblocks that can be configured as 1584 by 16, 176 by 144, or any other rectangular size divisible in each direction.
Despite these commonalities, MPEG-4 products designed to the same profile/level can vary dramatically in how they trade off speed and visual quality. For instance, the standard does not specify how to transport bits over various networks. "The standard defines a bitstream," explains Ben Waggoner, president of digital-video consulting firm Interframe Media. "But there's a tremendous amount of room for innovation at either end of the stream. At the encoder end, you can trade off quality versus speed. On the playback side, the developers can look for ways to get smoother playback. When MPEG-2 first came out, we needed 4 Mbits/sec to achieve DVD quality, but that has since improved to 2 Mbits/sec for a good picture. We'll likewise see MPEG-4 improve as the encoders get better."
And if all this isn't complicated enough, note that the ISMA (Internet Streaming Media Alliance, www.isma.tv) has also defined a common set of requirements and functions--and has unfortunately chosen to use the "profile" nomenclature. For instance, the ISMA's Profile 1 is the equivalent of the Advanced Simple Profile at Level 3 combined with the Audio Profile at Level 2.
This is an important combination, Waggoner says. "The ISMA Profile 1 will become what everyone means by MPEG-4 this year," he says, adding that Profile 1 isn't as good in quality as proprietary codecs and that companies won't migrate toward it for that reason. Instead, they'll like the broad interoperability it affords. "Given MPEG-4, I don't see that somebody like AOL Time-Warner will want to get tied down with a proprietary codec," he comments.
Streaming at windmills?
One hears a lot of hype about streaming video to cell phones and other wireless handhelds, but it's going to be a while before that application becomes a reality. In the meantime, the PC streaming market offers a potentially sobering lesson. To wit: It's not clear whether anyone can turn a profit streaming video to PCs.
"There are very few business models for streaming video that make any money," says Doug McIntyre, CEO of compression-technology supplier On2 Technologies. "Perhaps the only one is porn. Will people watch long-form video on PCs? I think not. In fact, the amount of streaming video on the Web, particularly on multimedia sites, is contracting. People are retreating from this side of the market because there's no way to make money. In the future, I also see decreasing use of video players because consumers will use PCs as a gateway to move video data to a set-top box or PVR [personal video recorder] for more comfortable viewing."
People are more likely to use PCs for specific applications, such as videoconferencing and distance learning, he continues. "For those applications you'll want interaction and a more sophisticated GUI," he says. "Those programs will be far more than simple video players."
Not surprisingly, a representative from RealNetworks has a different viewpoint. Dave Cotter, group products manager in the company's media-systems division, argues that it will be possible to make money with streaming video. "It's not that the model is flawed, but that the technology has been too expensive," he asserts. Higher-quality content that will attract users is becoming available. "In addition, bandwidth costs are dropping, in conjunction with our compression, making streaming video more cost-effective," he says.
One-stop licensing
MPEG-4 is a complex scheme that exists thanks to the work of many companies, which hold patents for various portions of the underlying technology. Rather than make users of the technology approach each company individually for a license, a company called MPEG LA offers a one-stop licensing service. It collects fees on behalf of the patent owners and distributes the proceeds. MPEG LA has successfully shown how this approach works by creating a patent portfolio for the MPEG-2 video compression standard, which it began licensing in 1997.
In January of this year, the company announced its intentions to do the same with portions of the MPEG-4 standard, specifically patents essential to MPEG-4 Visual (Simple and Core Profiles), which involves patents owned by 20 companies. MPEG LA also disclosed a proposed fee structure, under which licensees would pay 25 cents each for MPEG-4 decoders and encoders, with fees capped at $1 million a year for each licensee. The company also suggested charging a per-minute rate with no cap.
These terms created an immediate uproar, with some companies believing they would make MPEG-4 nonviable and open the door for proprietary formats. Other companies were more sanguine. "We took MPEG LA's initial proposal as an opening round of negotiations, while others took it as a fait accompli and overreacted," says Kent Libby, vice president of marketing for iVast. "We analyzed it and reported our findings to the company, as did other responsible parties. It's a living scheme, and things will work out fine. The same process happened with MPEG-2."
True to this prediction, MPEG LA has softened its stance. In mid-July, the company announced the terms for the licenses it will officially roll out in September. The revised terms feature "reasonable" annual limitations on certain royalties, royalty options that require no royalty reports, and threshold levels below which some use-based royalties would not be charged, according to MPEG LA.
"This sounds the starting bell for the whole broadcast and multimedia industry to start releasing MPEG-4 products and services," said Rob Koenen, president of the MPEG-4 Industry Forum, in the press release announcing the terms. "The licenses are the long-expected prerequisite for MPEG-4 being fully accepted and deployed."
But the fact that MPEG LA has revised its license fee structure hasn't removed all objections to the scheme. In fact, Doug McIntyre, CEO of On2 Technologies, a developer of a proprietary codec, argues that there's an even bigger problem. He asserts that MPEG LA is running an illegal patent pool that has not been approved or sanctioned.
"While the MPEG-2 group did get provisional approval for their activities, to my knowledge the MPEG-4 group has not even applied for approval," he says. "It's simply illegal to set pricing in this fashion. It creates a barrier-to-entry for others. We've filed complaints with all 50 state attorneys general, as well as the US Justice Department Antitrust Division and the Federal Trade Commission."
Meanwhile, you may wonder how companies that are talking up MPEG-4 codecs can do so without having signed licensing agreements. "Technically," notes Larry Horn, MPEG LA's vice president of licensing and business development, "they're violating the patents, because the license covers MPEG-4 video in any form or shape. All uses are liable to the patent holders." Meanwhile, MPEG LA looks upon the use of MPEG-4 as a vote of confidence in the technology and the licensing scheme.
"We hope to have a product that allows users to get whatever they need from one place," he concludes.
The main text of this article indicates that the future may lie with H.26L (Part 10), which, Horn notes, is completely divorced from MPEG LA's efforts.
Also, there may be questions about codecs that are billed as "MPEG-4-based" yet don't play on MPEG-4 decoders. "If they use MPEG-4, they will need our license," he says. "But otherwise you have to take a closer look at what 'MPEG-4-based' means. They might need a license for some of the underlying patents from individual patent holders."
Note Bold implying facilitating devices possibly by prefered systems suppliers - leave me alone, I'm arbituary.
Microsoft's Automotive Software Platform to Be Deployed in 'G-BOOK,' Toyota's New Information Network Service for the Automobile
Windows CE for Automotive Selected to Enable the Delivery of Safe, Reliable In-Car Information Systems
Friday August 30, 9:00 am ET
REDMOND, Wash., Aug. 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT - News) today announced that Microsoft® Windows® CE for Automotive, a software platform designed to deliver in-car communication and information systems, is at the heart of the new in-car telematics devices used by "G-BOOK," Toyota Motor Corp.'s new information network service. Toyota will begin installing the in-car "G-BOOK" device in a new car in Japan this fall.
(Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20000822/MSFTLOGO )
"G-BOOK," announced on Wednesday by Toyota, is a new information network service that will connect people, cars and society. The company will begin implementing the service this October. The in-car "G-BOOK" devices will be a new type of system that will enable not only hands-free communication and navigation, but a variety of services. The Windows CE for Automotive platform is an integral component of the in-car "G-BOOK" system.
"We are very proud of our work with Toyota to deliver an advanced information network system that connects people any time, anywhere and on any device," said Dick Brass, vice president of technology development overseeing the automotive efforts at Microsoft. "Microsoft and Toyota share this vision, and we look forward to a continued relationship to bring the best software and services to consumers. The 'G-BOOK' in-car device is a great first step."
Windows CE for Automotive, built on Windows CE technology, is an automotive-centric software platform that makes possible new categories of in-car computing systems. The technology is equipped with features integral to deploying reliable and safe in-car information systems. Key components include a customizable graphical user interface and Internet access. These building blocks enable Toyota's preferred system suppliers to build full-featured in-vehicle multimedia systems.
Designing personalized services, diagnostics, hands-free communication capabilities, and other convenience and productivity applications for cars requires an open and flexible software platform that can deliver a sophisticated, cost-effective computing environment. Microsoft Windows CE for Automotive is leading the trend toward making in-car computing a reality.
Earlier this summer, Venture Development Corp., an independent research organization, revealed that shipments of Windows embedded operating systems had more than doubled in 2001, demonstrating continuing industry-wide support for Microsoft's embedded software technologies. In addition, Microsoft Windows CE for Automotive technology is featured in the computing and communications systems of 12 car models from five auto manufacturers worldwide.
About Windows CE for Automotive
Microsoft has invested half a decade in providing the automotive industry with great software that delivers information, entertainment, communication and services in vehicles. The company works very closely with automakers, automotive electronics manufacturers and consumers to provide the embedded automotive industry with the systems and tools for building the next generation of intelligent, Windows Powered devices that demand rich applications and Internet services for a wide range of flexible solutions. Windows CE for Automotive is an open platform that allows developers to quickly create powerful in-car computing solutions. It offers flexibility and choice of computing platforms, hardware peripherals and software components, as well as a large community of experienced developers for Windows CE.
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software -- any time, any place and on any device.
NOTE: Microsoft and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
For more information on Microsoft Windows CE for Automotive:
Visit http://www.microsoft.com/automotive/
Does anyone remember RP saying that other DataPlay players wouldn't be 'certified' well I feel we got the same BS regarding Divx per Archos.
Even though this is all yet to be seen and understood..
When will it ever end...
emit...
Video/Audio Content
John Zeglis, CEO, AT&T Wireless
The keynote speech delivered via video...
www.mformobile.com
emit...