The Company and its Vision Multimedia - An Overview Starlight Products
Further Information
Today, multimedia information systems are becoming an integral part of the corporate information systems strategy. Fortune 1000 companies, schools, and government organizations are spending millions of dollars on multimedia systems and applications. Multimedia is used in a range of applications such as training, education curriculum, and factory-floor reference; retail point-of-sale kiosks and information retrieval systems located in airports, hotels, museums, and other public places; and video and audio databases supporting video production groups, advertising agencies, and language labs. Desktop videoconferencing and mail applications are also beginning to be deployed.
Multimedia has become mainstream in the last year as desktop platforms and video compression hardware and software costs have dramatically declined. Quality MPEG compression is now readily available for PCs at attractive prices and software compression formats such as Indeo and QuickTime have been improved. These improvements in the underlying technology have fueled the development of applications incorporating video and audio data. As the number of applications grows, networking becomes a key component in making these applications available to more users and in managing the content.
Computers have been used with analog video for a number of years. Early applications included information kiosks and laser disk computer-based training courses. Unfortunately, analog video was difficult to truly integrate with computer applications and, therefore, was not very effective. But the latest advances in digital compression technology have, for the first time, enabled personal computers to address video and audio data as a natural computer audiotape. This new capability has broadened the interest in multimedia applications among vendors and customers. At the same time, the price/performance of digital video technologies has continued to improve. In 1994, the price of adding digital video capability to a personal computer dropped to less than $300, creating even greater interest in multimedia applications.
Starlight Networks perceives the 1990s as the decade that multimedia technology moves from a 'glamour' technology to a tool used as an integral part of personal computer applications. Early developers have taken analog video applications in specialized or vertical markets and converted them to digital video applications. These applications are being deployed by corporate customers to enable networked personal computers distributed access to video applications. Videotape and laser disk systems are being replaced by video servers on existing networks. Application categories include: training such as K-12 curriculum, higher education courseware, corporate training, distance learning, and performance support systems also known as just-in-time training; video and audio databases used by film production companies, advertising agencies, language laboratories, and consumer goods manufacturers; and kiosk and retail point of sale used in museums, retail stores, airports, and other public places. New application areas are emerging that use video and audio in decision support systems and employee communications with live broadcasting of the CEO's message or corporate TV.
The digital video element of the multimedia phenomenon is creating new markets. Networks and servers able to manage digital video are critical to the growth of the multimedia market. A significant market and business opportunity exists for the delivery of digital video information to desktop computers via today's networking equipment. The Gartner Group estimates the networked video server market to be a $50 million market in 1996. As workgroup applications of digital video networking develop into enterprise-wide requirements, the market opportunity for products such as those envisioned by Starlight will grow as well.
StarWorks® digital video networking software provides video network services that enables multimedia systems to achieve their full potential. In today's infrastructure, networks, servers, and personal computers have deficiencies that preclude optimum performance of multimedia technology. For example, protocols and server operating systems cannot support the demanding bandwidth and processing requirements for reliable digital video transmission. Bottlenecks occur as network servers attempt to manage the storage of multimedia data. Desktop PCs feature operating software and protocol processing that limit the performance of digital video. StarWorks addresses the following requirements:
In conjunction with the StarWorks video server, StarWorks-TV(tm) allows customers to integrate live and stored video into their multimedia applications. StarWorks-TV provides a 'one-to-many' multicasting service over Ethernet-based local area networks and consists of StarWorks video server software, a broadcaster application called the StarWorks-TV Broadcaster and a viewer application called the StarWorks-TV Viewer. The StarWorks-TV Broadcaster multicasts digital video streams over a LAN. Input can come from an analog source, such as a video tape recorder, cable tuner or camera, or from stored video. Any Video For Windows/AVI application, including the StarWorks-TV Viewer, can be used to view multicast streams without modification. StarWorks-TV provides network delivery management to ensure the quality and delivery of live multicasts, independent of other video-on-demand activities on the network.
StarWorks is platform, file, and video compression independent, giving Starlight customers maximum flexibility to determine the best solution for their multimedia needs. Customers can mix and match, and change their multimedia systems without replacing their existing networks and servers. Starlight products are designed as open systems, making them ideal platforms for other third-party products, such as multimedia databases, groupware applications like Video for Notes, and special digital video peripherals.
StarWare® Version 2.0, a NetWare Loadable Module (NLM), converts an existing Novell file server into a video and data server, making it easy to add video to a network. The NLM operates on any NetWare 3.12 or 4.10 network, including Ethernet, Token-Ring, and FDDI configurations. Independent of video compression formats, StarWare 2.0 supports many different digital video delivery systems for DOS, Windows and Macintosh clients, including Video for Windows, QuickTime and QuickTime for Windows, PLV, RTV, MPEG, and motion JPEG systems. Up to 100 simultaneous PC and Macintosh users can access video from the StarWare server.
On the client, the video software and hardware platform manages video compression and playback. StarWare 2.0 supports the video application by directing calls to appropriate video and data files, which may reside on multiple file servers. Any video file can be randomly accessed and shared by networked client stations. On the NetWare server, StarWare 2.0 software can run as a shared video and data server or as a dedicated video server, depending on environment and application needs. Video traffic is prioritized higher than non video, ensuring smooth playback to video users. Support for any type of Novell-supported mass storage hardware is possible since StarWare 2.0 software interfaces directly with NetWare's low level file system. Performance enhancement utilities and support for multi segment networks is also provided. StarWare 2.0 software features simplified installation, configuration, and memory management.
Starlight products will also support connections to other LANs and servers, as well as WANs. Starlight's approach will integrate effectively with developing asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) and synchronous optical network (SONET) networks, which are destined to be the solution for next-generation, high-speed WANs.
Stephen Mitchell
Starlight Networks, Inc.
205 Ravendale Drive
Mountain View, CA 94043
415-967-2774
415-967-0686 Fax