From: "Swisher, Bob" <bswisher@ou.edu>
To: "'it-fyi@listserv.ou.edu'" <it-fyi@lists.ou.edu>
Subject: it-fyi: Compressed Data (NY Times on the Web)
Date: Tue, 12 Oct 1999 13:45:55 -0500
Compressed Data
October 11, 1999
A Satellite Model for Streaming Media
As the Internet moves to broadband, the market for Internet audio and video,
so-called streaming media, is expected to explode. But congestion associated
with this bandwidth-hogging traffic can crash Web sites, drown out
conventional traffic and degrade the quality of the sound or picture.
And so iBEAM (http://www.ibeam.com), a start-up backed by the likes of
Intel, hopes to address these problems with an ambitious plan to deliver
high-quality streaming media over the Internet.
The company, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., begins formal operations this week.
It relies on a cable-television distribution model: using satellite
broadcast technology to take a single stream of data and direct it to a
network of server computers spread around the Internet. The audio and video
can be either delivered live by satellite or stored on servers for delivery
on demand.
The iBEAM servers are at the edges of the Internet. So its satellite
approach, while not a remedy to congestion problems, at least avoids the
costs and congestion associated with so-called Internet backbone networks.
"Our hope is that we will be as big as traditional media," said Tom Gillis,
iBEAM's assistant vice president for marketing.
Rather than charging Internet service providers for the service, iBEAM
intends to charge only the content providers, which would then recoup their
expenditures with advertising revenues from iBEAM's targeted advertising
service. The company has already equipped 60 Internet service providers with
servers capable of Web casting to a total audience of 300,000, with 90 more
installations expected later this year.
Many content providers have signed on, including BBC and Bloomberg News,
Gillis said, adding that MSNBC, Sony Tristar, Warner Brothers and Warner
Interactive were expected to join soon.
Gillis also said that iBEAM was in talks with the three big television
networks.
Some analysts said that while iBEAM's approach was clever and its
partnerships impressive, they did not expect the satellite distribution
model to prevail in the long term.
"It's exciting, but it's a stopgap," said Michael Kleeman, an independent
telecommunications industry consultant.
But for now, iBEAM has received more than $60 million in investments from
companies like Intel and Liberty Media and venture capitalists like Accel
Partners and Crosspoint Venture Partners, and is close to announcing
investments with Microsoft and Sony, Gillis said. -- SARA ROBINSON
A Company Sells Cremations Online
The Neptune Society (http://www.neptunesociety.com), which sells cremations
online, calls itself "the hottest E-Commerce Web site of the year."
And given the upward trajectory of Internet use and the aging of the huge
baby boom generation, Neptune Society executives may have found a market
niche.
When the company began selling cremations on the Web on Oct. 1, it said it
was serving a growing market in the most logical place.
"With 76 million baby boomers starting to age and pass away and with baby
boomers being one of the fastest-growing demographics on the Internet, the
Web is just a perfect place for us to be," said Gary R. Loffredo, Neptune
Society's vice president for marketing.
For those wondering exactly how to handle a cremation in cyberspace,
Loffredo explained that customers can pay for a future service or arrange
for one "at the time of need."
In either case, customers can choose among options for transportation of the
body ($200), preparation of the body ($320) and, of course, the cremation
itself ($480 to $585, depending on the container). Customers may have the
ashes scattered at sea for $75 to $575.
Loffredo said the service was now available in California and Florida and
the company hoped to expand quickly. He attributed an increase in sales last
month to the memorial services held this summer for John F. Kennedy Jr.,
Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and Lauren Bessette.
And in general, Loffredo said, cremation was growing in popularity. Roughly
15 percent of those who died in the United States in 1987 chose cremation,
compared with 24 percent in 1997. "And by 2010, it will be 42 percent," he
said. "What better product to offer online than the prepayment of the
cremation service?" -- BOB TEDESCHI
Creative Labs Adopts Windows Audio Format
Digging deeper into the digital music market, Microsoft said last week that
Creative Labs' Nomad II portable player, scheduled for release in January,
would be able to store and play music in the Windows Media Audio format.
The announcement followed several agreements Microsoft had forged with
equipment makers in this market.
Diamond Multimedia, the leading portable player manufacturer, announced
future support for Windows Media in June. Late last month, Cirrus Logic
announced that it was offering a new line of chips that would automatically
support the Windows Media format. Microsoft is trying to establish
Windows Media Audio as a de facto industry standard for digital music
formats that provide copyright protection. Currently, MP3, the most popular
digital audio format, does not provide such protection all by itself.
Creative Labs, which says it is the No. 2 portable player maker, would not
say what brand of chip its new player would use.
But whatever the chip, the device would support Windows Media, the company
said. A company spokeswoman said the new Nomad would be programmable,
meaning that if Creative supported more software formats in the future,
customers would be able to update their players to accept
music in those formats.
Is Microsoft sewing up the market for secure digital formats? "Absolutely
not," said Mark Mooradian, a senior analyst with Jupiter Communications.
"The day when you hear five major labels are encoding their catalogues in
Windows Media and nothing else is the day Microsoft has sewn up the market."
-- SARA ROBINSON