Net companies backing broadband

At the same time, though, industry observers caution that delivering such applications as video-on-demand or CD-quality audio will be more of a challenge than it might seem.

Rob Glaser, CEO and President of RealNetworks Inc. (Nasdaq:RNWK), summed up his company's broadband views in a keynote speech Thursday. "Now is the time to market to this space, to build businesses and to build infrastructure," he said.

Broadband, the term for high-speed Net access, is coming sooner than you might think, Glaser insisted. By 2002, half of the audience for digital media will have broadband connections, when you include college students and office workers, who usually share pipes in the T1 or T3 range.

The time is now
But he was preaching to the converted. A number of companies at the show were already taking pains to place themselves at the forefront of the coming bandwidth revolution.

A few recent broadband-related developments:

Microsoft Audio 4.0. MP3 may be the hot format for CD-quality audio, but Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT) says its new technology delivers better quality with files half the size. (Read the full story.)

Cassiopeia E-100. Casio demonstrated the next version of its Windows CE-based handheld computer, which seeks to make audio players such as Diamond Multimedia Inc's (Nasdaq:DIMD) Rio obsolete: the new Cassiopeia will hold one to four hours of Microsoft-format CD-quality sound, or three times that with an extra memory card. The palmtop will also record voice and play video.

Nomad. This MP3 player, to be released from Creative Labs in May, will compete with the Rio, but will include a memory-expansion slot, an FM tuner, voice recording and a rechargeable battery.

BigVideo. Tunes.com decided that its audience was ready for high-bandwidth music videos and introduced a selection of nearly 100 on its Rollingstone.com site.

News anywhere. RealNetworks launched a news service that lets viewers select audio content from news and entertainment sites on the Web for playback later on Audible Inc.'s mobile audio player. (Read the full story.)

Media search. Internet hub Lycos Inc. (Nasdaq:LCOS) says it is developing a feature to let users search for a particular image, melody or information within video and audio clips.

For example, you could give the service a person's face, and it would seek out that face within television news clips, photographic records and the like.

"This demonstrates how broadband will really change the user experience," said Lycos executive vice president Ron Sege.

Other portals are working on similar technology; some, including Lycos' HotBot, already offer the option to seek out Web pages containing specific types of media.

Potholes in the infobahn
Experts note, however, that it will take more to build a broadband Internet than large pipes into the home and high-bandwidth content to flow through them.

Many users with the fastest access today -- including those who share T1 or T3 lines, or use cable modems -- aren't able to take advantage of such features as Tunes.com's BigVideo.

That's because such technologies split a fast connection among many users, whether they're in the same office or the same neighborhood; when those people are all using the connection at the same time, speeds can slow to a crawl.

"These folks ... really need to think a lot more through the user experience, and design their products along those lines," said analyst Rob Enderle of Giga Information Group.

A next-generation network
Since the Internet isn't necessarily designed for delivering sustained high bandwidth, companies providing sophisticated content might also have to invest in the infrastructure to carry that content -- something encouraged in the RealNetworks keynote.

Glaser sees the solution in upgrades to the network itself, including introduction of IP multicasting, caching and other technologies.

"Streaming media services need to be built directly into the network," Glaser said. "We really are optimistic that we are not that far away from being able to deliver broadband capability to that 50 percent."

LOS ANGELES -- This week's Spring Internet World heralded a slew of announcements around the industry's current Next Big Thing: high-speed access.

At the same time, though, industry observers caution that delivering such applications as video-on-demand or CD-quality audio will be more of a challenge than it might seem.

Rob Glaser, CEO and President of RealNetworks Inc. (Nasdaq:RNWK), summed up his company's broadband views in a keynote speech Thursday. "Now is the time to market to this space, to build businesses and to build infrastructure," he said.

Broadband, the term for high-speed Net access, is coming sooner than you might think, Glaser insisted. By 2002, half of the audience for digital media will have broadband connections, when you include college students and office workers, who usually share pipes in the T1 or T3 range.

The time is now
But he was preaching to the converted. A number of companies at the show were already taking pains to place themselves at the forefront of the coming bandwidth revolution.

A few recent broadband-related developments:

Microsoft Audio 4.0. MP3 may be the hot format for CD-quality audio, but Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT) says its new technology delivers better quality with files half the size. (Read the full story.)

Cassiopeia E-100. Casio demonstrated the next version of its Windows CE-based handheld computer, which seeks to make audio players such as Diamond Multimedia Inc's (Nasdaq:DIMD) Rio obsolete: the new Cassiopeia will hold one to four hours of Microsoft-format CD-quality sound, or three times that with an extra memory card. The palmtop will also record voice and play video.

Nomad. This MP3 player, to be released from Creative Labs in May, will compete with the Rio, but will include a memory-expansion slot, an FM tuner, voice recording and a rechargeable battery.

BigVideo. Tunes.com decided that its audience was ready for high-bandwidth music videos and introduced a selection of nearly 100 on its Rollingstone.com site.

News anywhere. RealNetworks launched a news service that lets viewers select audio content from news and entertainment sites on the Web for playback later on Audible Inc.'s mobile audio player. (Read the full story.)

Media search. Internet hub Lycos Inc. (Nasdaq:LCOS) says it is developing a feature to let users search for a particular image, melody or information within video and audio clips.

For example, you could give the service a person's face, and it would seek out that face within television news clips, photographic records and the like.

"This demonstrates how broadband will really change the user experience," said Lycos executive vice president Ron Sege.

Other portals are working on similar technology; some, including Lycos' HotBot, already offer the option to seek out Web pages containing specific types of media.

Potholes in the infobahn
Experts note, however, that it will take more to build a broadband Internet than large pipes into the home and high-bandwidth content to flow through them.

Many users with the fastest access today -- including those who share T1 or T3 lines, or use cable modems -- aren't able to take advantage of such features as Tunes.com's BigVideo.

That's because such technologies split a fast connection among many users, whether they're in the same office or the same neighborhood; when those people are all using the connection at the same time, speeds can slow to a crawl.

"These folks ... really need to think a lot more through the user experience, and design their products along those lines," said analyst Rob Enderle of Giga Information Group.

A next-generation network
Since the Internet isn't necessarily designed for delivering sustained high bandwidth, companies providing sophisticated content might also have to invest in the infrastructure to carry that content -- something encouraged in the RealNetworks keynote.

Glaser sees the solution in upgrades to the network itself, including introduction of IP multicasting, caching and other technologies.

"Streaming media services need to be built directly into the network," Glaser said. "We really are optimistic that we are not that far away from being able to deliver broadband capability to that 50 percent."