Illustration: Networked Multimedia's Business Opportunity
Revenues from video-based PCs will exceed those of conventional videoconferencing equipment starting in 1996, according to consultancy Ovum (London). Companies like Apple and SGI have already released video-capable computers, and others will soon follow. Acer America expects to release a videoconferencing PC for less than $6000 in the first half of this year. Networks are the weakest link in the chain, but the situation is improving. Companies like Starlight Networks (Mountain View, CA) and ProtoComm (Trevose, PA) have developed video-server products that integrate video traffic into LANs. More recently, Novell released NetWare Video, an NLM (NetWare loadable module) for NetWare 3.x and 4.x, and IBM delivered its L
AN Server Ultimedia, which adds multimedia to IBM's OS/2 LAN Server 3.0 advanced network. Work is also under way to pump up standard 10-Mbps networks to 100 Mbps. In the chart, meetings equals conventional videoconferencing equipment; desktop equals video PCs, file servers, and software; and consumer equals TV/CD-ROM players and TV set-top boxes.
Flexible C++
Matthew Wilson
My approach to software engineering is far more pragmatic than it
is
theoretical--and no language better exemplifies this than C++.
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Networked Multimedia's Business Opportunity
