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Path: convex!convex!cs.utexas.edu!wupost!uunet!mcsun!uknet!edcastle!cja
From: cja@castle.ed.ac.uk (C Adie)
Newsgroups: comp.compression,comp.protocols.iso,comp.mail.multi-media,comp.multimedia
Subject: Networked multimedia
Summary: Survey of multimedia networking
Keywords: multimedia, networks
Message-Id: <29035@castle.ed.ac.uk>
Date: 3 Dec 92 12:41:56 GMT
Organization: Edinburgh University
Lines: 254
I have been requested by RARE to carry out a survey on NETWORKED MULTIMEDIA,
and I'm writing to ask for your help.
RARE (Reseaux Associes pour la Recherche Europeenne) is the organisation
which looks after the networking needs of Europe's researchers, and it
has recently formed a Working Group on multimedia networking. The
survey has been instigated by that group, and will be used to guide its
further work.
The survey covers RESEARCH projects, published STANDARDS, and PRODUCTS
available in the field of networked multimedia. Obviously, this could
be a huge task. It can only be managable if we get good cooperation and
input from people on the net. What we'd like is some information about
things we've missed, and about things which we know exist but have
insufficient information on.
RESEARCH
========
This part of the survey is a listing of current research projects involving
networked multimedia. We don't know enough, and have no-one to ask, about
the following projects:
PROJECT INSTITUTION
- ------- -----------
ISA ? (Esprit)
MUSE CECI, MIT, USA
CIO U of Ulm, Germany
TINA (Telecommunications Networking Information Architecture)
ACME UC Berkeley, USA
Cruiser Bellcore, USA
We're also looking for other research projects which we have missed.
I'm sure there are several more CEC-funded research projects which we
need to find out about. We already know (or know who to ask) about the
following projects:
MNI Lancaster University, GB
OSI95 Lancaster University, GB
CAR UCL, GB
MICE UCL, GB
DARPA teleconferencing
PACT UCL, GB
ACT UCL, GB
PREPARE UCL, GB
Multi-G SICS, Sweden
Zenith Lancaster University, GB; Kent University, GB
EVAN HW University, GB
MM over Janet UCL, GB
MADE BT
Palantir Kent University, GB
EuroBridge RWTH Aachen, Germany
Berkom II DEC, Germany
STANDARDS
=========
This part of the survey covers standards (de facto and industry
standards as well as standards-bodies standards) which are concerned
with networked multimedia and with compound document exchange. We don't
know enough about the following standards:
STANDARD DESCRIPTION
- -------- -----------
JBIG Binary image encoding form
T.101 - T.106 unknown
We're also looking for other relevant standards which we have missed.
We already know enough (or know who to ask) about the following
standards:
RTP Real-time Transport Protocol for audio & video over IP
MIME Multimedia mail standard on the Internet
ST2 High speed protocol to run alongside IP for multimedia
Bento Platform-independant compound document format from Apple
HyTime SGML-based standard for hypermedia documents
MHEG ASN.1-based standard for hypermedia documents
MPEG Video & audio compression, synchronization
JPEG Compression algorithm for continuous-tone colour stills
ODA Office Document Architecture
G.711 64kbps 8kHz 8-bit PCM audio encoding
G.721 32kbps ADPCM audio encoding
G.722 64kbps SB-ADPCM audio encoding
H.242 Point-to-point conferencing codec standard
H.243 Multipoint video codec standard
H.261 px64kbps video encoding
H.320 Umbrella for compression, data rates, audio encoding
T.80 - T.83 Still image compression techniques for communications
T.170 - T.176 Multimedia/hypermedia objects, functions and protocols
T.121 - T.124 Network-independent audio-conferencing protocols
X.400 Multimedia mail
QuickTime Movie Format Apple Macintosh sequenced information file format
MIDI Musical Instrument Digital Interface
Carousel Platform-independant compound document format from Adobe
PRODUCTS
========
This part of the survey covers products which are concerned with
networked multimedia, including desktop conferencing. "Products" covers
commercial offerings, freeware developed in academia, and also
freely-available research tools such as vat. We need further
information on the following products:
SUPPLIER PRODUCT
- -------- -------
Specom Technologies Corp Picfon
Bitfield BVCS
Tandberg Telecom VC7000
Memtec VS-1000
TechnoTeacher HyMinder
IIS Technologies MacMica
Group Technologies Aspects
We're also looking for other relevant products which we have missed. We
already know enough (or know who to ask) about the following products:
IBM Person to Person/2
Xanadu ?
The Electronic Studio ES.F2F
Stanford University Maestro
Starlight Media Server
CLI Cameo PVS
CoSA PACo
Bellcore MetaMail
Microsoft Mail
LBL vat
INRIA ivs
Xerox/PARC nv
If you can provide information about any of these, or if you know of
things we have missed, please mail me.
We plan to produce a draft survey report before the end of December.
When complete, the survey will be made freely available over anonymous
ftp.
Chris Adie Phone: +44 31 650 3363
Edinburgh University Computing Service Fax: +44 31 662 4809
University Library, George Square Email: C.J.Adie@edinburgh.ac.uk
Edinburgh EH8 9LJ, United Kingdom
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you do provide information for the survey, it would really be
appreciated if you could use one of these forms:
RESEARCH PROJECTS
=================
Project name: .............................................
Funding body: .............................................
Participators: .............................................
(list of participating organisations)
Timescale: .............................................
(project start date and approximate finish date)
Project aims: .............................................
Description: .............................................
(up to a page of information - or point me at
an existing description which I could palagerise)
Standards used: .............................................
(any distributed multimedia standards which are
used in the project)
Papers/reports: .............................................
(list of papers, reports etc describing project
results)
Contact point: .............................................
(name/email address of a contact person for
the project)
STANDARDS
=========
Name of standard: .............................................
(the name by which the standard is colloquially known)
Reference number: .............................................
(assigned by the standards body, if any)
Version: .............................................
(eg "1988" or "II")
Sponsoring body: .............................................
(could be a standards body or [for de facto
standards] a company name)
Current status: .............................................
(eg DIS, or whatever)
One-line description: .............................................
Detailed description: .............................................
(up to a page of information - or point me at
an existing description which I could palagerise)
Future development: .............................................
(where the standard is going)
Products: .............................................
(any commercial/free products using the standard)
Further information: .............................................
(references to the standard specification, to
user groups, to FTP sites, mailing lists, etc)
PRODUCTS
========
Product name: ...............................................
Current version: ...............................................
Manufacturer: ...............................................
(name, address and email address)
Supplier: ...............................................
(if different from manufacturer)
Platform: ...............................................
(hardware & system software requirements)
Description: ...............................................
(up to a page of information - or point me at
an existing description which I could palagerise)
Future plans: ...............................................
(future intentions for this or similar products)
Availability: ...............................................
(eg "available 1Q93", or whatever)
Price: ...............................................
(in currency of supplier's country - mention any
site licence arrangements)
Standards: ...............................................
(distributed multimedia standards [industry standards
or ISO/CCITT standards] used by the product)
Further information: ...............................................
(user group details, ftp site for product, published
reviews, etc)
Thanks for reading down to here!
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