multimedia projects survey...

Dan Connolly (connolly@pixel.convex.com)
Sat, 05 Dec 92 01:23:07 CST


Message-Id: <9212050723.AA03414@pixel.convex.com>
To: www-talk@nxoc01.cern.ch
Subject: multimedia projects survey...
Date: Sat, 05 Dec 92 01:23:07 CST
From: Dan Connolly <connolly@pixel.convex.com>


Tim: you wanna reply to this?

------- Forwarded Message

Xref: convex comp.compression:5352 comp.protocols.iso:3234 comp.mail.multi-media:933 comp.multimedia:4515
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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