Having recently landed impressive deals with traditional broadcast bigwigs from HBO to CNN to TCI, RealNetworks is following up with bigger, better streaming technology for delivering audio and video over the Net.
The company's new RealSystem G2 sports better audio frequency response, smoother video images, and more reliable playback, the company says. It also incorporates more media file formats -- RealText and RealPix -- which let authors stream standard-format text and images, such as fonts and JPEG images, into RealSystem productions. Where RealAudio and RealVideo broadcasters previously set up different streams for different speed connections, G2's "SmartStream" enables a single feed to adjust itself to the available bandwidth.
Also added is support for the industry standard Real Time Streaming Protocol and the Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language. SMIL allows the synchronization of multimedia content over the Web. A preview release of RealSystem G2 is scheduled for May.
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Live Picture's narrated images: Zoom in on part of a Web image, and hear information about what you're seeing. That's the idea behind the technological pairing of Live Picture's "resolution-on-demand" image technology with RealNetworks streaming audio.
Live Picture's server technology delivers high-resolution images just like conventional Web images, but when a browser clicks a spot on the image, Live Picture zooms in to deliver more detail from the server. Tying the technology to RealNetworks' audio, Web authors can set up narrated image presentations and site tours, the companies say, as Web images will be synchronized with RealSystem G2 streaming audio.
