July 22, 2002
(IDG News Service)
RealNetworks Inc. unveiled new software that can distribute streamed audio and video in a range of formats -- including rival Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Media format -- and announced a shared source code initiative that's backed by a slew of industry players.
The software, called Helix Universal Server, removes the need to set up multiple servers to support various media formats, allowing users to consolidate their Internet media servers onto a single platform, the Helix Platform, RealNetworks said in a statement. Streaming services allow users to listen to audio or watch video over a data network without having to wait for an entire file to download and can be used for broadcast or on-demand delivery.
The move could spark a legal fight between RealNetworks and Microsoft because RealNetworks didn't take out a license from Microsoft for its Windows Media format. Instead, RealNetworks re-created the technology by investigating Windows Media streams, according to a report in The New York Times. Microsoft and RealNetworks have been battling for market share in the streaming media market.
Organizations that stream audio and video over the Internet today often have to install multiple servers to offer their customers a choice of formats. The most popular formats are Apple Computer Inc.'s QuickTime, Microsoft's Windows Media and RealNetworks' RealAudio and RealVideo.
Helix Universal Server supports more than 55 media formats, including the most popular ones, and performs better than RealNetworks' own RealSystem 8 and Microsoft's Windows Media Server, according to RealNetworks.
RealNetworks also announced the Helix Community, a shared source initiative intended to allow customers to adapt the software to meet their needs. Companies, institutions and individual developers can license the Helix Platform source code and build Helix server, encoder and client products, as well as enhance the overall platform, RealNetworks said.
The Helix Community will offer two license types; the RealNetworks Community Source License (RCSL) and the RealNetworks Public Source License (RPSL). Products developed under the RCSL have to be compatible with Helix, while software developed under the RPSL has to be open source, RealNetworks said.
RealNetworks plans to make the source code of its Helix client available to the Helix Community within 90 days, with the server and encoder source code to follow by the end of the year, the company said. RealNetworks plans to submit the RPSL to the Open Source Initiative for certification as an open source license.
RealNetworks' shared source initiative is supported by 29 companies, including CollabNet Inc., Red Hat Inc., Sun Microsystems Inc., Oracle Corp., Sony Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., Intel Corp. and Hitachi Ltd., according to RealNetworks.
Helix Universal Server is available today for various operating systems. Pricing is based on rated capacity measured in megabits per second. RealNetworks also released Helix Producer, software to encode media into RealNetworks' formats. Pricing of that product wasn't immediately available.