Baselux

Even as you read this, manufacturers are putting the final touches on new technology that will radically change the way we work. Wouldn’t it be great if you could prepare your business before these products hit the shelves?

To help you guide your purchasing and get a jump on the competition, our tech editors have put together this preview of what’s ahead, based on numerous trips to trade shows, advance product demos, and interviews with leading industry experts.

What can you expect to see in the coming year? Hardware that’s getting skinnier–and fatter. Computers that are getting smarter–and dumber. These are two of the five contradictory trends we uncovered, proving that for every action there’s an opposite reaction. Happily, our favorite paradox continues to hold true: Each year, technology is becoming more powerful–and less expensive (see “Your $3,000 PC”).

Some of the products mentioned here are already available. They’re noteworthy because they’re indicative of the direction in which similar items are heading. Also keep in mind that where there’s a buzz, there’s often a bite, so for each category we point out potential snags in the earliest versions.

HARDWARE GETS SKINNIER

Slim is in. But far from trimming features, manufacturers putting their products on a digital diet are squeezing more functionality into smaller devices, increasing their portability and freeing up valuable desktop real estate in the process.

THE BUZZ. Computers and monitors continue to get lighter and smaller. Personal digital assistants (PDAs)–the handheld, battery-powered units that use either their own operating system or Windows CE (a bare-bones version of Windows 95)–have already wowed the wired generation with their capabilities of managing phone numbers, appointments, and accessing e-mail. Now, enter the Libretto (pictured on the previous page and reviewed in this issue’s New & Noteworthy).

Toshiba’s $2,000 mini-notebook weighs just 1.85 pounds but offers a 75MHz Pentium processor, 16MB of RAM, a 772MB hard disk, a 6.1-inch active-matrix color screen, and a full version of Windows 95. Expect other vendors next year to release their versions of this content-rich, paperback-size unit that’s already a hot seller in Japan.

The current breed of handheld PCs, such as the Philips Velo, weighs even less and we expect to see more software and hardware peripherals available for them–especially those using the Windows CE operating system. And say goodbye to the monochrome mini-displays. Leading PDA manufacturer NEC is perfecting a color liquid crystal display (LCD) for its MultiSync LCD 2000 that should hit the United States market by year’s end.

Notebooks also are stripping down. Computer industry analyst Tim Bajarin expects a narrower, more task-specific notebook with fewer features and a lower sticker price to debut next year. “We’re going to see a lightweight portable designed for e-mail and writing memos, a lot like the Libretto,” says Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies.

Another peripheral on the Slim-Fast plan is the desktop monitor, as witnessed by flat-panel desktop displays that recently hit the market. First seen in 19505 science-fiction films, wafer-thin monitors finally are becoming a reality. Their appeal? They offer crisp, clear images and free up your desktop for other items. ViewSonic recently introduced its VPA145 ViewPanel, an LCD panel with built-in speakers and a twist: The monitor can display in portrait or landscape mode to show a single page or two pages side-by-side.

THE BITE. Weight loss comes at a price. Because LCD technology is costly to manufacture, flat-panel displays currently range from $1,500 to $3,500. For example, the PanoView 745 from CTX International, a 14.5-inch LCD panel that delivers resolutions of 1,024 by 768, has a list price of $2,795. We anticipate that these high prices will make flat-panel displays slow to catch on, especially when standard 17-inch monitor prices are expected to take a dive to $500 by early next year, with prices for 19- and 21-inch monitors likely dropping in their wake. As for the Libretto and other tiny notebooks with awkward-to-use Chiclet-size keys, it might be worth waiting until they have all the features of a full-size portable. “Why spend $2,000 for a notebook without a floppy drive or functioning keypad when you can get a full-fledged notebook for just $500 more?” asks Bajarin.

HARDWARE GETS FATTER

Although some PCs are shrinking, others continue to pack on the pounds as more features are added.

THE BUZZ. A far superior desktop computer looms on the horizon that will quickly retire your current 166MHz Pentium with its 24MB of RAM. Next year, the standard desktop will boast basics of 64MB of RAM, an 8GB hard disk, new Pentium II chips at twice the current clock speeds, and a 19-inch monitor. Notebooks too will continue to pack in more. “By 2000, notebooks will have 13-, 14-, and maybe even 15-inch active-matrix screens and multigigabyte hard disks,” says Rick Griencewic, product marketing manager for Gateway 2000.

Industry analyst Bajarin says the next trend will be to enhance these awesome systems even further, bringing multimedia full force into the business world. “Today when I create a document, I use text and graphics,” says Bajarin. “Soon I’ll be able to create large vivid files with video, animation, and sound.” But huge multimedia files call for huge portable storage options. So, just as today’s PCs come standard with Zip drives, tomorrow’s systems will have multimegabyte and even gigabyte-size removable storage devices, such as Jaz drives and recordable CD (CD-R) for notebooks. “CD-R is cost effective and will eventually replace floppies,” says Bajarin.

THE BITE. Expect to see a widening gulf between low-end, lightweight, task-specific notebooks and larger, heftier notebooks with added power, speed, CD-R technology, and more. You’ll need to decide whether the additional bells and whistles make it worthwhile to lug around a notebook that weighs as much as a toddler. Also, with more powerful and complex features, the potential for hardware meltdowns, especially in newer technologies, increases.

PCs BECOME MORE LIKE TVs

What’s big and square, puts you in touch with the world, and can cause you to become so engrossed that you lose track of time?

THE BUZZ. Improved videocards, such as the Diamond Multimedia Viper and Number Nine’s Revolution 3D, have brought improved video quality to computers. Likewise, video editing software such as MGI Software VideoWave and Corel Lumiere give your desktop system the look, feel, and power of a television studio. Some manufacturers are banking on the marriage of television and PC. Right now Gateway 2000 and Compaq Computer are offering a real-world merge of computers and television with their Destination and PC Theatre units, respectively. Both units feature large screens (36 inches for the Compaq PC Theatre), powerful processors (Gateway’s Destination uses the 300MHz Pentium II), ample RAM, fast modems, and more. The Destination uses DVD-ROM to display films, and with a list price of $4,999, you can browse the Web, answer and send e-mail, and give business presentations.

THE BITE. Computers and televisions are separate beasts with two different sets of concerns. “When you buy a TV you tend keep it for seven years, but PC processor technology changes every 18 months,” says Bajarin. Also, for PCs to become as widely used as TVs, they’ll have to become much smarter and simpler to use. Like TVs, PCs need metaphors and interfaces–such as the remote control–that users can easily understand.

TVs BECOME MORE LIKE PCs

What’s big and square, puts you in touch with the world, and can cause you to become so engrossed . . . you get the picture.

THE BUZZ. Forget high-definition TV (HDTV) because the Web will be on your television before you know it. All of the advances in the Web can easily be imported to your television set, and the next TV you buy will have a built-in Web browser, some entertainment software, and a remote control keyboard/mouse combo. “The TV of the future will be a simple Web-browsing tool. We already have WebTV,” says Walter Mossberg, a computer columnist for The Wall Street Journal. “It’s new, but it can be improved upon.” Now that Microsoft has purchased WebTV, there’s no telling how far the TV-as-PC convergence can go. Also? new advances in monitors are going to change the face of living rooms everywhere. With LCDs, your TV will soon measure 48 inches diagonally but will be only four inches deep with a crisp resolution, it may even hang on the wall.

THE BITE. Hold on to your remotes; it’s going to be a bumpy ride. The problem with the TV-as-PC is that televisions are much lower-resolution devices than computer monitors. When you surf with WebTV, you often need to visit sites specially created for television viewing. The PC-as-TV doesn’t suffer this same problem. Also, the TV industry is still mulling over HDTV and now it has to deal with the Web?! Again, unless you have to be the first business on the block with the latest toy, wait for version 2.0, because standards are changing faster than lead singers for Van Halen.

WE ALL GET MORE CONNECTED

You already have phone, fax, and pager numbers, e-mail addresses, and a Web site. Soon you’ll have even more ways to stay in touch with clients, suppliers, and colleagues.

THE BUZZ. All-in-one devices that can satisfy all of your communications needs are starting to pour onto the market. Nokia, well known for its cell phones and monitors, has created the Nokia 9000 Communicator, a $1,000 wireless portable phone/fax/e-mail/Web browser/ PIM. The clamshell cell phone opens to reveal a computer keypad and LCD screen. Already a hit in Europe, the device hit the United States this past September.

In addition to such nifty new hardware connectivity capabilities, Metcalfe sees on the horizon “collaborative filtering of community forums”–private versions of Internet newsgroups that allow a business and its clients to hold private discussions that are inaccessible to competitors. Lotus Development recently announced Instant! TeamRoom, a program that lets you rent space on a network to hold virtual meetings. For a monthly fee of $14.95 per user per month, you’ll collaborate, share documents, and hold meetings through your Web browser–no special software required.

Although most small businesses currently use the Web only as a billboard, electronic commerce is slowly taking off and will increase in volume dramatically over the next year. Already, we’re seeing products like Peachtree Business Internet Suite, a Web site builder for creating an online catalog that works closely with Peachtree Complete Accounting. Also, Intuit, maker of personal finance giant Quicken, has announced plans to expand the Quicken Financial Network, allowing users to conduct business transactions and raise capital on the Internet. Bajarin predicts that to aid online commerce “encryption and security will be perfected by late 1998 and 1999.”

Nigel Burton, Microsoft’s director of small business, credits the ability to do business on the Internet–extending service hours and breaking beyond geographic boundaries–as one of the forces driving a boom in small-business technology investment. That’s why, he adds, “it’s likely that e-commerce will be a far more common business model for small organizations toward the end of this year.” However, Burton says business-to-business e-commerce is more likely to catch on than business-to-consumer.

THE BITE: “Doing business on the Internet requires a technology base that simply isn’t present yet for many small organizations,” says Burton. “Additionally, e-commerce applications to date have required a degree of internal IS [information systems] expertise that most small businesses don’t have. This is changing, however, as easier and more affordable tools become available.” Consumers’ distrust of the Internet may also impede thriving commerce online Intuit says that only one in 10 of its TurboTax and Quicken users file their taxes or perform transactions online.

WE ALL GET MORE ISOLATED

So you’ll be able to connect more using technology. Just you. The Web. Your computer. All alone. Thought you never left your office much before?

THE BUZZ. Forget about cruising the aisles of your favorite software retail store–you’ll shortly be updating your current applications as well as buying new software online. As few as three years ago, software companies needed more than 18 months to create new versions of their programs. Now they’re releasing new versions every 12 months. In the near future, vendors will release updates several times a year in the race to match the competition’s new features.

Quick update access is very appealing. Why go to a store to buy and load a program from six disks when you can visit a software publisher’s home page, try a free sample program for 45 days, and then purchase the full-blown version over the Web? You can do that now, but there’s more. Very soon, all of those multimedia CD-ROMs, such as electronic telephone directories, will wind up as pay-per-use and subscription-based Web directories.

In the next couple of years your personal contact with the outside business world will also diminish because you’ll be doing more than just chatting online–you’ll be holding meetings in cyberspace. If there has been one communications technology touted but never perfected for more than 50 years, it’s videoconferencing. Although still fraught with complications, you’ll start seeing more videoconferencing solutions added into desktop PCs as early as next year from such companies as Winnov (maker of the VideumCam digital camera), iVision (maker of the PC Video Camera), and 3Com/U.S. Robotics (maker of Bigpicture). The monitor you buy will have a videocamera built into the corner of the monitor’s bezel, the plastic border that houses the screen. After that, expect vendors to embed the camera behind the videoscreen itself, so you can look at the work and the lens at the same time.

THE BITE. Like anything relating to the Internet, videoconferencing innovations will be stymied by bandwidth–the limitations of the current structure of the Internet. Also, although videoconferencing is alluring, beware anything that eliminates time spent with clients. “Use this technology only as a supplement, an additional tool, rather than an alternative to meeting someone in person,” says Ray Boggs, research director at IDC/Link Resources. “You may not have to fly to the West Coast 10 times a year, but you will have to fly once.”

If it sounds good, it is good,” said the late musician duke ellington, in what might well be the cardinal rule of multimedia technology development. Today, the Duke’s dictum must be generalized to deal with sight as well as sound. As PC Week Labs examined this year’s candidates for Best New Technology at Comdex, we found many entries that tried to make multimedia look right.

The trade-offs are clear. Network bandwidth and hard disk storage requirements can be reduced by compressing multimedia content, but complex compression algorithms use many processor cycles. Economies in the use of processing power during multimedia compression and restoration will generally reduce the quality of the results. Using an add-on processor, with a standard interface such as a PCI bus, avoids burdening the central processor–but introduces bus overheads that may hamper the pursuit of peak performance.

The face of computing is changed when engineers find exceptions, or at any rate evasions, that to some extent let them escape the rigors of these rules.

Facing the bandwidth problem

Speaking of faces, PC Week’s Best New Technology winner at Comdex was Visionics Corp.’s FaceIt PC, whose core technology includes the ability to pick human faces out of a scene and to recognize them with startling accuracy.

This doesn’t sound, at first, like a multimedia technology. Among other applications, however, Visionics’ algorithms could be used in videoconferencing systems. In the stream of bits that encodes the video stream, a system could update the faces at full-motion video rates while devoting much less effort to the background. (The name of each person in the scene could also appear next to his or her image.)

Pumping fewer bits across the network is one way to gain performance. Another way is to get those bits in and out of memory more quickly. Buried under the hood of such a system might be high-bandwidth memory hardware, based on NEC Electronics Inc.’s Virtual Channel Memory specification (one of the finalists in the Best New Technology competition).

NEC’s technology, which the company will license royalty-free after releasing its specification at Comdex, lets a RAM chip service several data streams while separately optimizing each stream’s memory access. Simulations suggest that multitasking situations might see almost double the memory throughput, without any changes to the process technology involved in building the core of the memory chip.

In addition, buffering of core memory access by NEC’s Virtual Channel logic can make the difference between marginal and satisfactory performance from the worst-case cells in the memory array. This boosts the yield of the memory fabrication process, actually reducing costs.

‘Right’ is in the eye of the beholder

Innovations like those from Visionics and NEC reduce the amount of work required on the front end of a multimedia engine, and streamline processing of data on the back end. With Ellington’s rule in mind, though, multimedia engineers should optimize the middle of the process in the areas that viewers will actually notice.

Research shows, for example, that the eye-brain system is far more picky about point-by-point brightness than it is about the color of each point. This insight is applied in MPEG image compression, a scheme that takes its name from the Motion Picture Experts Group, which initiated the effort to make audio-video content a practical form of data.

Once requiring dedicated hardware, the complex MPEG algorithms are now within the realm of feasible processing on the high-speed chips in the latest PCs. This opens the door to products such as Video Clip MPEG-2, a software-only MPEG editing application from Vitec Multimedia Inc. that was another candidate for a Best New Technology award at Comdex. The product enables frame-by-frame editing of MPEG video, reassembling a sequence that matches the frame rate and quality of the original.

This task is more complex than it sounds, because MPEG achieves its valuable data compression ratios by storing information on streams of images rather than individual image pixels.

For example, when MPEG encodes the brightness and color of a scene, it doesn’t try to represent that information with equal precision for every point of the image. Instead, it stores a brightness value for every point, satisfying the demands of human vision, but it retains color information only on an average basis for larger blocks of pixels.

Overall, the MPEG approach halves the number of values required to represent an image, compared to the separate values of red, green and blue stored for each pixel by most display hardware.

Further compression is achieved by DSP (digital signal processing) techniques, with forbidding names like DCT (Discrete Cosine Transform), that take real-world complex signals and identify their most important components.

When a signal component’s value stays the same (or nearly so) for some time, the stored data stream can simply record the number of identical values and their common magnitude. Although not entirely faithful to the original, the resulting smoothed-out result might actually seem a more perfect (or at any rate, more consistent) performance–at least, to the untrained ear.

To the eye, for that matter, a video signal that has been processed in this manner might look cleaner than the original. This is because low-energy, high-frequency components (such as the subtle but annoying patterns caused by many kinds of interference) are eliminated in the process.

Although challenged of late by the new mathematics of wavelets, the well-established DSP algorithms such as DCT are broadly supported by thoroughly tested technology. (For more about wavelets, see PC Week, Nov. 17, Page A1.)

By the numbers

Another challenge for multimedia technology is that of matching the broad “dynamic range” of human senses: for example, the ability of the human ear to process sounds that range from a whisper to a roar. Such a range can be achieved by representing signal intensities using floating-point rather than integer numbers.

For example, the noise of a nearby jet engine is a signal roughly 10 million times as intense as a barely audible whisper. To represent such a range using integer values for signal intensity, without unacceptable distortion, would require 34-bit values. This is inconvenient in a world of 32-bit microprocessors: Furthermore, wide data paths increase hardware costs throughout the entire data chain.

Compared to integers, floating-point numbers are like the difference between saying “1.1 million” (a floating-point description) and saying “one million, one hundred thousand, three hundred and five” (an integer). The former is not as precise, but it’s easier to represent and manipulate. By Duke Ellington’s rule, this seems as if it could be an attractive option.

When DSP techniques, such as DCT (which involves calculating trigonometric functions), are combined with the potential benefits of floating-point representation, one comes up with a job description that sounds a lot like the areas in which Intel Corp.’s Pentium family of processors have made major improvements over their Intel X86 predecessors. Competing modern RISC-technology chips likewise possess these strengths.

Intel and other microprocessor makers seek to maintain their revenues by encouraging the development of multimedia technologies based on central-processor cycles, rather than external hardware. Competing alternatives to Intel’s MMX instruction set are all pursuing this goal.

System vendors, on the other hand, like the flexibility that comes from being able to offer their customers a wide range of multimedia hardware in external forms that can be installed conveniently in the field, whether by a technician or by the person who buys the machine. For example, an outboard MPEG encoder from AVerMedia Technologies Inc. (see photo, above) was another interesting entry in the Best New Technology field at Comdex.

The duel between monolithic CPUs and flexible add-ons guarantees that PC buyers will continue to enjoy a wide range of multimedia acceleration solutions, whether the processing takes place on dedicated hardware or on the same processor that handles the user’s other tasks. The buyer should merely remember that what sounds (or looks) good is good by definition–especially when the price tag is the subject.

Although it’s possible to drive video over a 33.6Kbps TCP/IP connection, an ISDN link or a T1 or T3 line will yield much better performance overall. At 33.6Kbps, expect a picture that’s little better than someone flashing photos in front of you–a slide show rather than a movie.

In addition to the fastest possible data pipe, you and your clients will need audiovisual equipment. At a minimum, each video participant must hook up a camera to his or her PC. Available alone or in videoconferencing kits, these cameras range in price from about $100 to $500; most plug into the system’s parallel port. Everyone will also need a microphone to speak into, and speakers or headphones to hear with.

As a rule of thumb, each client can expect to invest about $500 on hardware and software in order to enjoy Net videoconferencing. As the site master, you’ll also need a sufficiently powerful server or servers in place to handle the amount of multimedia traffic to be sent back and forth. Most servers can handle only a handful of videoconferencing users at a time.

There are a number of Web-enabled videoconferencing software packages available, ranging from CU-SeeMe (www.cuseeme.com) and NetMeeting (www.microsoft.com/netmeeting) to Intel Corp.’s Internet Video Phone (connectedpc.com/cpc/videophone). NetMeeting is free with Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0, but retail products usually provide more features and capabilities, which make them worth the extra money.

For instance, the $69-list CU-SeeMe with multipoint support not only allows several users to see one another and exchange audio and video, but lets them collaborate using a shared whiteboard. It even lets participants edit documents at the same time.

However, to support multipoint connections, you must usually prepare a site to act as a reflector. Using CU-SeeMe as our example, we’ll examine what it takes to get your site ready to process multipoint videoconferencing connections.

The H.323 Standard

Regardless of vendor, TCP/IP- and Ethernet-based videoconferencing products can communicate with one another and with ISDN (H.320) solutions thanks to the recently ratified H.323 standard. Before the International Telecommunications Union defined this standard suite, individual videoconferencing systems did not work and play well together–you had to use the same product at both ends and at the server.

At the core of the H.323 standard is a method for managing network latency, or the time it takes to send and acknowledge a packet. High-latency networks such as the Internet, where data packets must jump through many routers and subnets, have a tendency to wreak havoc on audio and video synchronization. To address this shortcoming, H.323′s Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP) time-stamps and sequences packets and reduces delays.

H.323 also specifies the coding and decoding of video and audio signals, optimizing data for lower bit rates and low-bandwidth connections. H.323-compliant products just hit the market several months ago, and you should protect your investment by ensuring that the equipment you purchase complies with and lives up to the standard. Vendors are testing products now for interoperability, and Microsoft’s NetMeeting seems to be the early benchmark.

Reflectors

If you use a product like White Pine’s server for multipoint conferencing, you’ll have to install and configure a reflector, the piece of software that enables multiparty videoconferencing. Users link into the reflector, through which they’re able to establish and maintain multipoint connections to other clients. The reflector manages the connections, allows users to enable or disable connections, protects the site with a security system, and monitors client activity. (See Figure 2.)

The original White Pine Reflector package was delivered as Unix-ready C code, which needed to be installed, configured, and compiled. However, the latest version, Reflector 2.1, is a bit more politically correct. It does not require compiling, and it runs on Windows 95 or NT using a single executable file. Installation takes only a few minutes for Windows platforms, but expect to invest a significant amount of time to configure the software for a Unix system.

Once you’re up and running, you’ll oversee things from the Reflector Manager, a graphical console that lets you know what’s happening at your site. You can also use the Reflector Manager to configure multiple reflectors on local or remote servers. If you’re on a Unix site, you’ll need to run the Reflector Manager on a Windows 95 or NT client to monitor the Unix-based reflector.

As an option, White Pine Reflector can be configured to use multicast to send data to clients. Multicast requires less bandwidth than direct (point-to-point) connections, and is therefore ideal for a fully interactive group conference.

If you need to track usage for billing and accounting purposes, White Pine’s server provides a log file that can track individual participants and their time spent in the conference. For instance, you can use a credit-card number or club membership number to identify a user. This is helpful in corporate situations where you may disperse the cost of maintaining the reflector across several different departments that use videoconferencing. You can even set up a credit-card approval process though a CGI script or set it up to accept CyberCash for payment.

White Pine Reflector also provides an “observer mode,” allowing multiple observers to watch a single audio or video signal. This is useful for electronic presentations that are given company- or Internet-wide. Many can look and listen, but may not participate.

Should You Host a Conference?

Once you know how to implement videoconferencing from your Web site, the question is, should you? The answer depends on your expectations and needs. Obviously, a traditional conference-room videoconferencing system with dedicated bandwidth and infrastructure, and costing as much as $100,000 per site, will give you the best possible performance. But for most of us, this is not an option.

It’s more likely we’ll find ourselves choosing between an enterprise intranet-based solution and Internet-based solutions–or just trying to decide whether Net-based videoconferencing is worth the trouble. With an intranet setup, you’ll have dedicated bandwidth at your disposal, but you’re likely to get flamed by network managers once they see the amount of bandwidth you’re consuming.

Internet-based videoconferencing is the best solution for those who can live with compromise. Solid standards are in place, inexpensive and easy-to-install equipment is available, and it won’t consume valuable internal resources. But while the hardware, software, and H.323 standard are ready for prime time, the Internet’s packet-switched infrastructure falls short. Don’t expect a smooth, synchronized audiovisual experience over a data pipe of any speed.

The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is working on yet another set of standards that may revolutionize the way the Net handles audio and video traffic, with the specific goal of addressing and solving many of the problems that limit the usability of today’s Internet videophones. But if you’re making your decision today, you’ll have to weigh the pros and cons.

CU-SeeMe lets Web clients view and communicate with one another to promote project collaboration, remote learning, or simply the exchange of information and ideas.

Voxware is the leader in the compression/decompression (codec) technology needed to prepare the digitized voice packets for transport over the Internet and to reconstruct the voice signals at the receiving end.

Routing the packets through the Internet can create significant delays, depending on the paths taken and the amount of congestion at the routing nodes. When packets are late or lost, the codec compensates by averaging over the gaps, impairing voice quality.

With its most recent offering, the VIPSuite software development kit, the Princeton, N.J., firm claims to have greatly improved the quality of two-way voice conversations over IP networks such as the Internet.

Voxware’s codec is frequency-based rather than time-domain-based, allowing it to extract more information from the speech stream and to reconstruct it more accurately for late or lost packets. Also, it sets up a feedback link so the receiver can tell the transmitter how best to packetize and ship the data based on measured packet delay and other network performance parameters.

VocalTec dominated early development with its InternetPhone, which was aimed primarily at computer hobbyists willing to accept poor voice quality and other inconveniences with the fledgling technology.

More recently, the Northvale, N.J., firm has targeted corporate users with a gateway server and teleconferencing software called Atrium. The servers bridge the Internet and the public telephone network, allowing point-to-point calling with the connection to the destination phone completed over a local loop.

Atrium works with the server, enabling phone users to participate as they would in a regular conference call. Participants with PCs can also view Windows-based documents as they talk into the microphone.

NetSpeak Corp., of Atlanta, Ga., has also introduced gateway servers to leverage its initial WebPhone client software. Its Network Component Architecture provides a blueprint for building interoperable multimedia networks using its IP telephone client and server products.

Among the new innovators is Aplio, Inc., of San Bruno, Calif., which recently introduced a stand-alone device for converting a regular phone into one able to make calls over the Internet.

With the Aplio/Phone, a caller dials a phone number in the normal manner and then pushes a button to converse over the Internet. The initial product limits calls to other Aplio/Phone users, but the next release will reportedly allow communications with any H.323-compatible device, including a PC with the appropriate Internet telephony software.

Larger vendors have typically focused on gateway servers for their foray into the Internet telephony or IP voice market.

Lucent Technologies’ Internet Telephony Server (ITS) family is based on a Compaq ProLiant 2500 Pentium platform running Windows NT. The ITS server is compatible with the H.323 IP telephony standard. It lets users send and receive real-time voice and fax messages over the Internet or corporate intranet, with fallback to the public telephone network in case of service degradation.

Cisco Systems also has announced a voice packet gateway solution which it says will be the first in a series of products to support voice and fax over IP networks.

Available initially for the Cisco 3600 router, the gateway allows a company to offload branch-office voice traffic from the public telephone network, for instance, and route it across the corporate intranet, eliminating toll charges. Likewise, interoffice fax could be routed across the intranet or through an extranet.

Since the gateway interfaces with existing phones, fax machines, key systems and PBXs, it makes the process of placing calls over the IP network transparent to users. Cisco says it has developed a framework with its IOS software that supports the H.323 specification and provides for seamless integration of voice, data, and call control.

Gateways change the economics of Internet telephony somewhat. A server is needed at each end of a call, which can be expensive if they are deployed widely.

Toronto-based Array Telecom addresses this issue with a bartering system for customers who use its Telegate server. When a user dials a call, the local gateway routes it to Array’s directory server in Ontario. The server locates the Telegate gateway closest to the destination being called and sends the compressed digitized voice packets to it over the Internet.

The receiving gateway reconstructs the voice signal and forwards it to the recipient over the public telephone network. Meanwhile, the initiating gateway automatically “pays” the receiving gateway with encrypted tokens. Software tracks the amount of minutes used and given by each server so that the using companies can reconcile their accounts.

Array is focusing on international calls initially since the savings are greater, and it already has a number of customers operating gateways in many cities throughout Europe, Asia, and North America.

The logical extension of this arrangement would be a public IP telephony service, and that’s where much of the action is taking place.

Qwest Communications International is about to become the first nationwide provider of IP telephony and fax services over its own network. At the same time, Bell Communications Research, the former technology unit of the regional Bell companies, says it will create an architecture for an IP telephony network through a new company, Soliant Internet Systems.

Qwest will charge 7.5 cents per minute for its service, which it says will reach 25 cities by mid-year. Because of the bandwidth available on its fiber-optic network, Qwest will not compress the digitized voice packets and anticipates minimal delays, so it expects voice quality to be comparable with the public phone network. Users will place a local call to a Qwest IP network node, enter a passcode, and then dial a phone number. The network will then complete the call.

Besides offering IP voice, fax, video and data services, Qwest says it wants to help customers develop applications that integrate the different media, serving as a systems integrator as well as service provider.

Bellcore’s Soliant Internet Systems says it will supply software that brings the intelligent routing of the public phone network to Internet telephony. Soliant will partner with a number of communications equipment manufacturers and, by year-end, expects to see the emergence of a public packet network for IP use separate from the phone network and independent of the public portions of the Internet.

Other new service providers include the Global Exchange Carrier Co. (GXC) of Abingdon, Va., Networks Telephony Corp. (NTC), and FNet Corp. of Westlake Village, Calif.

GXC’s service gives Internet-connected PCs the ability to connect with regular phones anywhere in the world for realtime voice conversations.

NTC, an Infonet Services Corp. spinoff, will use NetSpeak’s WebPhone for communications over Infonet’s data network. Users of the NTCVoice service will initiate a call by clicking on an icon on their PC.

FNet’s service uses voice gateways from parent Franklin Telecom, which have been deployed nationwide and interconnected via a corporate intranet and the Internet. Users access the FNet network with a calling card and private PIN number. During the call, the user can adjust delivery volume and network delay from the telephone keypad to counter network congestion and improve sound quality.