RealNetworks Inc. announced Monday at the
National Association of Broadcasters Conference it is teaming with a host
of backbone, broadband and Internet service providers to expand
distribution of its multi-tier broadcast service.
The company said its Real Broadcast Network (RBN) is offering several
improvements in both capacity and service. It is now available via several
outlets, including backbone providers Sprint, AT&T, GTE, and Teleglobe;
broadband provider Enron Communications and ISPs including Concentric
Network, EarthLink,
IDT, MindSpring, SNET Internet and Verio. The partnership agreements aim to
improve Web broadcasting by intelligently routing users to the closest RBN
broadcast hub on an Internet backbone or within an ISP.
RBN’s broadcast operations center is based in Seattle, Washington and
manages the network of broadcast
hubs jointly located at backbone providers and ISP points-of-presence
(POPs). RealNetworks is also employing co-location services from Sprint,
AT&T, GTE and Teleglobe to place broadcast hubs on the Internet backbone to
expand RBN’s capacity to deliver large-scale live and on-demand Internet
broadcasts.
In addition, RBN has installed broadcast hubs on the Enron Intelligent
Network to
deliver streaming rich media to the desktop at an average bitrate of
200Kbps, 10 times faster than
what is now available on the Internet.
The company’s ISP partners, Concentric Network, EarthLink, IDT, MindSpring,
SNET Internet, and Verio are
incorporating broadcast hubs which allow content providers to offer users
one-stop access to rich
programming directly from the ISPs’ networks.
“Today’s RBN announcement builds upon the critical mass of more than 57
million registered
RealPlayer users who view programming from more than 400,000 Web pages on
the Internet,” said Len
Jordan, senior vice president, Media Systems, RealNetworks, Inc.
“This breakthrough architecture and
set of world class partners instantly improves the quality of
Internet-based programming and provides
Internet broadcasters with a platform which scales to reach even larger
audiences,” Jordan said.
“Given RealNetworks technical leadership and more than 85 percent share of the
streaming
media market, they were an obvious choice for us to team with in building a
state-of-the-art Internet
broadcast infrastructure,” said Erika Jolly, vice president of Product
Development and Management, MindSpring Internet Services.
