Headspace Inc. today announced that
Beatnik technology will be included in Macromedia’s Dreamweaver,
NetObjects’ Fusion, and RandomNoise’s Coda Web site authoring tools.
Headspace’s Beatnik enables developers to add high quality audio to their
Web pages with minimal download times. Developers can add sound effects and
hi-fi stereo music files to a Web page. With support for Beatnik being
added to these HTML authoring tools, more developers will have the
opportunity to include this type of audio using a drag-and-drop interface.
Unlike streaming audio techniques, Beatnik sends files as “packets” of
audio, and uses a real-time software synthesizer which reconstitutes them
on the client machine into high-fidelity music. The music or audio files
may be encrypted using Beatnik’s 40-bit encryption technology, allowing
copyright owners to publish their material on the Web without fear of theft.
At the present time, Netscape is including the Beatnik plug-in with its
Communicator 4.0 product line, and an ActiveX control is available for
Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. In the future, Beatnik will not require the
plug-in, and will use Java 1.2 technology instead. Both the plug-in and the
ActiveX control presently play RMF files that are fully compatible with
the sound engine which is to come with Java 1.2.
For additional information about Headspace or Beatnik, or to download the
free plug-in or ActiveX component, visit the Headspace Web site.
